Dear Editor,
Before a packed and appreciative crowd on Jan. 28 at the Morgan Hill Community and Cultural Center, “Celebrate Morgan Hill” was approaching the climax of the evening, the recognition of 2012 Morgan Hill’s Man and Woman of the year.
Prior to this, everyone enjoyed the plaudits of this year’s Volunteer of the Year, Jan Dean; Student, Eunice Kim; Business, D.R. Domenichini Construction; and Educator, Dr. Steven Kinsella.
Mario Banuelos, the Man of the Year, was one of the early founders of the Morgan Hill Community Foundation, active in the various committees at St. Catherine Parish, as well as activities in several organizations championing Hispanic issues.
However, one of Mario’s prime objectives as shown by his active participation in Project Roadmap – an organization aiming to encourage local youth to aspire to a college education, and Teachers Aid Coalition, a group dedicated to helping students through offering their teachers needed classroom supplies – is to help public education thrive.
Woman of the Year, Loritta Bonfante Johnson, after hearing of her multitude of contribution, would not have thought possible unless she had a twin. These include being on the Board of the Live Oak Foundation, Morgan Hill Historical Society, Delta Kappa Gamma and the El Toro Youth Council.
However, like Mario, her forte appears to be promoting public education. She taught in the Morgan Hill Unified School District for almost 50 years. She was also voted Teacher of the year for Santa Clara County in 2007.
Like Mario, Loritta is also on the Board of Directors of Teachers Aid Coalition … This outstanding couple’s commonality, to the benefit of Morgan Hill, is their dedication to improving our local public education. It could easily be deduced that this year’s outstanding group of awardee’s could also stand behind Mario and Loritta in their efforts.
The public is invited to support local education by attending the Teachers Aid Coalition’s second annual, Chocolate & Wine for Valentines from 2 to 5 p.m. Saturday, at the Granary, 17500 Depot St. Tickets and information are available at BookSmart, Thinker Toys, and the offices of Jon Hatakeyama, DDS and Don Nguyen, DDS.
Jon Hatakeyama, Morgan Hill
