Each October, for more than 40 years, the Gilroy Garlic Festival Association distributed between $200,000-$300,000 to nonprofit organizations from proceeds earned at the annual July event. What some people may not recognize is the total amount of money raised at the festival by local groups was closer to $700,000.
In addition to the dollars that the association awarded directly to hundreds of local nonprofits, organizations like the Gilroy Chamber of Commerce, Gilroy Foundation, Gilroy Rotary, El Roble, Gilroy High girls basketball, and others separately earned hundreds of thousands of dollars as vendors. After five years without a proper festival, the total funds local nonprofits have gone without, or have had to replace, is approaching $3 million!
While fundraising is an extremely important part of why the festival is important to this community, there are many other benefits as well. Pride, camaraderie, community identity, volunteer opportunities for youth are other benefits. Leadership opportunities for people of all ages is another.
Small businesses benefit from the event also. Years ago, an economic impact report indicated that the Garlic Festival generated $6 million for the local economy per year.
There is a general consensus between local businesses, Gilroy Unified School District, the Garlic Festival Association and the majority of Gilroyrans, that the event is great for our town. For its part, the City of Gilroy fulfilled its role and responsibility to assure the event took place every year.
For years, there was always a sense of cooperation that existed between City Hall and paid staff at the Garlic Festival Association. They relied on each other in a cooperative manner to help overcome yearly challenges and achieve the common goal, a Garlic Festival.
In 2019, that cooperation changed. Certainly litigation and insurance challenges were expected, but not unusual in our society. The private sector mitigates these challenges routinely. While it is not easy, they don’t close their doors. If all businesses ceased operations because of legal and insurance issues, there would be no economy.
It is times like this that business acumen, cooperation, vision and creativity, matters most. In one word, it’s called leadership. With the collective experiences that exist from the people who live and work in this community, combined with the right leaders, we can overcome these challenges.
Knowing that a sense of cooperation did once exist between City Hall and the local nonprofit organizations of Gilroy, is why I have never stopped believing that we can return our festival to this community. I know we can do this!
In less than 30 days our community will be electing the leaders of Gilroy for the next four years and beyond. While our town has multiple problems to address, the newly electeds must finally direct city staff to work genuinely, collaboratively and transparently with the Garlic Festival Association and find a way to bring back this annual event!
Greg Bozzo
Gilroy
