Around Town … with Robert Airoldi: Christopher Ranch awards $10,000 to Latino Family Fund for grants

Published in the February 6 – 19, 2019 issue of Gilroy Life

The 85 guests at the Latino Family Fund’s annual membership social at Fortino Winery Jan. 25 enjoyed a night of good food and wine — and an amazing announcement from garlic grower Christopher Ranch. The theme was Philanthropy, Leadership, and Advocacy, Ernesto Olivares, a founder of the nonprofit, told us.

The keynote speaker was Ken Christopher, grandson of Christopher Ranch founder Don Christopher. He definitely put the night’s theme into action.

“He spoke of the company’s philanthropic investment in our Gilroy community. He also discussed their employees, their well-being, and the garlic industry,” Olivares said. “Christopher Ranch awarded the Latino Family Fund $10,000 towards grant giving, programs, and endowment.”

Well done, Christopher Ranch, for your generous contribution.

And the generous spirit of Gilroy’s people keeps going, this time with the Gilroy Rotary Club. The group of givers distribute more than $50,000 through its Community Grants Program to local school groups and non-profit organizations Jan. 29, Rotarian Kirsten Carr told us.

“Through fundraising activities and individual contributions, the members of Gilroy Rotary provide crucial funds to ensure these programs are able to provide invaluable services to and for the Gilroy community, with a focus on education, youth, seniors, and local impact,” she said.

Since 1991, Gilroy Rotarians have distributed almost $1 million to address community needs. In addition to the grants program, the Gilroy Rotary supports the community through ShareLife Bone Marrow Registry, RotaCare clinic, Interact Club, and much more.

You do wonderful things for people, Gilroy Rotarians.

Watch out, Iron Chef Michael Symon. You’ve got some competition coming from Gilroy.

The celebrity chef who hosted the Garlic Showdown at last year’s Gilroy Garlic Festival will be impressed that this community is raising young people who love to cook. Six Gilroy Unified School District elementary school students were selected as finalists for the 2019 Future Chefs Competition, our friend Melanie Corona, public information officer with the district, told us recently.

The junior cooking competition will take place March 6 at Gilroy High School’s Student Union “to see whose ‘Fiesta Fit’ recipe will take the top prize,” she said.

The finalists are Kevin Carrillo of Eliot Elementary, Rayen Garcia of Rod Kelley Elementary, Sandra Martinez of Glen View Elementary, Myra Moniz of El Roble Elementary, Julia Finucane of El Roble Elementary, Michael Sament of Luigi Aprea Elementary, Jack Zukowski of Luigi Aprea Elementary and Tamara Grace of Rucker Elementary.

Go for it, kid cooks! And maybe someday we’ll see you on the Food Network — or even competing at the Garlic Showdown.

Gilroy resident Walt Glines sent us an email letting us know President Donald Trump has nominated Dan Bress, a Garlic City native, to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Quite a coup if he gets the gig and puts on the judge’s robe.

Currently a partner at Kirkland & Ellis, Bress served as a law clerk to Justice Antonin Scalia of the Supreme Court of the United States and Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. He has also served as a lecturer at the University of Virginia School of Law and the Columbus School of Law.

“Dan is the oldest of the four Bress boys, attended Rucker, South Valley and Gilroy High — and then Harvard,” Glines told us. “His mother, Rhoda Bress, was a longtime Gilroy Unified School District board trustee. Bress family members have been very active in school and the community.”

Former Morgan Hill Mayor Steve Tate’s many decades of community service in the South Valley will be honored when he receives the 2019 Leadership Excellence Award at a Guglielmo Winery gala July 20.

Tate is a board member of Boys and Girls Clubs of Silicon Valley, as well as a past board president of the Santa Clara County Library Joint Powers Authority, the Cities Association of Santa Clara County, and the Peninsula Division of the League of California Cities.

“I am honored to be selected for this award and look forward to a great celebration that supports the Leadership Morgan Hill program’s ongoing focus on excellence,” he said.

Congrats, Steve. And thanks for all you do to make South Valley great.