SOUTHERN COMFORT

From the sprawling green of Centennial Olympic Park to the fabled tree-lined stretch of Peachtree Street, Atlanta is as grand as Gone with the Wind.

Open Tuesday – Sunday 10 am to 6:30 pm

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The Rotary PlayGarden, the Rotary Club of San Jose’s centennial gift to our community, opened in May 2015. The $6 million PlayGarden enables children with special needs to play alongside their siblings and friends and is maintained by Guadalupe River Park Conservancy staff and volunteers, in-kind donations, and fee-for-service contracts.

The PlayGarden is closed Mondays for maintenance.

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Adventure Packs
Picnic Reservations

 

 

Catherine's Croatian family owned two orchards and a small vineyard in Cupertino, where her grandfather made wine, and she is the last family member still living on one of their original Cupertino ranch properties.
                       
As 4th and 5th generation Croatian wine makers, her family members currently have two wineries in Sonoma and Napa counties. Both wineries participate in charitable projects. One recently released a wine benefiting the Vernon Davis Foundation and the second winery donated wine to a charity event sponsored by William Shatner. A third family winery was purchased by Robert Mondavi in the late 1980's. Some family members also work as winemakers, managers and proprietors for other wineries in Sonoma and Napa counties. 
 
Catherine attended Cupertino schools then graduated from Holy Names University in Oakland with a BA in English Literature and Journalism. During her degree program she worked at KQED-TV and KQED-FM in San Francisco, for over 14 years. She earned her MLIS at San Jose State University, while working in city, county and college libraries. 
 
A few years ago she retired from a county library system, and has since then been developing and writing SiliconValleyLibrarian.org which covers local history, trends and area wine history. She has also created a few Web sites for area nonprofit groups. 
 
She is currently working on her next Web site which will be dedicated to local and international wine and vineyard history. She has been advocating for a Santa Clara Valley/ Santa Cruz Mountains Wine History Museum here in Santa Clara County, for years, to honor the contributions of early vineyard growers and winemakers to our valley's economic development. She is also hoping to interest Rotary groups in organizing Bocce (or Pétanque) charitable, wine tasting tournaments, to financially assist community groups and organizations engaged in serving area children.
 
Catherine has joined the Rotary because it does such fabulous work, locally and globally, and has been continually inspired by the luncheon speakers and members. "Rotary folks are amazingly kind and generous people" she says.