Community

The Garlic Festival wasn’t the only thing stinking up Gilroy last week. Smoke carried over from the Soberanes fire near Big Sur filled the streets of Gilroy. The smoke was so thick at times that it obstructed the view of the hills southwest of town.

This is a story about an engine, Gilroy E47, and firefighters.

Don’t take off your dancing shoes just yet. Fifth Street Live will continue downtown through the month of August.

For 29 years, they’ve known him all over the world as Mr. Garlic, the happy, healthy ambassador of Gilroy’s annual homage to the bulbous beauty of the stinking rose.

Though the festival is a wrap, garlic is making headlines as the prime ingredient in Gilroy Garlic Fries, now available at McDonald’s restaurants throughout the Bay Area.

The Gilroy Police Department was out in full force Tuesday evening for National Night Out, an annual event that promotes police-community partnerships and neighborhood camaraderie to make communities safer, better places to live.

Tuesday at Gilroy Rotary, The Long Riders gave a wonderful presentation. The Long Riders Hepatitis C Project was created by Vic Ferrari, a HCV survivor, Frank Collison, an actor, and Steven Ferrari, Vic’s brother. They will ride the entire 2,650 mile Pacific Crest Trail on horseback from Mexico to Canada. The mission of The Long Riders is to educate, inspire, and empower those who are suffering from Hepatitis C to get tested, treated and cured. They have partnered with the HCV community and formed an advisory board of Dennis Simon, the Founder and Secretary/Treasurer of the Hepatitis C Association and managing partner of Help.4.Hep, a non profit peer-to-peer help line with counselors; Ryan Clary, Executive Director, National Viral Hepatitis Roundtable (NVHP); Wayne Gosbee, Founder, Linkage to Health, Inc. Emalie Huriaux, Direct of Federal & State Affairs for Project Inform. They’d like to raise funds to increase testing since 75 percent of patients don’t know they have the disease. They’ve created “Miles Per Test” program. Every mile ridden, they will raise funds to get 20 more people tested. Each test is $25 a test and their goal is 53,000 people. For more informationwww.longriders.org.

The first thing to catch your eye when you walk into the showroom of Checkered Flag Classics might be the sleek 1966 Corvette, or that yellow-with-orange-flames paint job on the 1940 Ford pickup, but the second thing is bound to be the price tag.

Fresh off multiple events that drew thousands to downtown Gilroy, a group of Silicon Valley tastemakers descended on the district Monday to walk back alleys and discuss opportunities while excitement runs high.

If ever there were a saint of abandoned and feral cats, it might well be Jill Rowlette.