Notable Neighbors 2023

-Bonnie Monte, bonnie.monte@gmail.com
Anyone who reads the SVNA Newsletter is familiar with Jim Walsh’s real estate ad, featuring his picture alongside his affable yellow lab, Buster. Jim has been a Santa Venetian since 1990 when he lived in a rental on Venetia Meadow. “At the time, my exposure to Marin was minimal at best,” he says. “But I drove down the gravel road and saw Lizzie, a friendly black lab outside, untethered. Lizzie sold me on the street.”
     Jim bought his current house in Northbridge in 1998, a few years before he met his now-wife Monica. With his trademark practicality, Jim made sure right from the start that she was in sync with his love of dogs and his desire for kids. “Clarity is extraordinarily important to getting what you want in life,” Jim says. A sense of spirituality was another must-have. Monica ticked all the boxes (smart woman, she had a list of her own requirements) and the couple has been together since 2003, parents of a son and a daughter.
    Despite his busy real estate career and family commitments, Jim still makes time to give back to the community. “I went to Cal and got a world-class education,” he says with gratitude. “It’s incumbent upon me to give back.” For 30 years, he’s been refereeing basketball and umpiring baseball for teens. He’s a member of the Marin County Foster Parents Association, which he finds immensely rewarding. He’s also proud of facilitating a men’s group at Unity Marin. Recently he was invited to apply for a seat on the Las Gallinas Valley Sanitary Board. “That was a tremendous honor,” he says.
     Then there’s the neighborhood-wide Santa Venetia garage sale, which Jim organizes every fall. He started it not only to consolidate all the individual sales for increased efficiency but also as a means for people to meet their neighbors. “It’s really about community,” Jim says.
“I’ve always loved the eclectic mix of the neighborhood–artists, doctors, attorneys, tradespeople.” He remembers a lot of rentals back in the day, with absentee landlords who were disengaged. He watched that turn around as more buyers have flocked to the neighborhood to live here.
     Jim’s Easter Egg Hunt is legendary in Santa Venetia, with loads of eggs to find and a visit from a costumed Easter Bunny. One year, Jim even donned the costume himself. The hunt is such an institution that Jim has photos of himself with kids who now bring their own children. Inspired by the hunts his mom devised when he was growing up, he aims to re-create some of that magic for today’s kids. “My philosophy is that once you get to adulthood it’s your job to raise the next generation.”

-Bonnie Monte, bonnie.monte@gmail.com
Kurt Huget is a busy man. In addition to being a member of multiple bands that regularly play local gigs, he volunteers at the local food bank, teaches guitar to seniors at Vivalon, and works with prisoners at San Quentin (which he notes is a humbling experience). On top of all that, for some 35 years he’s been part of Bread and Roses, the arts organization that brings the performing arts to children and folks who are otherwise isolated.
     Kurt grew up in Oregon, which he loved for its green spaces and friendliness. “But I like sunshine,” he says. So, he was delighted when his family moved to LA. “It was a culture shock, but a wonderful culture shock.” He loved the beach, the museums, and especially the music scene. “I got to see some of the best jazz artists in the world at the Lighthouse,” he recalls.
     A student of piano, as were all his siblings, he taught himself to play guitar. After high school, he traveled for a year and then landed in Marin, where he attended COM and met someone who asked him to join a band. “We had so much work!” he says. “I learned a lot about human nature, and I learned to be a better musician.” After COM, Kurt transferred to UC Berkeley, where he majored in English literature.
     For 15 years, he worked as an editor for a legal publisher in Marin and –no surprise–formed a jazz band with his boss. During his long musical career, Kurt has played with Quicksilver, Big Brother, the Jefferson Starship, and more. Collaborating with the Grateful Dead’s Robert Hunter — Hunter wrote the lyrics for some of Kurt’s tunes — was a high point, he says.
     A cancer survivor, Kurt hasn’t let his recent illness and treatment dampen his joie de vivre and his delight in sharing the magic of music. He considers himself fortunate to live in beautiful Santa Venetia, where he and his wife tend a bountiful garden — she grows the ornamentals, he does the edibles. His band Moonlight Rodeo entertains the crowd at the annual SVNA Labor Day Picnic, and he regularly plays at the Hopmonk Tavern in Novato and other venues around Marin. Check out his Facebook page for upcoming performances. (https://tinyurl.com/2k45afpw)

-Bonnie Monte, bonniemonte@gmail.com     
Civic minded” is an understatement when it comes to describing Karl Dannecker. The number of worthwhile endeavors he’s participated in is substantial: the nine-month-long San Rafael Leadership Institute, where, Karl says, “You meet all the people that make government work,” and a multi-week course at The San Rafael Citizen Police Academy learning about local policing and even doing a ride-along. The list goes on: charter member of SR Harbor Rotary Club; ten years on the Dredging Board; student in the Environmental Forum of Marin; member of the Rod and Gun Club (which, contrary to many people’s perception, is committed to conservation), and several years as Vice President of the SVNA. Karl is a fixture at the neighborhood SVNA Labor Day Picnic, providing and setting up the stage, tables, and chairs. When he learned that the cash-strapped SVNA was paying $2500 to rent everything from Big 4, he began providing everything at no charge from his company, Corporate Media Systems.
     Karl Grew up in San Rafael, just on other side of the freeway. He knew lots of kids in who lived in Santa Venetia and spent plenty of time here. “Back in the day, we used to go fishing at China Camp. We hung out at Buck’s all the time and took canoes up the creek and under the highway to the Northgate Mall.” He remembers when there was a little mall on Adrian Terrace, and McInnis was a private ranch.
After college at Chico State, he moved back to Marin, first to Mill Valley then eventually landing in Santa Venetia. He and his wife, Mari, have lived in numerous spots in the neighborhood before moving to their current home. Karl has fond memories of living on Vendola, where he and Mari still have lots of friends. “We loved living on the water although eventually we couldn’t use our boat because the creek wasn’t dredged,” he says. “There used to be commercial activity on the creek,” he says, “so the Army Corps was obligated to dredge periodically.” Now though, there hasn’t been dredging for decades. Karl points out that one of the objections to dredging is the disturbance of the clapper rail habitat. “But they like pickleweed and don’t like a lot of silt buildup,” he says of the birds. “Too much silt and they’ll move someplace else. That’s what happened in Bel Marin Keys.”
     Both Mari and Karl appreciate SV for its beauty and for the eclectic mix of residents. “Everyone minds their own business unless someone needs a helping hand,” Karl says. When he broke his leg in the park one week before Mari was having back surgery, “Two kids sat with me, while their dad helped my wife take the dogs to car. And while we were laid up, our neighbors brought us food and walked our dogs.” Mari, too, volunteers locally as member of Santa Venetia Neighbors Helping Neighbors.
     The two of them love the annual Marin County Fair, attending all five days, either walking or riding their bikes there. Karl is grateful that many years ago when his step-grandfather emigrated from England, he chose Marin. “It’s total luck of the draw that my family ended up here,” he says happily.

Spend a little time with Christine and it’s obvious that there is something special about her. “The way I see reality, there are umpteen layers of what supports life and how life is created and sustained. It’s so magical,” she says. For the past 40 years, Christine has worked as a healer, having the ability to see and sense peoples’ and animals’ problems and open the doors to healing energy. Countless testimonials from those she’s helped, whether in person or remotely, praise her talents for her fast and effective work.
      Christine had her first psychic experience in college, when she kept strongly feeling that she had to “go down to the bar NOW.” She admits being freaked out. “I tried to ignore it, but it was so strong that I went.” And that’s how she “just happened” to meet her mate of 10 years.
     Originally from a small town in New York, Christine has lived in Minnesota, Mt. Shasta, and Hawaii in addition to 40 years in California. She’s happy to be in Santa Venetia where she values the ethnic cultural diversity of the neighborhood. She was close friends with Norma Novy, who she recalls with great affection. “What a loving, pure being,” she says of Norma. “We traded our own styles of healings and intuitive readings for each other.”
      Christine’s own journey as a healer began when she was facing surgery. But she met a healer, and after two sessions, she and her doctors were amazed with her quick and complete recovery. After taking one simple class with this healer, a floodgate of her own inner skills opened, and she found that she could help people who had not gotten relief from months or years with others. She then devoted herself fully to studying the art of healing, and awareness of higher consciousness and spirituality.
     For decades she learned sacred medicine from teachers and healers from around the world. “I kept receiving profound activations of my own sacred gifts,” says Christine. She was ordained as an Interfaith Healing Minister by Mama Lucas, a widely renowned “miracle” healer. Christine has also taught and performed African dance, percussion, improv singing, and sound healing.
     Filled with gratitude and reverence for the Earth and all life, Christine imparts healing energy to plants that she harvests. “After I pick herbs or vegetables in my garden, I do my “Renewal Energetics” technique for fast physical trauma healing, which includes putting my fingers on ends of branches and sending the plant a message about its new boundaries, and to remember wholeness.”

Powerful as her talents are, Christine remains humble. “My natural instinct is to be kind, to share, to let go of any artifice.” She believes that everyone has the potential to cultivate their intuition and awaken to their own gifts and true self. “Everything is subtle energy. Everything gives off vibration,” she says. “We all have the ability to tune into a deeper relationship with that flowing energy which creates life.”

To learn more about Christine, visit www.sourcehealing.org/id3.html

-Bonnie Monte, bonnie.monte@gmail.com

Robards’ family history in California goes back at least as far as the Gold Rush–although as he jokingly points out, “It’s not the Mayflower.” His great-great-grandfather was landowner in Yosemite Valley, in the days before President Lincoln declared the area a national park. There’s even a ravine in Mariposa County named after him: Ham Coward
Gulch. And Gary’s great-grandfather was president of the Berkeley town council.
     Born in Berkeley, Gary grew up in Oakland. As a youngster, he was a member of the SF Boys Chorus and recalls taking the bus into the city by himself for rehearsals. Among the group’s concerts, a highlight was performing at the 20th anniversary of the UN in 1965, where he shook hands with Adlai Stevenson.
     Gary did his undergraduate work at Cal, then stayed on to get a master’s degree in civil engineering. For decades, he worked at Nute Engineering in San Rafael, which served as private consultants for many local sanitary districts that didn’t have an engineer of their own.
     During his tenure at Nute, he moved from Larkspur to his current home on a woodsy street in the uplands of Santa Venetia. He chose the house for its convenience to work and for all the nature nearby.
     That nature was a plus when Gary and his wife, Tes Lazzarini, had triplet boys. “Kids would come to our house to look for lizards in the backyard,” he says. The kids were students at Venetia Valley but are now grown and finished with college.
     Gary is Vice-President of our hard-working SVNA Board as well as a volunteer at the Map Room Annex of the California Room of the Civic Center Library, where he catalogs old surveys. He also served on the Santa Venetia Community Plan Committee, where I had the pleasure of working with him. With his astute knowledge of maps and boundaries, he immediately spotted errors in the map proposed by the county. Santa Margarita Island was not shown as being part of Santa Venetia. Even more surprising, the marsh was outside the map’s boundaries. “It’s called the Santa Venetia Marsh!” says Gary, perplexed that the county omitted it. He made sure a corrected map became part of the community plan that was adopted.
     At the beginning of 2023, Gary was chosen to fill the late Judy Shriebman’s seat on the Las Gallinas Valley Sanitary District Board, an agency that had been one of Nute’s clients. The Board sets policies and makes decisions about budgets, infrastructure, and operations. He will be up for reelection next November.