If you walk around Santa Clara County, you’re bound to find projects created by Eagle Scouts. There are benches, pavilions, little free libraries and many others dotted around our schools, parks and public spaces.
But if San Jose teenager Yousof Alsum wants to visit his Eagle project, he’s got to travel quite a ways. All the way to Tanzania, in fact.
Last summer, Alsum — a member of Scouting America Troop 399 in Santa Clara — built two classrooms for a school in the Jendel village in Zanzibar. He didn’t do it alone, working with more than a dozen Scouts from his troop and from others in two different countries, along with Perspective Development Skills, a charitable organization in Tanzania.
“I always knew I wanted my project to have a larger impact,” said Yousof, 16. “I knew that there were places internationally that really could use my help.”
He was inspired by a trip his mother took to Zanzibar, and he learned that more than half the children there don’t have access to educational facilities. An international project of this nature was so rare for the Silicon Valley Monterey Bay Council of Scouting America that there weren’t real examples to follow. But his troop’s scoutmaster, Masroor Malik, didn’t have any doubts.
“This was a very challenging project,” Malik said. “But it was not a surprise when he brought it up. Yousof had been talking about this for a while, and he demonstrated leadership capabilities throughout the time. I couldn’t think of anyone better than Yousof to accomplish this.”
Yousof worked with the nonprofit PDS to set up a website and start fundraising for the project, which was originally only to build one classroom. But once he raised the first $15,000, he knew he could do more. In the end, he raised $31,000 — enough for two classrooms, a computer room and a library, plus a “human foosball” field. The computer room was sponsored by the Hidaya Foundation in Santa Clara.
When the 8-day project was complete, everyone celebrated with a farewell party and matches of human foosball into the night. “It was a really great feeling. It was the best moment of accomplishment,” said Yousof, who passed his Eagle board of review in December.
CALL FOR HELP: Lyric Theatre, which started life as the Gilbert & Sullivan Society of San Jose in the early 1970s, has issued a desperate call for donations to save its summer Light Opera Festival. The company — whose Victorian carol singers also entertain travelers at San Jose Mineta airport during the holidays — says it needs to raise $200,000 by the end of the month.
Lyric Theatre Board President Tressa Bender said in an email that increased production costs and the loss of a grant — plus the general financial issues nearly every arts organization in the Bay Area has been facing in recent years — has put the company at a crossroads.
“Without immediate support, we risk not being able to move forward with our planned 2025 festival, a cornerstone of our community’s cultural offerings,” Bender wrote. “This funding will directly support our ability to bring you the productions, opportunities, and performances that have made us a cherished part of the San Jose arts scene.”
Lyric’s board of directors started the ball rolling by raising the first $40,000 before the call for help went out, and as of Monday night, they were about a third of the way to their goal. You can get more information or pitch in at lyrictheatre.org.
ENCORE PERFORMANCE: Santa Clara University’s Board of Fellows has been putting on its Golden Circle Theatre Party since the Rev. Walter Schmidt started the annual fundraising tradition in 1967. Katy Kelly — the current chair of the Board of Fellows — doesn’t go back quite that far with the event, but she does have some interesting history.
When she was a senior at Santa Clara in 1976, she got a ticket to attend the after-show party at McCabe Hall following the main event that featured Buddy Ebsen, then starring as TV’s “Barnaby Jones,” as the headliner. “Little did I know back there in the ’70s, I’d have the opportunity to stand in front of you today as chair of the Board of Fellows,” Kelly told the crowd of about 2,100 people at the Center for the Performing Arts. “It goes to show that anything is possible.”
Kelly wasn’t the only return engagement for this year’s Golden Circle, which raised nearly $2 million for student scholarships and other programs. Bay Area band Train was the headliner, after performing at the event in 2017. Lead singer Pat Monahan told the audience they were honored to be asked back and understood they were among the few acts to get an encore performance. “Somebody called Frank Sinatra or something,” Monahan joked. “So that’s good company to be in.”
Indeed, Sinatra was the headliner in 1974 and again in 1980. Other repeats included Bob Hope (1968, 1991), Paul Anka (1979, 1995) and Bob Newhart (1972, 1998).