Issue date: February 24, 1999
By BARBARA WOOD
Already a local institution, the Sand Hill Challenge soap box race for the high-tech community is gearing up for its third annual running.
Heading the effort, which raises money for youth-oriented charities, is Jayne M. Williams, a real estate agent with Alain Pinel in Woodside.
This will be Ms. Williams second year as chair of the race and her third year of involvement.
The race pits gravity-powered race cars sponsored by Silicon Valley high-tech companies against each other on a course running down Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park.
Although the race isn't until September 26, preparations are already well underway, Ms. Williams says. This year the Challenge has its own office, at 1725 Woodside Road in Redwood City, behind Lucia's Pizza, and a new telephone number, 365-3180.
Fred Hoar has already been lined up as race day emcee and key volunteers to help with accounting, legal and public relations tasks are already in place. The city of Menlo Park will again be co-operating in the race effort.
Race entry forms will be sent out in early March. The race will be limited to the first 50 entrants.
"We can only take 50 teams so they better start signing up," Ms. Williams said.
The Challenge is still looking for a presenting donor to underwrite the production costs of this year's race in return for top billing, Ms. Williams said.
She is also working out details of a special award that will be given in honor of last year's Sand Hill Challenge parade grand marshall, Tom Ford, who died in November.
"We were all saddened by the passing of Tom Ford," who was very active in past races, Ms. Williams said.
Even the event's Web site, sandhill.org, is being updated, she said.
Last year's race raised close to $150,000. The funds go into the Every Kid a Start-Up Fund, which is administered by the Peninsula Community Foundation. Beneficiaries of last year's race include SafeRides in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, which offers no-questions-asked free ride home on weekend nights for teenagers; alcohol and drug-free graduation and prom parties for local high schools; Friends for Youth, which pairs adult mentors and struggling teens; Compass, a summer program for freshmen entering the Sequoia Union High School District; and Plugged In, an East Palo Alto computer center and youth-run businesses incubator.
Ms. Williams, the mother of two high school students, has been a real estate agent for 13 years "in the same building." While she's never moved, "the name keeps changing over my head," she says.
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