This year, Mayor Trish Spencer has chosen not one, but four grand women to be the Grand Marshals for the 2017 Alameda Fourth of July parade: Ginny Krutilek, Joyce Denyven, Gretchen Lipow and Weezie Mott. Each of these ladies are tireless supporters of the Alameda community in one fashion or another. They deserve city-wide recognition for their charitable work with local nonprofits and for continuously and selflessly helping the members of our community who need it most.

Ginny Krutilek

Ginny is a founding member of the Alameda Homeless Network (aka Midway Shelter). The Alameda Homeless Network was founded in June 1993. Ginny has answered countless phone calls from desperate women at all hours of the day and night seeking shelter. She has discovered an abundance of treasures donated to the Midway Shelter on her doorstep and has then loaded them into her car to take to the shelter on almost a daily basis. Ginny has served as the treasurer of the organization providing accurate and detailed records of every race, gala and event, the Alameda Homeless Network has coordinated. She provides a living history of the challenges and triumphs the Midway Shelter has faced during its 29 years of operation. Ginny has painted walls, repaired plumbing and continually represents the Midway Shelter at various functions throughout Alameda. She is the recognized face of the Midway Shelter, and each year gets up early on her birthday to assist with the 4th of July Race benefiting the Midway Shelter. This July 4th she will be celebrating her 92nd. In 2015, Ginny received the City of Alameda Lifetime Achievement Award for her service and dedication to our community. As a piano teacher from 1965 to 2010, she brought the love of music to young and old alike. She is an amazing woman who also drives others to their doctor’s appointments, sings in her church choir, volunteer’s with PEO Chapter UN and is just a very generous and giving woman.

Gretchen Lipow

Gretchen hails from a social-justice family; as part of the underground railroad harboring slaves from the Deep South as they traveled to Canada. Her family sheltered thousands of slaves in their journey to freedom. Gretchen’s father was part of Harry Bridge’s team who established the Longshoreman’s Union on the West Coast. A skilled mosaic artist he went on to to work with Diego Rivera and his many mural projects in the Bay Area; most notably Treasure Island, the site of the 1939 World’s Fair. Her mother, who hailed from a prominent Swedish emigrant lumber family, left the country during the Great Depression to get a college education at the Sorbonne in France. Returning to the U.S. she worked in the pattern department of the Ladies Home Journal. Gretchen met her husband, Arthur, in Berkeley in the midst of the free speech movement where was the co-chair of Campus CORE, the organization coordinating the sit-ins throughout the Bay Area. She has an enduring commitment toward improving the quality of life for her community with a special focus on those less fortunate. “That is why I devoted a major portion of my educational career establishing programs for immigrants who were struggling to learn English.” Gretchen and Arthur founded the Alameda Public Affairs Forum, they were instrumental in organizing the resistance to SunCal’s plan to build 4,500 units at Alameda Point. She has also worked to save the Mif Albright Golf course and to reclaim Crab Cove as a part of Crown Beach. “My vision now is to establish solar and wind installations on the Point. It’s a perfect time and place to showcase sustainable forms of energy for Alameda and beyond and as an added bonus — no traffic and no cars!”

Joyce Denyven

It is difficult to name an area of community service in Alameda that has not benefited from the involvement of Joyce Denyven. For more than 50 years, Joyce has excelled in numerous leadership positions: Vice President of the first-elected Alameda Unified School Board, Alameda Welfare Council President, Alameda Girls Club President, 1st woman elected to the Alameda Boy Scout Council,  Chapter MU PEO leader, Alameda Girl Scout Council President, Alameda Soroptomist President, just to name a few. Joyce’s community service extends from named positions to simply taking action. Whether it is helping to coordinate the local Scouting for Food effort or creating gift baskets for the Welfare Council fundraiser, Joyce has a long history as a “hands-on” volunteer. Joyce takes initiative when she recognizes a need in the community. For example, Joyce observed that hearing impaired children did not have summer camp opportunities. She recruited volunteers and established an annual sleep-away camp for hearing-impaired children. In her professional life, she served as Executive Director of Girls Inc from 1970 to 1993. In 2016, Joyce Denyven received the City of Alameda Community Service Lifetime Achievement Award. The combination of Joyce’s leadership, initiative and grit has left an indelible mark on the community of Alameda.

Weezie Mott

Weezie Mott, 94, is a teacher by profession with an extensive background in the biological sciences. She has lived in both Italy and Turkey where she studied, in depth, the history and unique art of foood preparation in those countries. She has studied with Marceiia Hazan in Bologna and Venice, Italy, attended cooking seminars taught by Giuliano Bugialli, worked in Turkish family kitchens in Turkey, completed Classes at the Cordon Bleu in London and La Varenne in Paris, completed a Practical and Cultural Food and Wine Seminar under Madeleine Kamman in Annecy, France, and a week’s course in Therapeutic Effects of Wine in Paris, worked in the kitchens of Chateau de Nieuil in the Charentes region of France and worked under Chef Didier Clement in the kitchen of Hotel Du Lion d’Gr, Romorantin, France. She has toured Greece, Italy and Corsica on a food and wine seminar led by Chef Michael Romano of the Union Square Cafe in New York City.

Weezie skillfully combined her knowledge of food preparation to design her own teaching techniques and presentations, operating her own Cooking School in Alameda since 1977. Her programs include a discussion of the influences that history, geography and cultural patterns have on a national cuisine. Her school motto: Let’s expand our cooking horizons! “Food is one of the best ways to ensure that culture, tradition, compassion, knowledge and creativity will continue from generation to generation.”