While watching the Grammy Awards on TV, the host made a big deal about nominating your favorite music teacher for the Music Educator of the Year Award and I thought about the retiring Gilroy Unified School District’s treasured teacher Phil Robb and how much beautiful music he has helped make through the years with all the choirs. The Grammy Music Educator Award is given “In recognition of the significant role of teachers in shaping their students’ musical experiences … and will be given out during Grammy Week 2014.” The nomination process is open and detailed at www.grammymusicteacher.com. Deadline for submissions is April 15 and the winner receives a $10,000 honorarium. What would be especially cool is if the GHS/CHS choir could sing back-up on stage at the Grammy Awards for one of the bands. Now that would be some swan song for a great retiring teacher.
Speaking of which, the front-page story today about teachers buying shoes, clothes and toothbrushes for students – in addition to school supplies – really made me think about what a wonderful event Morgan Hill has each year around Valentine’s Day. Through its Community Foundation and in concert with the Rotary Club and Teacher’s Aid Coalition, the “Valentine Fancy” party raised $8,000 this year for a school supply fund. That’s a good chunk for taking some of the financial burden off our teachers and it’s good for morale and community awareness. Bet Gilroy could do as well with a wine and chocolate event. Winery donations and donated appetizers from Gilroy restaurants could do it – and upstairs at Old City Hall or at the Elks would work.
Spot on are the early results from our web poll. If the city could build a parking structure that would serve downtown and the new library by building it on a lot the city already owns on Eigleberry Street, why wouldn’t it? A three-block walk, given good signage, would kill two birds with one stone AND facilitate people going to and from library to downtown and vice versa. If Gilroy really wants to revive downtown – and that’s a clearly stated goal from the recent Council retreat – then making common sense, downtown-supportive decisions is a must. Build it closer to downtown and they will come. They will come visit the Garlic City Cafe and see Gracie at Gilroy Antiques and wander into the Amoretto Boutique … and besides, there’s not enough parking near downtown now, so if all the vacant businesses fill up, the need will be a crying one and the city will be in a reactive position. Be pro-active, do it now with $5 million in library bond funds that can be put to use for the betterment of the whole community, otherwise Gilroy will be on the schneid again.
That’s what the SJ Sharks got off of Tuesday night, finally snapping a 7-game losing streak. “Schneid”, which in sports refers to a scoreless or winless streak, comes from the card game gin rummy. It’s a colorful German/Yiddish term for a cloth-cutting tailor and somehow that’s related to preventing a gin rummy opponent from scoring a point in a card game. Well, how about that for a haymaker.
Yeah, a haymaker … that’s what our very own Gilroyan Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero and his Golden Boy promoters landed by securing the fight against unbeaten Floyd “Money” Mayweather set for Saturday, May 4 in Lost Vegas. Just for ballpark purposes, understand that Mayweather was the world’s highest paid athlete in Forbes Magazine’s 2012 list with earnings of $85 million. He averaged $40 million per fight for the last three, and just signed a richly lucrative new, multi-fight deal with Showtime, jumping the HBO ship. There’s a whole lot of ka-ching riding on a Mayweather victory for the 36-year-old boxer. Can “The Ghost” take him out? It’s certainly possible, but he’ll have to record the fight of his life to beat “The Money Team” machine and wrest the World Boxing Council welterweight belt. Mayweather is 42-0 with 26 knockouts. By comparison, Guerrero is 29 years old and 31-1-1 with 18 knockouts. In his latest victory over former welterweight champ Andre Berto, “The Ghost” showed he’s reaching the pinnacle of his career recording a pair of impressive knockdowns in a rough-and-tumble match. A Guerrero win would be incredibly sweet, financially propelling and it would vault him into the title as Gilroy’s most revered athlete.
Maybe he’d be honored by the Rotary Club, too, up at the newly renovated Gilroy Elks Lodge on the Hill which I’m looking forward to seeing on Friday, March 1 at a community-come-take-a-look party. Mike Malinao will be acoustically performing and Dave “No Ghost, Great Host” Bozzo will be serving up appetizers. The renovation means 300 can be seated comfortably and there’s a new gazebo wedding structure with a beautiful view for those who want to go from vows to bar to dance floor in about 50 easy steps. Hopefully, the sharp Elks will hold back any price increases until all the local events come back home to the beautiful place on the hilltop that’s close for all Gilroyans to enjoy.
Reach Editor Mark Derry at ed****@ga****.com.
