Community

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Come out and see what’s growing in the garden.

Santa Clara County is poised to become the eighth largest onsite power generator in the United States with the approval of six new sites for solar power systems, including one at Holden Ranch in Morgan Hill.

Some overnight to early morning wet weather in and around South County produced a little more than half inch of rainfall over the past 24 hours in the Morgan Hill-Gilroy area, according to Meteorologist Roger Gass with the National Weather Service.

Any opportunity to raise money for the Morgan Hill Community Foundation and its 10 partnering organizations is always welcomed with open arms—and that is certainly the case with the Silicon Valley Gives 24-hour online philanthropy telethon.

With the theme, “The Art of Music,” the El Toro Culture & Arts Committee and the City of Morgan Hill’s Recreation and Community Service Department are putting on the ART a la carte Children’s Arts & Crafts Fair 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. April 25 at the Morgan Hill Community and Cultural Center (17000 Monterey Road).

Forty-five members of the Morgan Hill Zen Doodle Club decorated 72 10-inch wood tiles with various images as part of the Downtown Art Zen Doodle Project, which is currently on display for the next six months at the Third Street Promenade in Downtown Morgan Hill. The project was funded through a grant from the City of Morgan Hill’s Placemaking Mini-Grant Art Program, which offered small grants of $500 to $10,000 for artists and community groups interested in engaging with the downtown in a creative manner. Co-chairs Sandra Dunie and Nancy Domnauer organized the art undertaking with a theme of “Healthy Living In Morgan Hill.” The local club is a group of community members, ages ranging from 7 to 70 years old, who meet monthly to enjoy zen doodling, a meditative drawing art form.

Nathan Zullig of Boy Scout with Troop 792 in Gilroy completed his Eagle Scout project March 25. For his project, Zullig built a sign for the rear entrance to Galvan Park, located on Crest Avenue in Morgan Hill. The project consisted of about 56 hours of work to build the sign by hand. 

Just over 239 years ago—on March 24, 1776 to be exact—members of the Juan Bautista de Anza expedition stopped in Morgan Hill on their way up the coast in search of an inland supply route from Mexico to northern California.On March 28, 2015, the California State Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, along with scores of local and regional dignitaries and descendants of the de Anza family, gathered at the campsite on the banks of Llagas Creek to celebrate the expedition’s 240th anniversary.The CSSDAR and Morgan Hill Historical Society placed a permanent marker at the de Anza expedition campsite, which is located on an unoccupied property owned by the city of Morgan Hill. The site is now bound by the Woodland Estates Mobile Home Park, Llagas Creek and Santa Teresa Boulevard.The de Anza expedition started with a party of 240 men, women and children in Tubac, Mexico Oct. 23, 1775, according to CSSDAR Regent Sally Holcombe, who participated in the March 28 ceremony and monument unveiling. Under the leadership of Colonel Juan Bautista de Anza, the purpose of the expedition was not only to establish a supply route up the continent; it was also to establish new grounds for future settlements and enable the colonization of California.While the families concluded the expedition at Monterey, California March 22, 1776, Anza continued north with a company of 12 soldiers, Holcombe continued. Two days later they camped near what is now Santa Teresa Boulevard in Morgan Hill. From there, the band traveled up the San Francisco Peninsula and back south.During the trip, the Anza expedition selected settlement sites for what later became the city of San Jose, Mission Santa Clara and Mission Dolores (both in what is now San Francisco) as well as the San Francisco Presidio. The families that traveled with Anza settled throughout California, and the descendants of these early colonial families remain in the state, Holcombe said.Some of these descendants attended the March 28 monument ceremony in Morgan Hill.Helping CSSDAR secure the Anza expedition campsite as a historical site and placing the granite marker were the city of Morgan Hill, the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Morgan Hill Historical Society and Woodland Estates, Holcombe noted.

Local children got a chance to meet a real live Easter bunny, among other mascots of Sonrisa Stables’ equestrian team.