Celebrating Morgan Hill’s top crop – the Mushroom – is not the main purpose of the Mardi Gras Festival. The real reason for all the fungus-eating and fun-making is money. The festival is a non-profit organization with every dollar above and beyond the cost of putting on the festival going into the scholarship fund, as well as providing donations to non-profit clubs and organizations who participate in the festival.
The festival, originally founded by Brad Spencer, fire chief, was originally planned to provide fundraising for the Morgan Hill Fire Department. Once funding was no longer necessary for the Fire Department, the festival was then used to provide scholarships to local high school seniors and support other local non-profit organizations.
For the past 20 years, the Mushroom Mardi Gras Committee has issued more than $500,000 in scholarship funds to hundreds of deserving students. Each year the committee receives more than 190 scholarship applications. Because of the success of last year’s festival and the generous support of many sponsors, the committee has approved an increase in scholarship funds to be awarded this year from $1000 to $1500 for each student.
This year’s scholarship recipients are: Hilary Anderson, Nick Bonfiglio, Breanne Campbell, Devin Collins, Annalise Curley, Mark Curtis, Alan Dronek, Jessie Henry, Lisa Herrera, Jamie Hickey, Elaine Liu, Dustin Muhn, Mark Pimental, Arvin Parades, Tiffany Shyuan, Steven Silveira, Mary Sullivan, Qiao Zhao. We will also be awarding scholarships for the Morgan Hill Adult School and Central High School, for a total of $30,000 in scholarships to be awarded this year.
The festival is also important to many local non-profit clubs and organizations that use the festival for their fundraising efforts. Last year, more than $10,000 was donated to organizations for their participation in the festival. Priority is also given to non-profit groups for booth space, to help raise money for their causes.
For a list of past scholarship or non-profit organizations that have benefited from the proceeds of the Morgan Hill Mushroom Mardi Gras Festival, please contact the Mushroom Mardi Gras office at 408.778.1786 or email [email protected].
