Garden of Vegan WEEKEND | P.24
NOVEMBER 20, 2009 VOLUME 17, NO. 46
INSIDE: HEALTH & FITNESS | PAGE 21
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MountainViewOnline.com
New hospital ‘comes alive’ NO HITCHES SUNDAY AS PATIENTS MOVE INTO $470 MILLION FACILITY By Kelsey Mesher
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Brian plays the marimba with fellow Abilities United students as CSMA teacher Paul Prochaska, left, leads with piano. The group meets once a week in the Reay room.
Art unlocks doors for disabled CLASSES AT CSMA, A VOICE HOLIDAY FUND RECIPIENT, ADD BRIGHT SPOT IN TREATMENT ROUTINE
By Dana Sherne
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hen Mike was a child, poor treatment at an institution left him with a fear of being outside and a hesitation around doors. Now, nearly half a century later, weekly art classes at the Community School of Music and Arts help him overcome these obstacles, said the school’s visual arts director, Linda Covello. “When he first came here, he hesitated and worried over coming in,” she said. “But it didn’t take him long before he was familiar with us. You can see that it broadens his world.” Mike attends classes with other disabled adults through CSMA’s five-year-old partnership with Abilities United, a Palo Alto nonprofit for children and adults with
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developmental disabilities. CSMA’s partnership with Abilities United is one way that the school fulfills its mission of “arts for all,” said Evy Schiffman,
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director of marketing and communication at the Mountain View nonprofit. Schiffman added that a major component of reaching that goal is CSMA’s “Arts in the Schools” program, which provides music and arts education to 7,500 students in 27 schools throughout Santa Clara and San Mateo counties.
Every student in the Mountain View Whisman School District, for example, gets his or her arts education through this program. This year, CSMA is one of seven local charitable organizations receiving donations from the Voice’s annual Holiday Fund drive. Contributions from readers and local foundations will directly support CSMA’s “Arts in the Schools” program. CSMA also encourages the arts education of autistic youth through a program called “Artistic Intelligence.” Now in its second year, the program serves 48 students who converge on CSMA from Morgan Autism Center, Pacific Autism Center for Education, and AchieveKids. Covello notes that most of the See CSMA, page 8
onday morning was the start of just another day at El Camino Hospital in Mountain View. Patients rested quietly in their rooms, nurses administered drugs and bustled through the hallways. The emergency room took on patients — 27 surgeries were scheduled for the day. Though business carried on as usual, there was one major difference about the hospital’s operations: They were all taking place in El Camino’s brand new, $470 million facility, after a meticulously planned patient and ER move from the old facility on Sunday morning. After years of planning, the new El Camino Hospital is now open. “This is literally the first full day of operations,” said Ken Graham, chief executive officer, on Monday morning to a room full of hospital staff, administrators and city officials including Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga, council members Mike Kasperzak, Laura Macias and Jac Siegal, city manager Kevin Duggan and county Supervisor Liz Kniss. “What a marked difference,” Abe-Koga said of the new hospital before presenting a certificate from the city. “For the patients and their families, the experience will be a lot more enjoyable and comfortable one.” “It’s just wonderful for the county as a whole,” Kniss said. “The entire county benefits from this kind of superb health care.” Among those recognized for their work on the seven-year project were co-chairs of the activation committee: Ken King, vice president of facilities services and Diana Russell,
GOINGS ON 28 | MARKETPLACE 29 | REAL ESTATE 32 | VIEWPOINT 18 | MOVIES 27
RN, chief of clinical operations and nursing operations. “Everything went exactly how it was planned,” Russell said, noting that planning for the actual move into the new facility has been in the works for over a year. In recent months Russell and her team led drills, planned scenarios and imagined real-life problems that could occur during the move, in order to prepare for the transition. “I’m feeling great,” Russell told the Voice. She described her last moment in the new, still-empty hospital building at 4 a.m. SunSee HOSPITAL, page 9
Poll: You are happy, probably By Daniel DeBolt
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ccording to a national poll, Mountain View and the surrounding region is the happiest place in the whole country. The Gallup Healthways Well Being Index, which tracks national happiness levels on a daily basis, recently began breaking down the results by congressional district. Ranking at the top is California’s 14th Congressional District, which includes See HAPPY, page 8