Community

WIth winter kicking in and dangerously low temperatures Gilroy has been offering refuge to hundreds of cold and hungry people.

The holiday season is no holiday for Ed Battaglia and his family—it’s the time they work the hardest.

Stabbing

The Gilroy Foundation has many reasons to be proud, but watching Don Christopher take the stage of the Mission City Ballroom at the Santa Clara Convention Center last Friday was a special moment in the Foundation’s 35-year history.

GILROY—Members of Christopher High School’s Interact Club weren’t sure of the response they would get when they gave up their weekends and sat outside Nob Hill market in Gilroy to collect food for needy people.

Concert for New Music Venue

Gilroy residents touted the importance of diversified urban design, fostering cultural vitality, and attracting economic investment at the city’s second community meeting Tuesday to discuss planning for the city’s high-speed rail station.

There’s an attraction bringing hundreds of tourists to Gilroy, but Gilroy residents aren’t supposed to go there.

Elementary school students have a music program thanks to one Gilroy Hall of Fame honoree.Christopher High has a stunning new athletic complex thanks to another.One man filled the city with flowers and new breeds of seeds, and the fourth helped resolve one of the city’s messiest environmental problems and bring Gilroy Gardens to the city.Don Christopher, Dale Connell, Glenn Goldsmith, and Bob Kraemer were inducted into the Gilroy Hall of Fame on Saturday, the first honorees since the Chamber of Commerce suspended the annual awards in 1994.The awards’ “short break” ended with the pile driver-like persistence of Bob Dyer, 82, of R.J. Dyer Real Property Investments, Inc., who wanted the city to recognize “people who worked hard and spent the time to make Gilroy a better place.”Mike Sanchez cele-brated the rebirth saying: “Some would say, ‘not bad for down at the end of Silicon Valley.’ I would prefer to say, ‘well done, Gilroy, well done.’”Don Christopher, founder of the nation’s top family garlic producer and co-founder of the Garlic Festival, donated the land on which Christopher High School was built and provided money to construct its new athletic complex.He was inspired to donate after seeing the school’s subpar athletic facilities, said Gilroy Foundation executive director Donna Pray, who introduced him.Christopher also served on the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Advisory Board and the County Planning Commission.“Don Christopher is a man who demonstrated his commitment to his neighbors and their shared community with consistency and purpose,” Pray said.Dale Connell was remembered as an ardent supporter of public education. A former president of the Gilroy Unified School District and a teacher himself, Connell donated $1.1 million to the district for music education.“Dale knew that it’s important that children learn not just with books but with instruments,” said Kurt Michielssen, a senior executive at Pinnacle Bank.Larry Connell accepted the award on behalf of his father, who passed away in 2013, and honored his philanthro-pic legacy. “When I was a couple years out of college, I had the idea that as a son it was my duty to climb a little bit higher than Dad climbed,” Connell said. “By the time I got past 35 I realized I wasn’t doing it. And at 81 I’m not sure I even came up to his bootstraps.”Glenn Goldsmith was honored for his philanthropy and generosity towardhis employees. The founder of Goldsmith Seeds (now Syngenta Flowers), a multinational flower breeder, he began the annual Rotary Flower Sale, which raises up to $50,000 for the Gilroy Rotary Club’s charities, said his son, Joel Goldsmith. Goldsmith operated a plant in Guatemala that employed thousands of workers. After learning that many employees at the facility were going without health care, Goldsmith built a clinic on site. He also provided eyewear.The younger Goldsmith recalled accom-panying his father to the country, where he learned how deep Glenn’s compassion ran. They witnessed blind children begging on the streets, and Glenn Goldsmith explained that their mothers had blinded them to make them more sympathetic.“When he said that, he did not say it with judgment or contempt,” Joel Goldsmith said. “He said it with empathy and sympathy for somebody who thought maiming their child was the best way to get ahead in life. It illustrates how he sees the world.”Glenn Goldsmith had a shock when he was alerted to a mistaken article by Jack Foley in the Dispatch that said he was deceased. Emcee Mark Turner couldn’t resist quoting Mark Twain’s famous line that reports of his own death had been “greatly exaggerated.”Goldsmith added: “I had to show up. I had to tell them I’m alive.”Bob Kraemer, a decorated Vietnam veteran, scout master and the first Mr. Garlic, was remembered as a selfless and unwavering problem solver.During an environmental scandal involving Gilroy officials and the city’s major agricultural companies, Kraemer set aside finger-pointing in favor of finding a solution, said Jay Baksa, former city administrator. Kraemer, who sat on the committee overseeing the agricultural industry, brought Gilroy’s four major agricultural companies together and led a coordinated response to help resolve the crisis.“What we learned about Bob at that time was, if there was a problem—and especially if it was a hard problem—get Bob Kraemer involved,” Baksa said.Former Gilroy mayor Al Pinheiro, who met Kraemer when they both worked at Gilroy Foods, praised Kraemer’s devotion to serving others.“There was no ‘in it for Bob’ kind of thing,” said Pinheiro. “It was all about the reasons why he got involved, whether it was the school district for the kidsor whether it was some other project. It wasn’t about Bob, it was about making a difference.”

St. Joseph’s Family Center has an ambitious plan to help struggling families this holiday season by serving turkey dinners to thousands of hungry people.But there’s a big bump in the road: South County’s largest food distribution agency only has 16 turkeys in its freezers.“We need turkeys desperately,” said Vicky Martin, the donation and pantry coordinator. “I’m a little nervous right now because Thanksgiving is creeping upon us quickly and with only 16 turkeys, our freezers are completely empty.”Usually, people or companies pull up to the entrance at 7950 Church St. from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and drop off needed food. This year, donations have slowed, perhaps because people think the economy is doing better. But in Gilroy, the need is higher than ever, said Martin.“It’s winter. You have extra expenses in the winter anyway and it’s predicted to be an El Niño year, so a lot of our migrant families and agriculture workers will be out of work during the rain.”St. Joseph’s, which serves thousands of Gilroy residents from its Church Street center, includes among its service programs transit passes for the homeless, help with employment for those looking to apply for a job, hot meals for the homeless, and a food pantry for both families and individuals.Every Monday it serves 600 families healthy produce, with no questions asked. Anyone who needs food can line up and get it. The pantry also stocks eggs, milk, bread and canned goods.The center is one of about 300 agencies supplied by the Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara and San Mateo counties. St. Joseph’s asks for donations of non-perishable snack foods, fresh produce, and unprepared meats year round. For the holiday season, the center asks for turkeys, yams, and stuffing.Martin has seen slow beginnings to the donation season before and watched things pick up, but this year she’s really worried. She says she may have to buy turkeys for the first time.The agency has a tiny workforce compared to other food charities,” Martin added. It is one of the largest organizations in the county for distribution, but has only nine employees. Other, smaller agencies have 30-80 employees. Gilroy volunteers make up the difference.St. Joseph’s, like many community outreach centers that serve low-income households and the homeless, also asks for clothing, blankets and sleeping bags. Tents and tarps, used by the homeless to protect themselves from cold weather, are in especially high demand, Martin said