By Khalida Sarwari
Sunnyvale city officials are joining employees of a local semiconductor company for a bowling tournament in Cupertino this afternoon in what they hope will become an annual event to benefit city departments and local charities.
Jack Harding, president and CEO of the Sunnyvale-based semiconductor company eSilicon, had the idea for the tournament when Homestead Lanes, a bowling center in Cupertino, offered his company a day of free bowling.
The bowling center’s director of operations, Paul Foott, made the offer after hearing that eSilicon staff had given up their annual holiday party last year and had instead donated $5,000 to Sunnyvale’s Department of Public Safety.
The donation went toward the purchase of two new automatic electronic defibrillators.
Harding has donated an additional $1,000 to Sunnyvale’s Library Homework Center for Children.
The tournament will feature Harding and his leadership team against Sunnyvale Mayor Melinda Hamilton, Councilmen Ron Swegles and Dave Whittum and other city officials.
A trophy will be presented to the winning team, who will then go on to challenge another company to a bowling tournament next year.
The hope is that the company challenged next year will make a donation to a city department or a charity in the same way that eSilicon did.
Today’s tournament is taking place from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.