Community

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.

Mayor Steve Tate’s next “Coffee With The Mayor” will take place Saturday, April 22 at BookSmart in their new location near Condit Road and Dunne Avenue, east of the freeway (1295 E. Dunne Ave.). Tate’s guest will be recently elected Councilmember Rene Spring. The two officials will be available 9:30 to 11 a.m. (a half hour earlier than the usual time) to answer any questions residents may have, listen to citizens’ concerns or suggestions, and simply engage in conversation about the city in a casual, relaxed environment. Attendees are also welcome to just listen to the conversation, see what is on people’s minds, etc. as many Coffee With The Mayor regulars do. Tate will buy the coffee. There will also be a special bonus, as Councilmember Caitlin Jachimowicz will make an independent appearance at 11 a.m. BookSmart in conjunction with the local chapter of the AAUW.

While “pitchfests” are an increasingly popular way for the owners of Silicon Valley startup technologies to pull from a wealth of expertise and investor resources to get off the ground, no such event has ever been scheduled in Morgan Hill.Until now.On June 2, a group of South County investors and sponsors will host the “Disrupt Forum” at Specialized Bicycle Components. The theme of the pitchfest is “Innovation Goes Outside,” with a focus on pitches from companies with new ideas in the areas of sports, agri-business, environmental technology and others.Disrupt Forum is open to the public, with a full day of activities and networking scheduled, beginning at 9 a.m. Pitches, which must be submitted by April 21 to be considered in the pitchfest competition, will be judged by a panel of high-tech experts and investors, according to Tracy Hutcheson, one of the investors and a Silicon Valley high-tech veteran.The forum will also allow plenty of opportunities for startup owners to network with the experts and investors who know the ropes of how to succeed in the region’s competitive high-tech industry. Also on the schedule are speakers and discussion sessions, which will range from IoT (Internet of Things) to wearable sensors to Virtual Reality technology.But the Morgan Hill pitchfest will be much more than that, as organizers hope it will mark the beginning of an ongoing effort to bring more high-tech innovation to Morgan Hill and South County.“We intend to use this event as a beachhead to create a center of gravity shift to the South Bay to sponsor and grow an incubation community in Morgan Hill,” Hutcheson said. “We want tech to grow outward from the South Bay and establish a strong foothold here.”An “incubator” in Silicon Valley parlance is loosely defined as a company or group of small companies that helps even smaller startups gain a foothold by providing expertise, resources and services such as management training or office space.Morgan Hill City Councilman Rich Constantine said the Disrupt Forum and its long-term goals seem to align with the city’s ongoing efforts to attract more industry and commercial activity to town.In the short term, Constantine said he hopes the June 2 pitchfest will produce the “next Netflix,” which started as a tiny startup. Not only has Netflix ballooned into a multi-billion dollar company since it was founded in Los Gatos, but it has become an ingrained part of that community. Constantine said he would like to see something like that come out of the Disrupt Forum for Morgan Hill.Hutcheson noted the closest thing Morgan Hill has to Netflix is Specialized, which was founded and has grown into an international company here, thus making it an appropriate venue for the Disrupt Forum.But in the long run, Constantine thinks the forum and follow-up efforts will help attract more economic development to Morgan Hill.“Just getting interest in our industrial (properties) and being an integral part of Silicon Valley would be fantastic,” Constantine said.He added that Morgan Hill, with its abundance of farmland and sports facilities, could become a “playground” for new technologies that track physical activity, irrigation and related data.While incubators have become somewhat ubiquitous in Silicon Valley, no such community exists in Morgan Hill yet, Hutcheson said. The investors involved with the June 2 Disrupt Forum hope to change that.The ongoing effort to do so will include regular pitchfests and networking events similar to Disrupt Forum, potentially on a semi-annual basis, Hutcheson said.But there is already a deep pool of expertise and resources in Morgan Hill, where many high-tech executives make their home. “Let’s get them involved,” Hutcheson said.

As a registered nurse and fitness enthusiast, 40-year-old Morgan Hill resident Michelle Fithian never thought that she was at risk for a stroke and, even so, that she wouldn’t pick up on the symptoms if it ever happened to her.

The local nonprofit Edward “Boss” Prado Foundation announced its board of directors for 2017. Pictured seated in the front row are (left to right) board members Laura Escoto, Jennifer Tate, Prado Foundation CEO Cecelia Ponzini, CFO Melissa Santos and Secretary Connie Sue Murray. Standing in the back row are board members John Horner, Kathy Carrera, President Gary Ponzini, Vice President Steven Riley Prado, Betty Beach, Michelle McKay and Mayor Steve Tate.The Prado Foundation was founded by the Ponzinis in 2013 as a legacy to Cecelia’s son, Edward “Boss” Prado, who died at the age of 29. The foundation is built on Edward’s values of generosity, sensitivity and being a good neighbor, explains the foundation’s website at edwardbossprado.org. The foundation operates a number of programs that strive to preserve these values by helping those who are less fortunate. These include Cecelia’s Closet and Food Pantry on Peebles Avenue, Share The Runway prom dress donations, the No Child Goes Unfed school lunch program and others.For more information, visit the foundation’s website at edwardbossprado.org.