Gilroy High School Latino Club spends weeks landscaping
course
Gilroy – For the first time in three years, residents have a chance to putt their way past redwood trees and rose bushes at a miniature golf course tucked out of view on scenic Hecker Pass. In addition to playing 36 holes, they have the chance to support a local youth group.
About 20 boys in the Gilroy High School Latinos Club spent recent weeks taming nature at the Bonfante Gardens miniature golf course.
The work involved 100 hours of trimming bushes, plucking weeds and removing several inches of dried leaves that had blanketed the course in the three years since it shut down for lack of funds.
The students’ efforts revealed a set of links unlike anywhere else.
Golfers at Bonfante Gardens won’t find pirate ships, windmills or cackling clown heads that spit back a masterful putt. Instead, a more serene setting of rocks, trees and natural slopes form the obstacles along the sprawling holes.
Restoring the site was no easy task, according to the club’s faculty adviser Jose Hernandez.
“The first time we went out there, we didn’t realize how much work it was going to be,” he said. “The first time we did two hours and we only finished one hole. Then the rain came and for about two weeks we kept cleaning the same area, but the course is now in good shape.”
In exchange for their volunteer service, park officials are allowing the students to hold a series of fundraisers at the course starting this evening, from 5 to 9pm. The funds will pay for college visits, scholarships, soccer tournaments, and just about anything else that will help the group’s 50 members succeed at GHS and beyond.
Greg Martinez, a member of the park’s board of directors, hopes that students will continue to maintain the area to benefit themselves and the rest of the community.
“Raising funds is always tough, but this is an easy thing to plug into,” he said. “As a nonprofit, this is a good use of the facilities to provide low-cost community activities for the kids.”
