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NOVEMBER 2017 • ALAMO TODAY & DANVILLE TODAY NEWS • PAGE 1
& NOVEMBER 2017
BEYOND KINDNESS TOUR: MILE AFTER MILE A GATHERING PLACE FOR DANVILLE AND OF SMILE AFTER SMILE ALAMO: THEN AND NOW
By Jody Morgan
The Beyond Kindness Tour: Love on Purpose is demonstrating the power of taking time to be intentionally kind on a daily basis throughout the contiguous 48 states. Starting in Oregon on September 15th and finishing in Danville, California on December 2nd, the physical tour is supported by an online presence of individuals focusing on making the performance of small acts of kindness a regular routine. The culmination of the actual road trip, Holiday Respite Day, is dedicated to giving parents of special needs children a day all to themselves. The contagious smiles generated by participants across the nation promise to keep spreading. Emily Nelson, longtime Danville resident, was dismayed by the overt animosity neighbors were expressing to neighbors following the 2016 Presidential Joanne and Jack Molan are ready to travel the 48 contiguous Election. As someone states spreading intentional kindness. who has reached out over the years to others in distress (from staging Concerts with a Cause, aiding individuals out of funding options for essential medical treatment, to serving on the Shepherd’s Gate Board), Nelson longed to find a way to bring Americans back together. She notes, “I realized as I listened to all the bitter talk surrounding the inauguration that our nation would never change if we couldn’t be a voice for peace.” Serendipitously, her cousins Jack and Joanne Molan announced they were going on a book-signing and speaking tour across the country in conjunction with the release of Jack’s book, You Can’t Make This Stuff Up: My Thirty Years as Captain in the Behring Sea. Joanne Molan explains, “Emily’s need
See Kindness continued on page 14
Alamo - Alamo Tree Lighting Festival Sunday, December 3, 4:30pm-6:30pm at Andrew Young Park Danville - Lighting of the Old Oak Tree Friday, November 24 beginning at 5:15pm at the Old Oak tree on Diablo Blvd.
Local Postal Customer
By Beverly Lane
Today the Alamo Cemetery is a quiet wooded spot on the border of Danville and Alamo not far from the San Ramon Valley United Methodist Church on Danville Blvd. However, 170 years ago there was plenty going on. Midway between the small downtowns of Alamo and Danville, there were annual religious camp meetings, schools, and a Drawing of the Alamo Cemetery by Paul Dunlap church.
CAMP MEETINGS AND A NEW CHURCH
Several religious camp meetings were organized and managed by Mary Ann Jones and others in the early 1850s. In her biography, Mrs. Jones stated that people decided to host a camp meeting which they hoped would lead to the building of a church. She wrote that the first camp meeting lasted ten days, and “people came from every place in reach.” Writer James Smith recalled people coming from Santa Clara, Napa, and Sonoma counties. He said the meetings were full of religious fervor and included three daily services, four or five preachers (described as “wonderful exhorters”), and baptisms in the
See Gathering continued on page 20
TAKE A PAGE FROM THE BOY SCOUTS: BE PREPARED By Sharon Burke
The recent tragic fires in Northern California have us all thinking about emergency preparedness. Are we as ready as we can be for the kinds of emergencies that occur in our area? About a third of Alamo and Danville residents live adjacent to open space, where wildfires can spread rapidly. Westside Alamo and Danville residents live in close proximity to the high pressure jet fuel pipeline which runs underneath the Iron Horse Trail, which has already exploded once in southern Walnut Creek in 2004. Eastside residents in Alamo live near a PG&E gas pipeline such as the one that exploded in San Bruno in 2010. All of us live in an earthquake zone, probably the most likely emergency we will ever face. I’m as guilty as the next person of not giving much thought to being prepared for these emergency events. But there are a lot of resources available for us procrastinators. Let’s all resolve to get better prepared while recent
See Prepared continued on page 14
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The Editors
Serving the combined communities of Alamo, Diablo, and Danville, Since October 2017
Volume XVII Number 9
Volume VIII Number 11
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