Krazy George helps San Jose wave goodbye to overdue library fines

With his drum in hand, iconic cheerleader Krazy George Henderson popped up at Tuesday’s San Jose City Council meeting to lead the city’s esteemed leaders and everyone else gathered in the hallowed chambers in The Wave, the sports stadium tradition he invented more than 40 years ago.

The stunt — done for the first time at a San Jose council meeting — wasn’t to boost up morale on the council or celebrate the passage of a new ordinance but to help the San Jose Public Library “wave goodbye” to fees on late materials.

“Now, you can use those library cards without fear of accruing late fees,” said San Jose City Librarian Jill Bourne, who was also there for a proclamation of National Library Card Sign-Up Month.

Bourne said San Jose Public Library officials aren’t worried about books disappearing from their shelves, never to reappear. If borrowed items aren’t returned — and 7.6 million items were checked out systemwide last year by the library’s 762,169 members — they’ll eventually be listed as missing on the borrower’s account, and that will need to be cleared before anything else can be checked out.

That can be taken care of by returning the late book, paying a replacement fee, replacing it with a new book, “reading down” the fine through a reading program or even putting in some volunteer honors.

Overdue fines were eliminated on youth accounts a few years ago to great success. The San Jose Public Library’s “Fine-Free Wave Tour” is rolling on this month and next month at all 25 library locations.

TEACHER’S AIDES: This past Sunday may have been the best day that Esther Bono has had in a while. The Trace Elementary teacher’s South San Jose home was badly damaged in a brush fire in late August, and then that night, burglars pawed through the house’s remains to steal jewelry and anything else they could find while the home was red-tagged.

But during Sunday’s Viva CalleSJ — the popular event when roads are closed to cars and open to bikes, skaters and walkers — some of her first-grade students set up a lemonade stand in the Rose Garden neighborhood near the school to raise money for their beleaguered teacher.

Olivia Zazueta and her friends worked hard during the event, raising more than $3,000 by selling lemonade and cookies to people walking and riding by her parents’ house on Naglee Avenue.

“This is the nicest gesture anyone has done. I just couldn’t believe it,” said Bono, who had some lemonade and posed for photos with the generous students. “These kids are the real heroes.”

A GoFundMe campaign to help Bono’s family — including her husband and three children under 12 — also has raised $17,000.

Coincidentally, this isn’t Bono’s first fire experience. In 2010, her first year teaching at Trace, a fire destroyed the school, including her new classroom and all her supplies.

HISTORY MAKERS: A stylish crowd packed into the Mexican Heritage Plaza in East San Jose on Saturday night to join La Raza Historical Society of Santa Clara Valley for its third annual awards dinner, honoring four community leaders who have contributed to the history of Latinos in the valley.

The honorees were Conxión To Community CEO Rose Amador; Albert Camarillo, a professor emeritus of history at Stanford University; Bob Nuñez, co-chair of La Raza Roundtable de California and a former East Side Union High School District superintendent; and Olga Talamante, vice chair of the board for the Chicano Latina Foundation.

Among the people in attendance were Santa Clara County Supervisors Cindy Chavez and Sylvia Arenas, Santa Clara University Professor Emeritus Francisco Jimenez, La Raza Historical Society co-founder Fernando Zazueta, former state Assembly member Joe Coto, Morgan Hill Assistant City Manager Edith Ramirez, and Bert Garcia, who was the publisher of El Excentrico magazine.

“It’s really important to realize we have a rich history,” said Jesus Orosco , president and executive director of La Raza Historical Society. “We’re here to celebrate both being una familia and we’re also here to recognize some of the people who have achieved great things in our community. … The four people that we honor tonight are proof that ‘sí, se puede.’ ”

REMEMBERING 9/11: The Veterans Memorial & Support Foundation will host a tribute in Los Gatos to remember and honor survivors, victims and heroes of 9/11 on Wednesday, the 23rd anniversary of the horrific terrorist attacks. The ceremony will start at 8 a.m. at the Flame of Liberty Memorial at 110 E. Main St., and the public is welcome to gather on the Los Gatos Civic Center Lawn.

Todd Beamer and Mark Bingham, two of the heroes of Flight 93 on that fateful morning, were from Los Gatos and are honored on the Flame of Liberty Memorial. You can get more details on the event on the foundation’s website, honoravet.org.

A remembrance event will also take place at Oak Hill Memorial Park in San Jose on Wednesday, starting at 10 a.m. Retired U.S. Army Col. Ray Watts will speak, and violinists will play “The Star-Spangled Banner” and “God Bless America.” Wreaths will be placed for victims and survivors, including Capt. Jason Dahl, the pilot of Flight 93 and a San Jose native whose remains are buried at Oak Hill.