By the time Chamber of Commerce 2013 Woman of the Year Cricket Rubino and her husband Michael “retired” from the Live Oak Emerald Regime in 1998 – more than 25 years after the couple helped establish the marching band – she knew so many people in Morgan Hill that she couldn’t avoid being involved in the community.
Among her most recent, most notable contributions are her role, along with fellow Morgan Hill resident John Tarvin, in setting up the weekly BINGO fundraiser for the Friends of the Morgan Hill Senior Center, which takes place Tuesdays at the Community and Cultural Center. The fundraiser reliably draws large crowds and boasts about 40 volunteers, Rubino, 66, said in a recent interview.
A board member of Leadership Morgan Hill, from which she graduated in 1999, Rubino was instrumental in bringing an offshoot of that program known as KidLead to Morgan Hill. The program recruits children between 10 and 18 and helps “hone their leadership skills at an early age,” she said.
And for the last 10 years Rubino has been a member of the board of directors for the Mount Madonna YMCA, which operates the Morgan Hill Senior Center and the Centennial Recreation Center in partnership with the City of Morgan Hill.
Rubino will be honored as the Woman of the Year at the Chamber’s annual “Celebrate” awards ceremony Saturday at the Community and Cultural Center in Morgan Hill.
Since she became a member of the Chamber – when she opened her business Claremont Executive Services in 1998 – Rubino has volunteered in numerous of that organization’s events, including the Taste of Morgan Hill and other downtown events. Her festival volunteerism expands outside the Chamber as well. She lends a hand at the Mushroom Mardi Gras and even the Gilroy Garlic Festival before.
“I sort of get into a lot of things,” Rubino humbly said.
Mount Madonna YMCA’s Executive Director Chris Ghione has known Rubino since he worked in the City’s recreation department more than three years ago. He credits Rubino for being instrumental in the YMCA’s annual giving campaign and taking the lead in fundraising efforts for the Senior Center. He describes Rubino as energetic and selfless.
“Cricket is one of those people who just does everything for everybody,” Ghione said. “She kind of puts her head down and gets it done, and she has a passion for supporting everything the Y does.”
Rubino has lived in Morgan Hill since 1970 – shortly after she met her husband, a Live Oak High graduate and the 1984 Man of the Year. The couple have two grown children.
She sees volunteering as a necessary way to give back to one’s community.
“That’s what makes a difference – people getting involved,” she said. “The more people that are involved, the better the community is going to be.”
