Florence Barker's moment always comes during Valle Monte League's holiday fashion show. Escorted by two towering male models, the 4-foot-11-inch grandmother blows kisses from one end of the runway to the other.

One year, dressed as the Queen Mum in a tiara, flanked by models dressed as palace guards, she mimicked the royal wave. Another year, during the "I'm in the Mood For Love" segment, she wore a full-length floral negligee and flounced a feather boa between the bare-chested models wearing nothing but silk drawstring pajama bottoms.

Tuesday, the first day of the Christmas Tree Elegance week of fashion shows, brunches, teas and balls, the 80-something tiny dynamo will take to the runway again. And the nearly 5,000 people who gather in the DoubleTree Hotel San Jose's ballroom will surely erupt in applause, as they always do. The affection from the crowds is a tribute to Barker, the matriarch who helped found one of the longest-running charity events in Silicon Valley.

"She's such a good sport. Backstage, she says, 'I don't know why they want me to do this again this year,' but she goes out on the runway and the crowd goes wild," said Lani Dorff, who works for Family & Children Services, one of the event's primary beneficiaries.

"I think extraordinary people give from the heart. And that's what Florence does. She gives from the heart."

This year, Christmas Tree Elegance is celebrating its 40th year. Barker started the event in 1968  when she was a young mother and wife committed to raising money for the often-forgotten mentally ill. The event that began as a ladies coffee for $3.75 a person has raised $7.5 million for local mental health agencies since its inception.

Unlike other charitable events that couldn't withstand economic downturns, including the Silicon Valley Charity Ball that was canceled last year after the dot-com bust, Christmas Tree Elegance has survived and thrived.

As much as Barker has been an inspiring force behind Christmas Tree Elegance, the women of Valle Monte - 150 volunteers strong - have been her savior as well.

It began after Barker, Enide Allison and Betty Roffinella Darian arranged a trip to San Bernardino to get ideas from organizers of a little-known Christmas tree charity party there. But only Barker - who was so afraid to fly that she took the train - arrived. Her friends were fogged in in San Francisco. When she returned to San Jose, she called a meeting of the fledgling Valle Monte League, an outgrowth of the Tre Monte League that tried to save a clinic for the mentally ill in the hills of Los Gatos.

Barker laid out the plan. Raffling off decorated Christmas trees piled high with donated presents seemed like a great way to kick off the holidays and add spice to the standard dinner-dance fundraisers.

Barker was quickly elected president. But just before her first meeting, her husband, Ed Barker, who owned KLOK radio in San Jose, died of lymphoma. The couple met while she was the station's office manager and had a 9-year-old son.

"I was torn apart," Barker recalls. "I was ready to resign from the world."

But her friends from Valle Monte rallied around her. One of them, Fran Snyder, insisted, despite Barker's objections, that she take her seat at the head of the table. Barker started well enough. But when the secretary read a tribute to Barker's husband, she burst into tears.

"I thought someone would pick up the gavel and take it," Barker recalled.

But Snyder held everyone back. "They just let me cry it out," she said.

During the next 40 years, Barker sat on every committee. Only this year did she step down as head of the finance committee - although she still calls on a list of big donors.

"It has saved my life in a lot of ways," Barker said.

Christmas Tree Elegance quickly outgrew McCabe Hall at the old civic center in downtown San Jose as well as the Hyatt Hotel on First Street. It moved to the DoubleTree, where it has been held for the past two decades.

Valle Monte is a purely volunteer organization. The 150 women get the job done from their kitchen tables and borrowed board rooms. President Ingela Butters has given up management of her interior design business to lead the organization this year.

The group has been successful in attracting new generations of smart young women who learn quickly that membership is less about throwing lavish parties and mostly about raising money - more of it every year.

"We're always looking for new revenue streams," from silent auctions to donation drawings to ornament sales, said Heidi Bonneau, co-chairwoman of Christmas Tree Elegance this year.

Tuesday, if all goes according to plan, Barker will be ready for her close-up.

"I probably look silly doing it with all those beautiful tall girls," Barker said. "But I just take it as something I have to do. If they ask me to do it, I'm doing it."

Barker already has been fitted and styled by Macy's in San Francisco, which produces the fashion show every year.

"We're going to make sure she looks fabulous on the runway," said Natalie Smith, Macy's special production manager. "She's eager. She's ready."