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Palo Alto, CA November 2026

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Gamble Garden | Always in Bloom F O O D + B E V E R AG E

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LIFESTYLE LETTER

Thanksgiving

November 2026 PUBLISHER

Ellie Chan | ellie.chan@citylifestyle.com E D I TO R

Tentmakers Creative Co. | will@tentmakerscreative.co

Hi neighbors, November is our Thankful Issue, and I think this is my favorite theme of them all. I don’t care much for the traditional Thanksgiving holiday itself (sorry, turkey lovers), but I love autumn and the gentle reminder it brings to practice gratitude. A few years ago, I went through a really dark season with my mental health, mostly a heavy battle with anxiety and my own self-image. I remember distinctly one night my mom was helping me run errands very late, only for us to discover the store I needed most was closed. We looked up the next nearest location across town, which was going to add at least 30 minutes to our trip. My mom looked at me and said gently, “I would love to drive you there, but in return, I want to challenge you not to complain this week.” Not complain? Excuse me? Me, Ellie Rae Chan, a COMPLAINER? This absolutely shook me. But looking back, the truth was that I was a complainer. I was dissatisfied with my life, my friends, my grades, and my circumstances. I was scared, lonely, and ungrateful. How was I supposed to change any of that? Turns out, there was nothing I could do about my circumstances in that moment, but there was everything I could do about my heart. It started small, just holding my tongue when I felt frustrated, and eventually grew into habitually looking for the bright side. The shift took time, but my family now refers to that dark era as a thing of the past. I am so, so thankful. I even feel a little emotional typing this on my old, dramatic computer that dies whenever it feels like it (which I am grateful for, too, of course). Gratitude has been a genuine lifesaver for me. You will never regret being grateful, and if there is one thing I wish for you to try this fall, it’s giving thanks in every circumstance. We are so grateful for the business owners we're highlighting this month too, I hope you feel inspired by their work in our community. Happy Thanksgiving, Palo Alto!

ELLIE CHAN, PUBLISHER @ PA L O A LT O C I T Y L I F E S T Y L E

C O N T R I B U T I N G P H OTO G R AP H E R

Karina Pemberton

Corporate Team CEO Steven Schowengerdt President Matthew Perry CRO Jamie Pentz CoS Janeane Thompson AD DESIGNER Matthew Endersbe LAYOUT DESIGNER Liz Nixon QUALITY CONTROL SPECIALIST Hannah Leimkuhler

Learn how to start your own publication at CityLifestyle.com//Franchise. Proverbs 3:5-6 Palo Alto City Lifestyle™ is published monthly by Lifestyle Publications LLC. It is distributed via the US Postal Service to some of the Palo Alto area’s most affluent neighborhoods. Articles and advertisements do not necessarily reflect Lifestyle

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L I F E ST Y LE LE T T E R

Publications’ opinions. No portion of this magazine may be reproduced in any form without written consent. Lifestyle Publications does not assume responsibility for statements made by advertisers or editorial contributors. Information in Palo Alto City Lifestyle™ is gathered from sources considered to be reliable, but the accuracy of all information cannot be guaranteed.


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inside the issue NOVE M B E R 2 0 2 6 | TH ANK F U L

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Print Prestige Meets Digital Power.

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WHY CHOOSE BETWEEN PRESTIGE AND PLACEMENT?

Featured

Departments

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Fifty Years on WholePerson Education Sofia University in Palo Alto teaches gratitude for credit.

Buckets on the Sidewalk

Lifestyle Letter

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City Scene

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Business Monthly

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Must See EDUCATION

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Local Limelight ARTS + CULTURE

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Inspired By FOOD + BEVERAGE

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Culinary Creations FOOD + BEVERAGE

How Elizabeth Gamble's garden became the community's.

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Hosting Tips LIFE + CULTURE

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Giving Back LIFE + CULTURE

Built for Charlie

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Events

A mother's search for her son's future became a cafe with 42 employees.

On the Cover Photography: Karina Pemberton

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NOVEMBER 2026

city scene WHERE NEIGHBORS CAN SEE AND BE SEEN

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1: Taekwon Kids pose together after their demo at the Mountain View Art and Wine Festival. 2: A high kick takes center stage during the Taekwon Kids demo at the festival. 3: Young performers move through a synchronized routine during the Taekwon Kids demo. 4: Black belts stand ready between routines at the Mountain View Community Stage. 5: A high-flying kick draws cheers from the crowd at the Art and Wine Festival. 6: Students kneel together, a quiet moment of focus before the demo continues. 7: Students showcase sharp technique during the Taekwon Kids demo Photography Courtesy of Jesse Suen

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C I T Y SC E N E


Your Trusted Palo Alto Family Eye Care Practice As a therapeutic optometrist and pediatric specialist, Dr. Cindy strongly believes in providing the best care possible for her patients through comprehensive & personalized eye exams, contact lens fittings, and the diagnosis and treatment of various eye diseases. Schedule an appointment to see us today!

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NOVEMBER 2026

business monthly A ROUNDUP OF NEWS F R O M LO C A L B U S I N E S S E S

Every Membership Covers Three People Healing Grove Health Center practices concierge family and internal medicine on West Alma Avenue in San Jose. Appointments run thirty minutes to an hour with no wait to see a doctor, and membership is two hundred dollars a month. Every membership funds care for two more people in the community: refugees, low-income families, and neighbors the health system has overlooked. Photography Courtesy of Healing Grove

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Want to be featured? G E T I N T O U C H AT CIT YLIFEST YLE .COM/ P A L O A LT O

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B USIN E SS M ON T H LY


A New Pilates Studio on El Camino FLO Pilates has opened at 3877 El Camino Real in Palo Alto, under twenty-foot ceilings with expansive natural light and reserved underground parking. The studio runs Balanced Body reformers, Cadillac towers and chairs across six class formats, from foundations through an advanced sequence. Cadillac sessions are held to just four clients at a time.

One Moment. Years of Resilience. COMMIT TO ACHIEVING YOUR GOALS

Photography Courtesy of FLO Pilates

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The Nonprofit That Drives to the Neighborhood Mobilize Love runs outreach trucks instead of a building. Co-founders Christian and Cori Huang bring mobile after-school programs and human services into under-resourced communities, meeting physical needs and teaching life skills where families already are. Their programs include ML Kids, Love the City and summer camps. In their own words, they exist to show up and give hope.

www.taekwonkids.com

Photography Courtesy of Mobilize Love

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FIFTY YEARS ON Whole-Person Education

SOFIA UNIVERSITY IN PALO ALTO TEACHES GRATITUDE FOR CREDIT. ARTICLE BY WILL COTTERALL | PHOTOGRAPHY BY COREY SANDLER, OC EVENT PHOTOS AND SOFIA UNIVERSITY MARKETING

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M UST SE E | EDUCATI O N


There is a university in Palo Alto where gratitude is worth three credits. The course sits in Sofia University’s doctoral catalog: Positive Psychology, Gratitude, Compassion, and Forgiveness. Students trace how gratitude and compassion function across a course of therapy, then apply the same material to their own lives. It carries the same three credits as the program’s research methods courses. Sofia was founded in 1975 by Robert Frager, working with James Fadiman. The idea took shape in a small office at UC Santa Cruz. The first campus was the bottom floor of a house, with a living room where classes met, a kitchen, a bathroom, and a hot tub. They called it the California Institute of Transpersonal Psychology. The premise fit inside one sentence: learning should engage more than the intellect. The school has moved and been renamed since. It was in Menlo Park by the mid-1980s, became the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in 1986, then Sofia University in 2012. It has been accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges since 1998. A second campus opened in Costa Mesa in 2019. Ask what the school means by “mind, body, spirit, heart,” and the answer comes back concrete. Learning, Sofia says, should be more than acquiring information or preparing for a career. It should connect to who a student is and what they want to contribute to the world. The ordinary academic measures still apply on top of all of it. “Those things are important at Sofia as well,” the university says. “But we add another dimension.” CONTINUED >

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That dimension changes shape by discipline. A psychology student sits with self-awareness alongside theories of human development. A business student weighs how a leadership decision lands on people and culture, not just the bottom line. A computer science student weighs a technology’s ethics alongside its engineering. The purpose is unhedged: Sofia wants graduates who are “more conscious, compassionate, and purposeful contributors to the world.” Unlike a placement rate, that is not a claim anyone can audit. The catalog is wider than the psychology it started with — an MBA and doctorate in business, a master’s in computer science, certificates in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and cybersecurity, plus dream studies and transpersonal ecopsychology. Still, the university is careful about what the expansion means. “We are not trying to make every discipline psychology,” it says. “We are bringing a whole-person perspective to each discipline.” Students run from about twenty-three to past sixty. Many are working professionals after a credential or a change of field; many are international. Sofia’s pitch: a large institution can leave a person feeling like one among thousands, and a school this size lets classes stay small enough for faculty to learn their names.

Dr. Carol Humphreys’ path to Sofia was shaped by years of leadership in higher education. She became president in July 2023, after two years as provost, and spent seven years before that in senior administration at Saybrook University. Before higher education, she worked as a psychologist in a forensic hospital and as a social worker with trauma survivors. She holds a doctorate in clinical psychology from Miami University and dual bachelor’s degrees from Cal State Dominguez Hills. She started at Cypress Community College, a single mother raising two children while working days and studying nights. The campus itself is part of the pitch. It sits a short drive from the companies building the artificial intelligence its own certificates now teach. Sofia frames that location as an advantage: the same industries reshaping how people work need people who can weigh the ethics and human impact of what they’re building. Silicon Valley has no shortage of people capable of building the technology. What Sofia offers is education that encourages students to consider not only what can be created, but why it matters and whom it serves. To learn more about Sofia University and its programs, visit www.sofia.edu.

“We are not trying to make every discipline psychology. We are bringing a whole-person perspective to each discipline.”

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M UST SE E | EDUCATI O N


Buckets on the Sidewalk

HOW ELIZABETH GAMBLE'S GARDEN BECAME THE COMMUNITY'S. ARTICLE BY WILL COTTERALL | PHOTOGRAPHY BY KARINA PEMBERTON

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LOCA L LIM E LIGH T | ARTS + CU LT U RE


Neighbors walking down Waverley Street found buckets of cut flowers on the sidewalk, set out by Elizabeth Frances Gamble. Her family brought her from Kentucky in 1902, when Waverley was a mud road. One year at Stanford, a degree from Wellesley, and then a lifetime at 1431 Waverley Street. The flowers were one gift among many. She made arrangements for the hospital and helped young women through college. She kept opening her garden to neighbors. In 1971

she deeded the estate to the City on the condition that she and George, her brother, could stay for the rest of her life. She left no explanation. Her habits come close to an answer. She died in 1981. The City had an overgrown estate and no plan. Two open houses drew twelve hundred people. Proposals ranged from senior housing to lawn bowling. The Garden Club of Palo Alto proposed a harder plan: a public garden, open to everyone, run by a new nonprofit that CONTINUED >

"I hope they leave feeling like it is partly theirs." – Mica Pirie

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would ask the City for nothing. The Council debated for four hours on May 13, 1985, then voted eight to one. The people filling the chamber wore flowers from her garden. Her name is still in the ground. Irises were her favorite flower. In 1994 Lois O’Brien, a hybridizer and longtime friend, named one for her: Iris ‘Elizabeth Gamble.’ It still flourishes along the garden’s edges. Now the community does the giving. Over 300 volunteers give 25,000-plus hours a year to a garden that is free and privately funded. “None of them have to be here,” says Executive Director Mica Pirie. Every one began as a visitor. When asked about today’s visitors, Mica answered, “I hope they leave feeling like it is partly theirs.” Forty-five years after her death, the garden is still giving things to whoever walks through the gate.

Visit Gamble Garden 1431 Waverley Street, Palo Alto. Free. Open daily during daylight hours; portions may close for events. Home and office hours: Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. LOOK FOR

• 'Shiragiku' camellia. Miss Gamble bought it in 1938. It stands in front of the Tea House patio. • 'Hikaru Genji' camellia. Also bought in 1938, it grows in the main house bed. • 'Kumasaka' camellia. Bought in 1939, one of the oldest camellias in cultivation, recorded in Japan in 1695. • Iris 'Elizabeth Gamble.' Named for her in 1994, it grows along the perimeter. • The coral tree behind the Tea House. The Gamble family planted it.

COMING UP

• Second Saturday. Themed family activities such as tours, crafts, and storytime, 10 a.m. to noon, every second Saturday. Register in advance. • Winter Festival. December 3–5, 2026: decorated trees, a holiday marketplace, a bake sale, a tree auction. Some events are ticketed. • Spring Tour. April 23–24, 2027. A ticketed, self-guided tour of private Palo Alto gardens, with shopping at Gamble Garden.

VOLUNTEER

Join the Dirty Knees Brigade in the garden, help at special events, or guide elementary students through Roots & Shoots.

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Built for

Charlie

A MOTHER'S SEARCH FOR HER SON'S FUTURE BECAME A CAFE WITH 42 EMPLOYEES AND A GOAL OF 100. ARTICLE BY WILL COTTERALL PHOTOGRAPHY BY AUDREY ANNE PHOTOGRAPHY Kathleen Foley-Hughes is the mother of twins with disabilities. Charlie had always been a social kid, someone who learned by doing. When he reached Terman Middle School, now known as Fletcher, Kathleen began asking a harder question: what would happen after high school, for a student who wasn't headed to college. The only option in Palo Alto bussed students off campus for vocational training. It was a fine program, she said. But it seemed unfair that students already marginalized by their disabilities had to leave campus to get what she called a fair education. So she asked the district's head of special education for something else: a cafe, run by the students, that stayed on school grounds. The district agreed, on one condition. CONTINUED >

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I NSP IR E D BY | FO O D + BE VE RAGE


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"I KNOW PERSONALLY THAT HAVING A JOB WHERE YOU ARE WELCOMED AND SUPPORTED CHANGES A PERSON'S LIFE." 24

I NSP IR E D BY | FO O D + BE VE RAGE


Kathleen would need to find the furniture, the equipment, and the staff herself. She and another mother, Karen Lawson, did. The Terman Tasty Treats Cafe opened in 2003, teaching students to bake banana bread, put on a good pot of coffee, and make change. They started a cash box and began working functional math into the lessons. The staff's response, Kathleen said, was as strong as the students'. The idea followed Charlie to Gunn High School. The Hughes family sanded and refinished the tables for what became the Gunn Gourmet Cafe. Guidance counselors helped identify students who might want to work there. Kathleen bought an espresso machine and taught general education students, special day class students, and their aides how to pull shots side by side. The menu grew. So did the roster of students who found work. “We found a job for every student no matter their challenge,” Kathleen said.

Ada's Cafe grew from both, opening December 6, 2014, at 3700 Middlefield Road. The name is half for a neighborhood grandmother who once fed the kids on her block, half for the Americans with Disabilities Act. The cafe now employs 42 adults with disabilities. It caters events for 300 people. It runs on what Kathleen calls the Three C's: compassionate employment, commercial success, community values. "Whenever we are faced with something that doesn't seem to fit, we rely on those values as our Northstar," she said. The goal is 100 employees within five years, through future Ada's locations. She still gets two or three calls a week from families hoping for an opening. Most weeks, she has to say no. "I know personally that having a job where you are welcomed and supported changes a person's life," Kathleen said. The cafe runs on grace under pressure most days, Kathleen said. It runs, too, on her belief that people need to gather together in community, on both sides of the counter.

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Iced Pumpkin Cookies 28

C ULIN A RY C R E AT ION S | F OOD + BE VE RAGE


SOFT, HEAVILY SPICED, AND GLAZED ONLY AFTER THEY ARE COMPLETELY COOL.

COOKIES • • • • • • • • • • • •

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 1/2 cups white sugar 1/2 cup butter, softened 1 cup canned pumpkin puree 1 large egg 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

ICING • • • •

2 cups confectioners’ sugar 3 tablespoons milk, plus more as needed 1 tablespoon melted butter 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

METHOD

ARTICLE BY ELLIE CHAN This is a soft cookie, not a crisp one. Dry ingredients in one bowl, creamed butter and sugar in another, a full cup of pumpkin, and the spice list doing the heavy lifting: cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves. The icing is the part people get wrong. It has to go on cold. Glaze a warm cookie and it slides straight off onto the parchment. Let the tray come all the way to room temperature, then spread.

1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees and grease two cookie sheets. 2. Whisk the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, cloves and salt together in a medium bowl. 3. In a large bowl, cream the sugar and butter until fluffy, two to three minutes. Beat in the pumpkin, egg and vanilla until creamy, then mix in the dry ingredients until just combined. 4. Drop tablespoonfuls of dough onto the sheets and flatten each one slightly. 5. Bake 15 to 20 minutes, until the centers are set, switching racks halfway through. 6. Move the cookies to a wire rack and cool to room temperature, about 30 minutes. 7. Stir the confectioners’ sugar, milk, melted butter and vanilla until smooth. Add milk a little at a time until the icing drops off the spoon in a thick ribbon. 8. Spread the icing over the cooled cookies with an offset spatula.

Three things that decide how these turn out. Do not overmix once the flour goes in. Flatten the dough before it bakes or the centers stay wet. And wait the full thirty minutes before icing, because warm cookies shed glaze onto the parchment every time.

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ARTICLE BY ALISON STANTON

Tips on meal prepping for less stress Let’s face it: hosting Thanksgiving dinner can be stressful. Between grocery shopping, house cleaning, cooking and baking, it’s no wonder the day devoted to giving thanks can feel a tad daunting. Here’s some very welcome good news: whether this is your first holiday hosting rodeo or you’ve stuffed many a turkey over the years, you can knock out most of the Thanksgiving meal prep work in advance – some of it two weeks before the big day. To make this year’s Thanksgiving meal easier and more enjoyable, consider the following timeline of tips.

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H OST IN G T IP S | L I FE + CU LT U RE


2 WEEKS BEFORE Create Your Thanksgiving Menu • Print out the recipes you plan to use – this will be much easier than constantly tapping your phone to prevent the screen from going dark or scrolling when your hands are covered with flour or onions. • Using your menu and printed out recipes as a guide, compose a complete shopping list. • Double check your supply of herbs and spices to see what you have on hand – even the ones you are pretty sure you have enough of, like salt and pepper (this tip comes from personal experience!). • Shop for all non-perishable and frozen food items. Basically, if it doesn’t need to be stored in the fridge, or if it doesn’t have a short shelf life, it’s going in the cart. • Plan three easy and tasty dinners for the days leading up to Thanksgiving and purchase those ingredients during your shopping trip. Or plan at least one night of takeout.

4-5 DAYS BEFORE

Clean & Organize, Buy Fresh Groceries

• Clean your home completely, enlisting family members to help. Then, as the big day approaches, you can touch up as needed. • Finish your grocery shopping for fresh vegetables like potatoes, onions and carrots and other items not purchased earlier. • Go through your fridge and toss any old, expired condiments, leftovers and mysterious food items that no one is eating. This will free up valuable real estate for your various dishes.

2-3 DAYS BEFORE

Prep Meals & Set the Table

• Wash and chop all veggies and place the prepped produce into plastic baggies or airtight food storage containers. If some recipes call for “minced onion” and others require “chopped onion,” label the bags accordingly. • Set the table, and include the empty serving dishes. This will help you figure out ahead of time where the larger dishes can go (and if they will all fit!) Add Post-It notes to the empty dishes to remind you what will go in what. Use a clean sheet to cover everything and keep it all dust-free until Thursday. You can also do this for a buffet. • Gather all needed serving spoons and other serving pieces. • Pre-measure herbs and spices for your recipes and store them in labeled small plastic bags with the name of the dish they are for and what’s in the baggies. You can also do the same for any flour, sugar or other non-perishable ingredients you’ll use in your dishes.

1 DAY BEFORE

Tidy, Prepare Dishes & Drinks

• Do a quick clean and tidy around the home; for instance, run the vacuum and shine up the bathrooms. • If you haven’t already done so, bake your pies, or, at the very least, prepare your pie dough. Wrap the dough in plastic and keep it in the fridge until you’re ready to assemble and bake the pies. • Make the mashed potatoes. Bonus tip: on Thanksgiving, put the potatoes into a slow cooker and heat them up using the “warm” setting. • Prepare the gravy. If you have a second slow cooker, it too can be warmed up this way on Thanksgiving. This will also help free up pots, pans and burners on the stove! • Set up a separate drink station where guests can help themselves or someone can serve them away from the kitchen. Stock it with glasses of different sizes, napkins, bottle and can openers and straws. NOVEMB ER 2 0 2 6 | C I TYL I FE STYL E . C OM / PA LOA LTO

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C I T Y L I FEST Y L E G I V ES BAC K

GIVING TOGETHER A Community That Shows Up

Every year, City Lifestyle sends checks to hundreds of families in need across the country through our annual Giving Campaign and our non-profit arm, Kingdom Building Foundation. But none of it would be possible without you. We can only help the people we know about, and

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G IV IN G BAC K | L I FE + C ULT U RE

that’s where our readers come in. If you know someone quietly struggling, whether it’s a single parent, a senior citizen, or a family facing something they never saw coming, we want to hear their story. Nominations are what make this whole campaign possible.


We provided a chair lift for a teenager paralyzed in a gymnastics accident so she could move freely through her own home again. We helped a child who lost an eye to cancer get the prosthetic because insurance wouldn’t cover it. We covered dental work for a man who needed his smile back just to walk into a job interview. We got heat turned back on for a family who had spent part of the winter without it. We helped a family keep up with bills while a husband and father fought pancreatic cancer, and we helped another family cover medical expenses after the unimaginable loss of a child. These are just a few examples of some of the hundreds of individuals that have been helped through nominations from readers like you. None of it happens without someone noticing first and speaking up. "We don't just send checks," says Steven Schowengerdt, CEO and founder of City Lifestyle.

“We send a message: You are seen, you are loved, and you are not forgotten.” Together with City Lifestyle President Matthew Perry, Steven has helped shape this into a tradition that goes far beyond the holiday season. "This is about community," Matthew says. "We believe we've been blessed, so now we get to be a blessing." Often, the person making the nomination gets just as much out of the experience as the recipient. There's something powerful about being part of the reason someone else's burden got lighter, especially when that need might have otherwise gone unnoticed. The campaign is completely confidential. No names are ever shared or publicized, and nominating someone is as simple as telling us their story. We are looking for those in our communities who fall between the cracks of getting help, and together as a community, we can meet those needs.

Nominations open November 1st and close December 3rd. To nominate someone in your community, follow @CityLifestyle on Instagram and find the form in our bio, or visit KingdomBuildingFoundation.org.

This season, giving starts with you. Let's do it together. Nominate someone in need today.

NOVEMB ER 2 0 2 6 | C I TYL I FE STYL E . C OM / PA LOA LTO

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NOVEMBER 2026

events A S E L E C T I O N O F U P C O M I N G LO C A L E V E N T S

NOVE M BE R 7 T H

Worm Composting Workshop Elizabeth F. Gamble Garden, 1431 Waverley Street, Palo Alto | 10:00 AM The City of Palo Alto and Gamble Garden team up for a free, hands-on vermicomposting workshop. Learn how easy it is to turn kitchen scraps into nutrient-rich compost for indoor and outdoor plants. NOVE M BE R 1 4 T H

Cubberley Artist Studio Program: Open Studios Cubberley Community Center, 4000 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto | 1:00 PM The Artists-in-Residence open their studios to the public for this free, twice-a-year event. Tour working studios in the E, F, and U wings and meet the artists behind the work. NOVE M BE R 1 7 T H

Music Fun with Klezmore Square Oshman Family JCC, 3921 Fabian Way, Palo Alto | 1:00 PM Klezmore Square brings the songs and dances of Jewish festivities — weddings, b'nai mitzvah, and a few nostalgic waltzes — to the stage. Sing, clap, and dance along.

Holiday Fêtes, Made Easy. Warm evenings, seasonal French cooking and a table for everyone. As the evenings turn crisp, there's something about gathering around a table that feels just right. At BarZola, in the heart of downtown Palo Alto, the season brings French cooking, a special glass of wine and conversations that linger long after dessert. Whether it's a birthday, an anniversary dinner for two or a holiday toast with friends, we'd love to be part of it. This fall and holiday season, we hope you'll spend a few evenings with us. Cocktail Parties | Large Groups | Private Spaces

When you're ready to start planning, we'd love to hear from you. zolapa.com | 650.521.0651 | 585 Bryant Street, Palo Alto, CA 94301

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