Around Town … with Robert Airoldi: Gilroy man wins prestigious ‘Jimmy V Award’ for his work with youth
Robert Mendez
Congratulations to Gilroy resident Rob Mendez, who won the Jimmy V Award for perseverance at the ESPY Awards in Los Angeles July 10. Mendez, who was born without arms and legs, delivered an inspiring speech in front of an audience filled with a world-renown athletes.
The award is named after late North Carolina State men’s basketball coach Jim Valvano, who died of cancer in 1993. Mendez is entering his second season as the Prospect High School junior varsity football coach.
“If there’s any message I want to give you guys tonight, it’s to look at me and see how much passion I put into coaching and how far it’s gotten me,” he told the audience. “When you dedicate yourself to something and open your mind to different possibilities and focus on what you can do instead of what you can’t do, you really can go places in this world.”
Want to enjoy a once-in-a-lifetime meal and help benefit the Miller Red Barn? Café Bologna, a world-renown Italian Restaurant will serve a feast of traditional recipes from the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy. Seven young cooks will travel from Bologna, Italy, to Gilroy to prepare a sumptuous dinner for you and your guests.
The evening will begin at 5:30 p.m. with award-winning local wines, an antipasto platter of Italian cheeses, specialty deli meats, olives, and more, as well as a game of bocce ball on a private court.
During your special evening you’ll enjoy Italian music. Following the game, your Maitre d’hotel (Sam Bozzo) will escort you to your private dining room, and the feast will begin. You will enjoy homemade pasta and Ragu sauce (the recipe is a family secret), a hearty main course and dessert, prepared under the watchful eye of chef de cuisine (Judy Bozzo). All are paired with outstanding wines. All you need to do is visit www.themillerredbarn.org/events and bid. The current bid, as of July 19 is $1,200, a screaming deal at that price! All funds raised go to the Miller Red Barn Community Education Center.
Sometimes karma takes time to manifest, then there are times when it comes quickly. I’ll give you an example. My wife, Kathryn, lost her phone on the way from our wedding to the reception July 7. She didn’t realize she’d lost it until after the reception. We searched high and low that night and the next day without luck.
On Tuesday, July 9, she got an email from a friend who told her someone may have found her phone. Well, it turns out a woman walking her dog at the intersection of Pole Line Road and Highway 152 (we got married at Mt. Madonna County Park) had found her phone.
When she eventually got a hold of Kathryn, she said she’d be glad to return it to her. One problem, though. She was moving to Hollister that day. How beneficial for us since we’d just moved to Hollister a month ago. Turns out she lives five minutes from us and we’ve become friends.
So, where does the karma come in?
On July 4, while walking down Main Avenue after the parade, we found a cell phone on the sidewalk. We were lucky enough to get a hold of one of the contacts in the phone and returned it to the owner who was backtracking looking for his phone.
He asked if there was anything he could do for us. I told him, no thanks, “I just hope that if I ever lose my phone someone would do the same for me.” Good karma came just a few days later.
And, we made a wonderful new friend in our new hometown.
