Community

Morgan Hill resident Daniel Skeen is treating his neighbors and anyone who passes by with a spectacular light display this holiday season.Skeen’s outdoor Christmas lights display is located in the front yard of his home at 15475 Calle Enrique, in southwest Morgan Hill. From 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. every night, the display is on, with colors and designs flashing and changing shade in synchronization with local radio station 87.9 FM.Skeen has decorated his home in similar fashion for several years around this time. Each year, he mixes up the display with different moving parts or fixtures. This year’s show features snow and video décor.

Cecelia Ponzini couldn’t contain her excitement Dec. 16 as she welcomed scores of visitors into her home and showed off the rooms filled with giant plastic bags—decorated with a Christmas themed print—loaded with toys donated for local children.The gathering was both a celebration as well as a distribution operation to deliver the toys to Morgan Hill Unified School District elementary schools. Community leaders—including city councilmembers, MHUSD trustees and longtime volunteers—mingled in Ponzini’s living room of her southwest Morgan Hill home, eating hors d’oeuvres and socializing when they weren’t helping load the toys into waiting vehicles, one school at a time.This was the third annual toy drive organized by Ponzini and volunteers who support the Edward “Boss” Prado Foundation, which Ponzini founded and of which she is the executive director. The purpose of Ponzini’s toy drive is to keep donated toys in the community by making sure they are delivered strictly to schools that serve Morgan Hill families. All the new toys, clothing and other gifts were collected at various collection barrels around town in recent weeks.Ponzini said they were able to collect and donate about 125 toys for each MHUSD elementary school. And for the first time this year, the toy drive was able to donate 357 toys to the Mount Madonna YMCA for children in Gilroy.MHUSD Superintendent Steve Betando noted that Ponzini’s toy drive recognizes that the Morgan Hill community extends outside the city boundaries, as some of the district’s schools—such as Los Paseos in San Jose and San Martin Gwinn—are located outside town but are still benefitting from the charity effort.“This is an example of what this community is all about, (which is) people want to come together and make sure everybody has a great holiday,” Betando said.Los Paseos Elementary Principal Jenna Mittleton also attended Ponzini’s toy drive distribution party. She said the effort represents the “holiday spirit at its finest.”Ivonne Nash, Los Paseos’ Community Liaison, added that such charity is a “very powerful” gesture that makes her job easier.“It’s not a job; it’s just helping my community,” Nash said.The Prado Foundation also runs Cecelia’s Closet and Food Pantry, which is open year-round and offers clothing and other basic necessities for local underserved families. For more information about the Prado Foundation and the food pantry, visit edwardbossprado.org.

The holiday season is a busy one for Holly Horner, the Vice President of Operations for the local family-run toy store, Thinker Toys.

Former San Francisco 49er Randy Kirk will host his annual Kirk’s Kids Christmas Wish Drive from 5 to 9 p.m. Dec. 12 at The Box Seat, located at 15650 Vineyard Blvd.

The South Bay Regional Public Safety Training Consortium, which has been training public safety students and working professionals for more than two decades, will open at Gavilan College’s new Coyote Valley Educational Center at the start of the new year.

The Santa Clara Valley Water District’s board of directors laid the groundwork to sell off 60 acres of surplus land after unanimously following two of three recommendations introduced by its Homeless Encampment Ad Hoc Committee Nov. 22.

The season of giving is upon us and there are few better at spreading the holiday spirit that the “I Love Morgan Hill” outreach group headquartered through the local congregation Cathedral of Faith.

The 31st annual 2016 downtown Morgan Hill holiday parade and tree lighting attracted hundreds of visitors who helped welcome the Christmas season Dec. 3. The festivities were sponsored by the Kiwanis Club and the City of Morgan Hill.  

Two Morgan Hill Unified School District educators took to the video waves this week, producing a Youtube silent clip that depicted their plights as teachers trying to make due in one of the most expensive parts of the country.The video comes on the heels of the local teachers’ union’s ongoing contract negotiations with district leadership that have stalled to a point where a mediator has been brought in.A married couple and veteran teachers, Britton Middle School’s Tony Goble and Nordstrom Elementary School’s Anna Goble, held up cards telling their story from living with their parents to save money for a home, to using grandparents for free day care that they would otherwise not be able to afford.MHUSD and the Morgan Hill Federation of Teachers have a scheduled meeting in January with the mediator to attempt to work out a fair compensation agreement before the current contract expires at the end of the 2017-18 school year.

In an effort to award the community’s future leaders and give kids a chance to experience positive interactions with law enforcement, Morgan Hill Police will host the second annual Shop With A Cop event Dec. 13.Shop With A Cop awards local fourth graders from Morgan Hill Unified School District a $100 gift certificate to Target, and pairs them with a uniformed MHPD officer for a Dec. 13 shopping spree, which starts at 9 a.m. at the store at 1066 Cochrane Road.The event is hosted by the Morgan Hill Police Officers Association, and is funded by the organization’s annual golf tournament.Fourth grade teachers were asked to pick children to shop with a cop based on the following criteria: the student is an example to others and is a leader, self-motivated, self-disciplined and socially responsible.“This is an opportunity for the future leaders of our community to be awarded for their hard work and dedication to being role models,” the MHPOA’s statement reads. “More importantly, this is an opportunity for these children to have a positive interaction with a local police officer in order to foster better relations and change perceptions.”About 125 children will participate in the MHPOA Shop With A Cop event.