As part of her duties as San Mateo County’s first Poet Laureate, Caroline Goodwin will open tomorrow’s Board of Supervisors’ meeting with a poetry reading and Supervisor Warren Slocum will present a proclamation to the Board of Supervisors naming April 2014 as National Poetry Month. Ms. Goodwin also plans to announce her poetry blog that can be read on the Poet Laureate website, www.sanmateocountypoet.org

Congrats to Coach Rafael Avendano and the 50 youth, parents and community leaders who participated in a fitness class held at Siena Youth Center and Red Morton Park on Monday Nights for the past two months. On March 29, the 4th Stand Up 8 5k Fitness Event was held at Flood Park!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 31, 2014 Contact:  Supervisor Warren Slocum, 4th District, San Mateo County V: 650.363.4570   F:  650.366.6720   E:  wslocum@smcgov.org Alternate:  Marci Dragun, Legislative Aide V:  650.599.1021  C:  650.576-7658  E:  mdragun@smcgov.org

Special thanks to Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Dr. Priscilla Chan, for their generous donation of $5 M to help build the new Ravenswood Family Health Center in East Palo Alto! The Center recently was awarded a $7.3 M federal grant from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) in a competitive process – 3,000 applications were received and Ravenswood was one of 26 successful applicants. These two gifts will help leverage the funds needed to complete this amazing project.

Shutterfly is generously funding the redesign and rebuild of Friendship Park, one of the only parks in the North Fair Oaks Community. It is a very exciting project that will add needed greenspace and a recreational area for kids and adults. Shutterfly was honored for their commitment to this project at Design Day on January 15th.Kaboom, a nonprofit organization that helps develop parks in under-represented urban areas, helped facilitate the development of this park and introduced Shutterfly to the group and this project.

Amy Buckmaster is first woman in over 100 years to lead the Redwood City – San Mateo County Chamber of Commerce as its President.

Pacifica Teachers Awarded Stem Grants for Innovative School Projects

The Human Services Agency's Vocational Rehabilitation Services division held their 25th Anniversary Holiday Luncheon on December 18 for many County clients. Supervisor Don Horsley, County Manager John Maltbie, Director of HSA Beverly Beasley Johnson and I had the privilege of serving the turkey, mashed potatoes, dressing and gravy. My staff and the staff members of all my colleagues on the Board of Supervisors were on hand to serve the rest of the dinner - including pumpkin pie with whipped cream!

The Board of Supervisors attended a special thank you reception to honor the donors who helped make the new Fair Oaks Health Center a reality on Monday night. A special tribute was paid to the Sequoia Healthcare District for their generous capital gift of $4.3 M this year. This one-time gift represents 50% of their annual operating budget and indicates the level of commitment they have made to improve the quality of health care in the district.

The Redwood City Library was one of only three in the state to receive the coveted "Five Star Rating" from the Library Journal Index of Public Library Service, the premier public library national rating system instituted by the Library Journal. The rating makes the Redwood City Public Library not only the top-rated library in San Mateo County, it is one of the top-rated in California and the country.

My staff and I stopped by the soon-to-open Fair Oaks Health Center when we noticed that the door to the facility was propped open. The facility was full of staff who had gathered for a Thanksgiving potluck which is scheduled to open in a couple of weeks! It was a chance to gather the staff from the three clinics that will merge at the new Fair Oaks Health Center. It was a chance to see the new facility, participate in a safety training, and celebrate and give thanks. It was a joyous day! Can't wait for it to be open for our patients!