News - Silicon Valley Talk

The Sharks Foundation is a Power Forward

As busy as the San Jose Sharks are on the ice, the Sharks Foundation is equally as active in the community throughout the season with a variety of fundraisers and programs targeted at impacting youth and families in need in the Bay Area. By the end of the 2015-16 season, the Foundation donated a franchise-record $1.5 million in funding and it is currently on pace to surpass that number by the end of this fiscal year. So what has the Foundation been up to?..

Derek Carr & Valley Children Healthcare - Leaders On & Off The Field

SVL: Let’s start with the most predictable question of what drives you to support this particular cause?DC: When my son, Dallas was born, he needed to be rushed to Valley Children’s Hospital because his intestines were tangled and only surgery would be able to correct the problem. Within four days, Dallas had been operated on two times, and he had a third surgery before he left the hospital. Dallas had to stay at Valley Children’s for 23 days. It was dur..

Innovative Therapy and High Technology Brain Imaging Aid Veterans and TBI Research

Thomas Manuel and Shawn Kelley are Veterans of different eras. Manuel, 69, fought in the jungles of Vietnam; Kelley, 25, in Afghanistan’s deserts. The enemies, weapons and battle arenas differed greatly, but the wounds to their brains are all too common for war Veterans. Studies estimate up to 20 percent of Veterans suffer traumatic brain injury (TBI), and many of them develop post-traumatic stress (PTS). These wounds are often called “invisible injuries”..

Killing in War Leaves Veterans with Lasting Psychological Scars, Study Finds

Killing in war often triggers a moral conflict in Veterans that can damage self-image, spirituality and relationships, according to the findings of a study by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Health Care System (SFVAHCS). For many of these Veterans—some of whom may already suffer from post-traumatic stress (PTSD)—guilt, shame, anger and isolation compound mental wounds. And emotional s..

For the Love of the Game and Their Community

More than the game’s box score is what we call the game of Life. And, also as big as life, you will find the Giants Community Fund and the Giants Community Relations Department. It is a spirit, an energy. They see it as a proud tradition, a way of showing mutual appreciation, and teamwork, that we are truly together – team and community. This is our special team off the field that always goes to bat for our community, our businesses, our organizations, our..

The San Francisco 49ers Community Relations and 49ers Foundation

How do you define a Class Organization? From the very top on down. An organization that, internally, has everyone’s attention and 100% participation. Pride that’s felt everywhere and amongst everyone. Like one big family that cares. That’s the 49ers. The Season is actually 12 months long for the 49ers – as they like to say, “There is no off-season” – both on and off the field. As the on-field football season ends, the Foundation gets to work, hosting chari..

Drivers For Survivors

Sherry Higgs, Executive Director of Drivers For Survivors "Making a Difference, One Survivor at a Time" In February 2010 I awoke to an alarming sight—a swollen, slightly reddish and inflamed left breast. My breast was also lumpy and bumpy, as if someone had poured a bag of marbles into it. After immediate medical assessments, the diagnosis was soon confirmed as inflammatory breast cancer (IBC). Soon after, I learned that IBC is the rarest, most aggressive,..

Senior service agencies getting creative

In Silicon Valley, approximately one-fifth of the population is 65 and older. This figure will jump to one-infour by the year 2030. While we have all heard about the demographic “age wave,” what is less known is that half of adults 60 and older in Santa Clara County (50%) live below the Elder Economic Standard Index (EESI), an area-specific measure of poverty, according to the latest report from Council on Aging. Right now, many benefit programs only se..