The clinic was set up in a rural community about an hour's drive from Guatemala City. The elder Schibler was part of the kitchen crew of four, working from 4:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. in order to feed the 70-80 doctors, nurses and staff team. The surgeons, however, sometimes didn't finish up until 2:30 a.m.

Schibler describes it as one of the most spiritual adventures of his life. He was constantly amazed and awestruck at the proficiency and the planning of the medical endeavor. "I never saw a group come together so focused, so quickly, in just a very few hours." The entire team seemed to know just how to swing into action.

There were four operating theaters, and doctors performed some 18 operations a day. It was an intense five days and Martin watched several operations, since his son wanted all members of the Helps' team to be witness to exactly why they were there.

Five high school students from Guatemala City served as interpreters for any of the medical staff who didn't speak Spanish. Martin, a retired transportation manager from Westinghouse, is experienced in quantity cooking, having been part of feeding crews for events at Sacred Heart Church. He's been helping in that capacity during his retirement years.

Helps' volunteers pay $1,500 to serve on the team. That sum helps to cover airfare and food for the week. Martin enlisted Los Gatan Peggy Montoya and her son Andrew into the cause. They are friends from Sacred Heart Church.

Fortuitously, Andrew, a recent Santa Clara University grad, is fluent in Spanish. The younger Schibler has been taking part in these medical missions yearly and would like to make it a full-time career. But with a family of four children at home, that isn't likely to happen very soon.

COPE ALL-STAR: Saratogan Dan Hoffman won an All-Stars solidarity award for his volunteer work with COPE (Committee on Political Education) at an awards banquet recently. Hoffman, a retired attorney, has been very active through the years in helping elect progressive, labor-approved candidates.

Hoffman was especially visible in the months before the governor's special election last fall, manning the phone at the labor council several times a week in order to strike down the measures he considered unfair and against the public interest.

This family law lawyer is one of the few volunteers who is not part of organized labor and has never been a union member. However, he is very involved in civil rights causes. He is active in particular in the League of Women Voters, in Democrats Active for Women Now and in an anti-capital punishment group.

The Saratogan was a founding member of the Martin Luther King Society, and he was assistant director of the Liberal Party of New York. His children--Sharon, Carolyn and Jeremy--went to Lynbrook High School. Carolyn is married to one of the coaches of the San Antonio Spurs, the basketball team currently on top of the heap.

NEW APPOINTMENT: Mike Logan has been named executive administrator of Saratoga Retirement Community. Logan was most recently health care administrator of University Retirement Community at Davis. He has also worked for a 23-acre retirement center and administered a 62-bed skilled nursing center.

His BA is from Indiana University, and his master of health care administration is from St. Louis University. As vice chairman of the California Association of Homes and Services for the Aging, a policy-making and legislative body, Logan is a senior adult advocate.

ENGLISH TEA: The annual English tea, a fundraiser for the AAUW Committee for Homeless Women and Children, will be held April 8 at West Valley College Campus Center, 1-4 p.m. Tickets are $30 from Jackie at 408.867.0108. The event benefits the homeless in Santa Clara County at four different shelters.

BREAKFAST ON GRAPES (OF WRATH): Steinbeck expert Susan Shillinglaw will talk about "John Steinbeck in the Santa Clara Valley: Author as Activist" on April 5, 9 a.m., at Saratoga Library. Former director of the Center for Steinbeck Studies at SJSU, Shillinglaw has edited five books about the famed author.

Steinbeck wrote The Grapes of Wrath, completed Of Mice and Men while living in Monte Sereno. His friendships with Martin Ray of the Mountain Winery and Charles Erskine Scott Wood of Los Gatos will be discussed. The cats in front of Wood's estate became the symbol of Los Gatos.

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