Community

The 57th Annual Morgan Hill Haru Matsuri Spring Festival and Taiko Expo will take place at 11 a.m. April 30 at the Morgan Hill Buddhist Community Center, which is located at 16450 Murphy Avenue.

U.S. military veterans on motorcycles with the Patriot Guard escorted one of their fallen brothers to funeral and burial services in Morgan Hill last week.Services for Richard Villalba took place April 21 in Morgan Hill. The funeral procession was escorted by the Patriot Guard riders from Lima Campagna Johnson Funeral Home on Monterey Road just north of town, to the funeral service at St. Catherine Parish, and then to the cemetery on Spring Avenue.Villalba served in the Army in the 1990s. His service included combat in the Persian Gulf. He died after a long battle with cancer, according to his brother George Moya, who traveled from Arizona to attend the services.“I was at the hospital when he passed,” Moya said. “It was a hard thing to watch.”But he added it was “awesome” to see not only familiar friends and family at the services, but also the veterans on motorcycles who came to escort their fellow soldier to his final resting place.“Family is the most important thing in life, and when it’s a veteran you need to pay respect all the way around,” Moya said.Villalba and his spouse Jake Navarette-Villalba are the owners of Salon NV. Moya said their business has “flourished” over the years.Patriot Guard Riders is a volunteer, nonprofit organization that “ensures dignity and respect at memorial services honoring fallen military heroes, first responders and honorably discharged veterans,” according to their website patriotguard.org. The group consists of mostly U.S. military veterans, who are also motorcyclists.The April 21 “mission” to escort Villalba’s remains and funeral procession was led by Patriot Guard Ride Captain Mark Zappa, a Gilroy resident.Morgan Hill resident Kirk Bertolet, also a Patriot Guard Rider, participated in the procession as well.

Bay Area author Laura Atkins, who co-wrote a new historical book centered around the 1940s Japanese Internment camps, will be on hand from 4 to 6 p.m. May 13 at BookSmart of Morgan Hill for an author reception and fundraiser event for the Morgan Hill Learning & Loving Center.

Scores of kids and their parents visited Trader Joe's Saturday, April 15 for an Easter egg hunt outside the grocery store. 

Local jazz saxophonist Howard Dietz was named a winner of the 2017 Yamaha Young Performing Artists Competition, which has honored promising 18 to 22-year-old artists every year since 1988, according to an April 17 announcement from YYPA organizers.

The City of Morgan Hill and community members will celebrate Earth Day with a free event April 20 at the Community and Cultural Center, 17000 Monterey Road. The event, which goes from 5:45 to 7 p.m., will feature fun and educational activities for kids and families, demonstrations and more. For questions or additional information, contact Tanya Carothers at (408) 763-5200 or [email protected]. 

The California High-Speed Rail Authority will host a series of local open house meetings in the coming weeks regarding the project’s “San Jose to Merced” section, which will pass through Morgan Hill and Gilroy.This section of the bullet train project is part of the first phase of the CHSRA system that will eventually carry passengers from San Francisco to Los Angeles. The 84-mile San Jose to Merced section will travel between stations in San Jose and Gilroy, according to a notice from HSRA.Upcoming open house meetings are intended to provide attendees with an update on the rail section’s environmental review process, which is scheduled to be complete in 2018, reads the notice. The meetings offer “an opportunity to ask questions and provide input regarding effects to the environment including biological resources, cultural resources, air quality, noise, community impacts, environmental justice and more.”In Gilroy, an open house meeting is scheduled for 5 to 8 p.m. April 18 at the I.F.D.E.S. Lodge of Gilroy, 250 Old Gilroy Street. In Morgan Hill, a similar meeting will take place 5 to 8 p.m. May 1 at the Community and Cultural Center, 17000 Monterey Road.Two more meetings are scheduled in San Jose (April 20) and Los Banos (April 25).The meetings will be identical in format and content.For more information, visit hsr.ca.gov. Or call (800) 455-8166 or email [email protected].

For a second time in recent months, a herd of demonstrators stood in protest outside the new U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Morgan Hill.

Local residents interested in becoming foster families for underage kittens attended an instructional clinic April 9 at the Santa Clara County Animal Control and Shelter facility in San Martin.