Last weekend
’s Taste of Morgan Hill wasn’t only about food for the numerous
nonprofit and civic organizations that setup shop along Monterey
Road.
Last weekend’s Taste of Morgan Hill wasn’t only about food for the numerous nonprofit and civic organizations that setup shop along Monterey Road.
The weekend-long event provides the perfect opportunity for the organizations to spread the word about their cause and do some fundraising. Though many grasp the chance to earn some bucks, money isn’t the overriding reason for participating in the annual event – most use the chance to educate the public about their work.
“We’ve been part of the Taste of Morgan Hill since the beginning,” said Sue Howell, executive director of the Wildlife Education Rehabilitation Center of Morgan Hill. “We find it important sharing with the community the wildlife that lives in their backyard. We care for animals that can never be set free in the wild. They’re injured, sick, impaired and we do everything we can to get them back in the wild.”
WERC volunteers displayed animals like Loki, the 17-year-old Great Horned Owl, which Howell described as the city’s mascot, “an important part of the community who comes out to a lot of the events.”
They also brought along a 25-year-old gopher snake and a 10-year-old California King snake to the Taste, attracting the interest of young and old alike. The organization accepted donations, but their real purpose was to educate the public on the various animals and their habitat.
“It’s a tremendous amount of work transporting the animals and exhibiting them to the public, but it’s our way of giving back to the community,” Howell said.
The Morgan Hill Historical Society alsohad a booth, manned by members like Jamie Knopf, Sandy de la Cuesta and Ellie Weston. The trio’s mission was simple: Teach people Morgan Hill history. They said they received lots of interest about the old photos of Morgan Hill, the Morgan Hill House at 17860 Monterey Road, and inquiries about different properties in the area.
Morgan Hill Community Librarian Rosanne Macek, some members of her staff and the Friends of the Library also had a booth on Monterey Road with a rendering of the new library on display.
“A lot of people have stopped by asking questions about the new library and when it will open,” said Macek. She said the Taste is also a good opportunity to issue new library cards to people. Already, by late Saturday, Macek said they had issued about 200 new library cards.
In all, about 65 nonprofit and community groups were scattered throughout the Taste.
“It’s been so popular,” said Live Oak agriculture teacher Kendra Lewis, who was assisted by Future Farmers of America members like sophomore Jessica Brisendine at the petting zoo throughout Saturday. “People were already waiting for us to open at 9:30 this morning.”
This is the second year the FFA group has joined the Taste of Morgan Hill. By Saturday afternoon, Lewis estimated 500 people had visited the petting zoo, which featured farm animals of members – sheep, a pig, goats. Lewis said it’s a lot of work for the members to transport their animals during the two days and towards the end of the day, she noticed the animals were getting tired.
Of course, the Taste wasn’t to be without food and local organizations knew it provided a great chance to raise some coin for their causes.
Although they couldn’t estimate how much they had earned so far, Mike Smith of the Morgan Hill Knights of Columbus said by mid-Saturday afternoon he had already grilled 1,000 hot dogs. The organization raised money by selling hot dogs, nachos, soda and bottled water.
Other organizations like the American Association of University Women also took advantage of the crowds throughout the weekend.
Gloria Murray, Yvonne Duckett and Karen Kinsinger explained the annual Wildflower Run takes place in April and raises money for scholarships for high school girls who are interested in taking math and science in college, and female graduates of Gavilan College seeking to attend a four-year college.
“(The Taste) is a great marketing tool to make people aware of what we do,” said Murray.
