Business: Gilroy Chamber of Commerce honors the Spice of Life award winners

One Life Prints and Latino Family Fund among honorees for community involvement

By Kaylee Arca

Local dignitaries and leaders gathered at Fortino Winery Aug. 26 for the 70th annual Spice of Life Awards. The Gilroy Chamber of Commerce honored nine individuals and businesses for their dedication to the community.

Jayson Stebbins of Guild Mortgage guided the classy and cool evening with light-hearted jokes about audience members and local dignitaries, mainly poking fun at Man of the Year and Morgan Hill Mayor Mark Turner. He has a history of delivering long speeches, and Stebbins was jokingly dreading his inevitable long acceptance speech.

Among the honorees were One Life Prints and Latino Family Fund.

Travis Graham, CEO of One Life Prints, accepted the Small Business of the Year award. The company  offers customer apparel, screen printing, embroidery, vehicle wraps, and signs to businesses large and small.

He opened his speech with a light-hearted apology that he wanted to tell funny jokes, but he learned most of his jokes from Turner.

Graham shared how he was born and raised in Gilroy, but, “Like most youth and young adults, my dream was actually to get out of Gilroy.”

He started One Life Prints from his San Jose bedroom at 22. As a high school student, Graham created and printed his clothing brand. Friends started asking him to print and design other things, too. Once he started gaining customers, “my first big move was to rent a second bedroom in my rental home so I could stop working on my bed and next to the beer cans on the kitchen table,” he said.

From there, he opened his first shop on Alum Rock Avenue in San Jose. However, most customers didn’t go there for their own safety, he joked.

After a few years and increasing rent prices, he moved the business to his hometown. Now, One Life Prints has seven full-time employees and six times the shop space of the original office.

By focusing on customer service and professional relationships, Graham feels proud the business has grown to a seven-figure company, he said.

“I want to thank our Gilroy community for supporting us from day one,” he said. “Many companies in our industry struggled during the pandemic. Due to our relationships and loyal customers, we had record numbers in 2020 and 2021.”

He concluded his acceptance speech with one last joke.

“If you ever have any rush jobs, there are 50 other businesses in Santa Clara County,” he said. “So please, go to them.”

Rachel Perez, president of Latino Family Fund, accepted the Non-Profit of the Year Award.

The Latino Family Fund started in 2006 when 12 local families pooled their money to establish the donor-advised fund. The “Founding Families” created the fund to amplify community impact, create a philanthropic legacy to foster positive change in Gilroy.

“They had the desire to make equity in everything we do in the community,” she said. “They also had the foresight to think about working together with the diversity we have in our community, seeing that it’s a good thing and together we can solve all of the issues we have.”

Each year, 90 middle school students participate in the fund’s Youth in Philanthropy program. The population of Gilroy is 55 percent Latino, and participants research community needs and collectively award grants to impactful initiatives. This teaches students about philanthropy and nonprofits while helping their community.

“We’ve had some significant donors who’ve helped us along the way, since 2006,” Perez said.

She thanked the people who helped the Latino Family Fund prosper. South Valley Community Foundation provided seed money and continues to support the fund. The Gilroy Foundation has also mentored and supported the nonprofit. The Edward Boss Prado Foundation helped start the fund’s scholarship program. This year it will award $20,000 in scholarships to six students.