Short Takes Short Takes (December 10, 2003)

Button up your overcoat

With the nights turning shivery in recent weeks, a third-grade Brownie troop at Phillips Brooks School in Menlo Park has launched a winter coat drive for the less fortunate.

Anyone wishing to donate a new or gently used coat can drop it off just outside the school's main office at 2245 Avy Ave. in a box brightly decorated by the young students, parent Patti Yukawa said. Donations will be accepted during school hours, between 8:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.

Organizers haven't decided yet which charity will be the recipient of the jackets.
Local hero

When a car carrying an unconscious driver careened off Interstate 280 on November 24, crashed into the town of Woodside's corporation yard at Runnymede Road and Raymondo Drive and burst into flames, Juan Leon sprang into action. A member of the town's public works crew, Mr. Leon, along with another bystander, pulled the victim out of his car, probably saving his life, said Town Manager Susan George.

The 72-year-old driver was taken to the hospital with minor lacerations on his face and a complaint of back pain, according to a California Highway Patrol spokesman.
A dog in need

The Peninsula Humane Society is generating a lot of news these days. The organization's successful drive to get San Mateo County fire engines to carry special oxygen masks for cats and dogs landed Vice President Scott Delucchi and his dog Cooper on the Sharon Osbourne show recently.

The duo demonstrated how the masks make it possible for pets suffering from smoke inhalation to be treated, and they accepted a $1,000 donation from Ms. Osbourne.

PHS is also making strides in its status as a no-kill shelter. President Ken White recently announced that pet adoptions are up 20 percent from last year and that not a single adoptable cat or dog has been euthanized since January.

E-mail a friend a link to this story.