Getting youth active, involved

“We want students to be heard. We want students to get involved and advocate for their community. We want to hear from the feet on the ground where we should increase our investments,” she said.

The foundation raises about $1 million a year to help fund programming in the San Mateo-Foster City School District, the county’s largest. While it raises less than some neighboring school districts, it is also seeking to help smooth out some of the fundraising discrepancies between schools. According to Tsai, some school PTAs raise $20,000 a year, while others raise $800,000 a year. One effort is to get some PTAs to donate a small percentage that would go to the others.

The foundation seeks to find needs within the school communities and then determine how to get there. The board is mainly made up of parents with students in the district, but also has district officials as well, including the director of diversity and inclusion. The overall idea is to provide stronger connections to sites. Adding two student board members will only help that effort, Tsai said.

“With a student perspective, we get to find out how people experience what we fund,” she said. “It’s that firsthand feedback and visibility into bubbling needs.”

Getting more youth actively involved in the decisions affecting them is always a good idea, and learning from them too is even better. Anyone interested in learning more should email Tsai at president@smfcedfund.org.

***

Those of you wondering when Kiki’s will reopen in the old Nini’s Coffee Shop site on the Burlingame side of Peninsula Avenue but in San Mateo, I received a note from Jacob Marotta who, with his sister Sarah, bought the restaurant earlier this year. The targeted opening date is now this fall.

While Nini’s was known for its large servings of traditional breakfast food, the Marottas are planning to focus more on baked goods, including morning rolls, cookie bars and cinnamon rolls, for which Jacob Marotta said his sister is famous.

Another addition will be a full afternoon tea service on the patio, which is being transformed into a traditional English tea garden. Both noticed that full afternoon tea services are scarce on the Peninsula and are looking forward to not only serving breakfast and lunch, but a special selection of tea, scones, quiche, sandwiches, crumpets and a variety of sweet treats.

“We are excited to serve our wonderful community soon,” Jacob Marotta said.

***

I agree with San Mateo Mayor Rick Bonilla when it comes to the idea of painting geometric shapes on the surface of the new closed-to-cars section of B Street between First and Third avenues. Bonilla said such painted streets weren’t necessary and that there should be more focus on enabling safe travels for pedestrians and bicyclists downtown. Sure, and the city could also use the money saved by not having painted geometric shapes, which is pretty corny, and put it in a cleaning fund, which will be needed. Maybe a little for more seating as well. People like to sit down.

***

The Burlingame Lions Club is seeking nominations for the 2022 Burlingame Citizen of the Year award. The nominee must be a Burlingame resident or lived in the city during their time of volunteer services. Name, address and phone number must be included in the nomination along with a detailed list of accomplishments but of no more than one page.

All information should be sent to Bernice (Bunny) Macchia, President of the Burlingame Lions Club at her email, gmacchia@pacbell.net no later than Sept. 10, 2022. For questions, contact her at (650) 906-1206.

***

Dorothy Dimitre, who wrote a weekly column for the Daily Journal for years, died June 26, according to her son Tom. Dimitre wrote more than 1,000 columns for both the Millbrae Sun and the Daily Journal and her last was in August of 2020.

I enjoyed her work, and appreciated her perspectives that centered a lot on responsible parenting and nutrition. She also dabbled in current events, general interest and politics. She is missed.

Jon Mays is the editor in chief of the Daily Journal. He can be reached at jon@smdailyjournal.com. Follow Jon on Twitter @jonmays.