GILROY—The family that volunteers together, stays together.
The brother-sister duo of Ryan and Nikki Dequin started volunteering at the Gilroy Garlic Festival with their respective sports teams in high school and are still at it today. Ryan is the chairman of the Gilroy Garlic Festival Association Tickets Committee—which Nikki worked with last year—while his sister is an assistant chairwoman for the Advisory Committee. To the Dequins, volunteering is second nature.
“Our parents have always been involved in stuff, so it’s just kind of engrained in us to give back to the community,” Nikki said.
But just because it comes naturally doesn’t mean it’s easy.
Since it’s her first year on the Advisory Committee, Nikki is still learning the ropes of her new role. A typical day for her consists of making sure things with the vendors are running smoothly and assisting with other areas as needed—including helping her brother with tickets.
“It’s nice to have somebody that kind of thinks like you and can be on the same wavelengths,” Ryan said. “We are brother and sister, so we kind of butt heads some times. It’s cool to just have a face that you can go to if there’s something going wrong or if you’re really upset or you need something taken care of. I can count on her and she can count on me.”
Ticket duty starts early, so Ryan has to arrive at Christmas Hill Park around 5:30 a.m. to get all the gates set up and manned with friendly faces to greet festival goers. Once the gates are open and garlic lovers start arriving, he’s responsible for clocking his volunteers in and out as well as resolving any issues that arise.
The Dequins work the festival from start to finish all three days with little rest in between. The days may be long, but they both agree it’s a small price to pay for what the festival does for the community.
Both Nikki and Ryan give back to Gilroy through coaching its local sports teams. Nikki is the head coach of the Gavilan College softball team, while Ryan shares the same duties for Christopher baseball. Their athletes, like those from numerous other sports teams, also volunteer their time at the festival and are rewarded with revenue distributions to help fund their teams.
“The festival committees, everybody that volunteers here, is amazing,” Nikki said. “It’s just a great organization to work for and work with. What we get back for our organizations is incredible. Over the last 35 years they’ve given $10 million back to the community which is amazing.”
“I think it’s the fact that we’re getting so many people together to put forth this festival and it goes back to all our kids—softball, baseball, basketball, water polo—is amazing,” Ryan added. “It all benefits all our kids, the coaching that we do and many different groups. To see it all come together is just awesome.”
