GILROY
– The tens of thousands of hours that Garlic Festival volunteers
spent toiling in the hot July sun will pay off to the tune of
$263,000 for local organizations.
GILROY – The tens of thousands of hours that Garlic Festival volunteers spent toiling in the hot July sun will pay off to the tune of $263,000 for local organizations.
While revenue from the 25th Annual Garlic Festival is expected to be on par with last year’s total, the festival association is giving back $27,000 more to the 162 community organizations – mostly from Gilroy – that helped run the festival.
“That’s a large amount,” said Richard Nicholls, executive director of the Garlic Festival Association. ”That’s right up there with some of the biggest payoffs we’ve been able to make.”
About 4,000 volunteers worked this year, which is the same amount as in 2002, but they logged slightly fewer hours. Volunteers dedicated just over 41,000 hours this summer but last year 43,447.
“We kept to our budgets this year and we really watched our manpower,” 2003 Festival President Janie Mardesich said. “We wanted to make sure we had adequate coverage, but just to make sure we monitored it. The (volunteer) hours were slightly reduced, so we were able to give them a higher payout.”
