Los Altos Art Docent wins Volunteer Service Award

Los Altos Art Docent, Betty Latta, has been awarded the Los Altos - Los Altos Hills Joint Community Volunteer Service Award for promoting art and education in activities which have directly and significantly benefited the communities of Los Altos and Los Altos Hills.

The award luncheon took place at the Fremont Hills Country Club on December 7. In presenting the award, Kimberley Dickerson (LAAD Coordinator), said 'Betty has played an important leadership role, acting in curriculum development, the annual Art Show and publicity.'

Betty has served as an Art Docent with the Los Altos School District for 36 years. She's loved every minute of it. She says, 'The look on a child's face the first time they mix red and blue and discover they've made purple is priceless.'

She became interested in the Art Docent program when saw an introductory coffee flyer in the Oak School office, she gave Nancy Marston (LAAD co-founder) a call and the rest is history! 'Nancy had a wonderful way of bringing you in and making you feel welcome and comfortable. (And showing you a few art techniques and assuring you that you really could teach that lesson!)' says Betty.

 Betty began with the Art Docents by teaching clay lessons and moved to watercolor painting as her interest in painting grew. Betty now paints in oils and watercolors as an artist in her own right. Last summer she taught five sessions of watercolor lessons to members of the Mid-Peninsular Widow and Widowers Association—some of whom had never painted before.

Betty was also the Oak PTA co-president and newsletter editor. She hosted exchange students from Iwata, Japan.

The Los Altos Art Docents have been well-represented at the awards. Previous recipients include Nancy Marston in 1983 (one of the LAAD founders), Kay Payne in 1988 and Carolyn Landsbergen in 1995. The Art Docents are very proud of Betty and her contribution to the community and wish her well in her future endeavours.

The Los Altos Art Docent program was founded in 1970 in response to budget cuts in art instruction in the local public schools, and has been serving the Los Altos School district ever since, providing upwards of 700 lessons per year throughout the district's seven elementary schools. They are funded by the Los Altos Education Fund. For more information about the program, please visit their web site at www.losaltosartdocents.org or call 650.947.1195.