Blood drive to honor former Garlic Fest executive director

Gilroy
– Residents can give the gift of live in honor of the man who
put on the Garlic Festival for the past two decades.
A blood drive to celebrate Richard
”
Dick
”
Nicholls will be held July 2, what would have been the Garlic
Festival executive director’s 61st birthday.
By Lori Stuenkel

Gilroy – Residents can give the gift of live in honor of the man who put on the Garlic Festival for the past two decades.

A blood drive to celebrate Richard “Dick” Nicholls will be held July 2, what would have been the Garlic Festival executive director’s 61st birthday.

It was Nicholls himself who came up with the idea for a blood drive, said Larry Mickartz, who with wife J. Chris owns InfoPower Communications and visited Nicholls in the hospital earlier this month.

During their visit, Mickartz said he posed the question often asked when a friend or family member is admitted to the hospital: Is there anything we can do?

“He said, ‘I realized with all the operations and stuff how important it was to have blood’,” Mickartz said.

With Nicholls’ birthday approaching, the timing seemed appropriate to Nicholls, Mickartz said.

The American Cancer Society, Garlic Festival Association and Chamber of Commerce are sponsoring the five-hour event that will be held in the conference rooms at the festival and chamber offices, at 7473 Monterey St., between Fifth and Sixth streets.

A donation in Nicholls’ honor also can be made at community blood drives on two alternative days, July 14 and Aug. 11.

Times and locations should be available during the July 2 drive.

What: Blood drive in honor of Richard ‘Dick’ Nicholls

When: July 2, 9am to 2pm

Where: 7473 Monterey St.

Call Larry Mickartz at 848-6540. 

What: Gilroy blood drive

When: July 14, 1:30 to 6:30pm

Where: First Baptist Church, 8455 Wren Ave.

Call 1-800-GIVE-LIFE (1-800-448-3543)