Kaiser Permanente Mt. View Gift Baskets raise big gift for Second Harvest

KP Mt. View Medical Office raises more than $2800 from Annual Silent Auction

            Kaiser Permanente’s Dr. Amanda Lam had a secret strategy in mind to snag one of the charity gift baskets which were on display at the KP Mountain View Medical Office.  But she didn’t reveal what her strategy  is, or which basket she’d be bidding on: a wine refrigerator? A yet-to-be released Apple iPad? A basket of healthy accessories?

            Such was the bounty at this year’s Gift Basket Silent Auction for a Mountain View non-profit, held at Kaiser’s Medical Office on Castro Street.  For many years now, each department at the office has competed to come up with the most lavish basket of goodies. The baskets then get wrapped up and go on display outside the administrative offices.  Doctors, nurses, and staff look over the baskets, buy  $2.00 tickets, and deposit them in a container in front of the gift they want to win.

            “Last year, we raised more than $2,000,” says Pat Carpenter, the administrator of Kaiser  Permanente’s Mountain View Medical Office.  “The money went to the Community Health Awareness Council of Mountain View. “

            Carpenter says this year’s non-profit will be The Second Harvest Food Bank.  The gift baskets coincide with Kaiser Permanente’s national Community Giving Campaign, where KP’s nearly 200,000 employees in the US are being encouraged to donate to charities and non-profits. 

            At KP Mountain View, however, the fund-raising  has definitely taken on a whole new attitude. For example, the pharmacy department created a “health basket,” complete with pedometer, iPod Shuffle for musical accompaniment to your exercise, headache and sunblock remedies and more.

            The health education department came up with a basket  that offered a high-tech wine storage refrigerator.  Unfortunately, the basket only contained a photo: the refrigerator was too big to fit into a  basket.

            This year’s most unusual gift basket is one that hasn’t even been released yet. The Department of  Medicine at Kaiser Permanente Mountain View  offered a brand new Apple iPad  “mini”, which apparently won’t be in stores until late in November.

            While Dr. Lam didn’t reveal her basket choice (or strategy), she did stand for a while next to the  pharmacy department’s healthy exercise basket.

            “This year’s Gift Basket Silent Auction netted more than $2800 for the Second Harvest Food Bank,:” Pat Carpenter announced. And that will make a lot of meals for needy people in the community.