We were sitting at our normal Saturday morning spot, a table facing the entrance to the downtown Farmer’s Market. Scottie and I have enjoyed this opportunity to talk with local folk and their children, provide a hitching post for their dogs while they shop, and answer questions about our local shelter.

Along came an interesting couple: a beautiful young woman with big sunglasses and straw hat; her husband laden with large bags of fresh produce. They introduced themselves as JJ and Marco Graziano and asked what they could do to help.  Scottie and I immediately said, “Help us create a website?”

JJ grinned and said, “I can do that!”

And so commenced the most delightful journey for us as we began to work with this amazing woman who has proved to be the best friend anyone could have.

JJ was eager to learn WordPress, and she claimed that this work on our website was as much a benefit to her as to us. I hope that is true because there is no way our tiny budget at FoPAAS could have paid her for the hours she spent working on this project. What she created is so much more than any of us expected or hoped for that we hardly know how to express our gratitude.

We met with her frequently to ask questions and make suggestions, and she always listened to us carefully. Then, thanks to JJ’s magic, each thought or suggestion found itself magnified into a reality that was even better than we imagined.

Her husband Marco suggested she was suffering from OCD because as we neared our launch date JJ would postpone the big day—more than once—for one more tweak or another refinement.  Finally we received a message from her that said,

“After tossing 3 coins 6 times and looking up the I Ching, it tells us that our website is ready to go live. And according to Chinese Lunar Calendar, Tuesday Aug 20 is a good day to launch our site because it will bring us luck. (No… not true, I made it up.)”

How did we get lucky enough to find someone with that sense of fun and adventure?  And how grateful we are to call JJ and Marco Graziano our friends.  JJ has promised she will stay connected, nourishing our site and our organization, and we have tried to guarantee that by electing her to our Board of Directors. We look forward to an exciting future with these two wonderful people as we work together to increase the breadth and value of the offering FoPAAS makes to Palo Alto.

About the Author
Jeremy Lindston Robinson, our Vice President