Generosity is at heart of Gilroy
We interrupt our regularly scheduled complaining about government institutions for a public announcement: Golden Hills Pony Club is holding a tack sale fundraiser today, July 21. Proceeds will benefit GHPC, a youth horsemanship organization, in particular defraying the costs of mounted lessons for our members.
The tack sale will be held at 15490 Carey Lane in San Martin. From Gilroy, go north on U.S. 101, east (or right) on San Martin Avenue, north (or left) on Foothill, right (or east) on Maple, north (or left) on Carey. Take a left at the Y onto the dirt road, and the yellow house will be on your right.
Sale items include saddles, show clothes, tall boots, horse blankets and sheets, grooming equipment, girths, halters, lead ropes, assorted bridle accessories, stirrups, saddle pads, leg wraps, galloping boots, Professional Choice neoprene splint boots (which sell for $75 new), many snaffle bits (in horse sizes), a few shipping wraps and some polo wraps.
Club members, ages 6 to 18, have been cleaning, mending, and pricing donated tack items for the past few weeks, and are looking forward to selling them.
Our local club, Golden Hills, is only three years old. Pony Club International has a long and hallowed history. The Pony Club Manual says, “Pony Club began in 1928 in Great Britain with 700 members. By 1992, there were more than 125,000 members in 27 countries, making it the largest junior equestrian organization in the world. … The program teaches riding, mounted sports, and care of horses and ponies …”
The core of Pony Club is volunteerism: parents, clubbers, and interested others working together for a common goal. In this, our new little club has meshed seamlessly into the fabric of life in Gilroy, which is marked by volunteerism at all levels.
We notice this aspect of life in Gilroy most during the last weekend of July, when our town puts on the world renowned Garlic Festival. Among others too numerous to mention, the Chamber of Commerce pours beer, the Elks cook, the Rotarians sell wine, South Valley Community Church parks cars, the Gators swim team picks up garbage. We hold a three-day hot, happy, stinking party, then divvy up the proceeds to benefit our local charities.
But volunteerism goes on all year long. Illiterate adults are taught to read. Creeks are cleaned and steelhead are rescued. Children’s soccer and football and Little League teams are coached and refereed. Plays are produced. Art shows are exhibited. Students are tutored. Poor families are fed.
People donate their time, their money, even their blood to help others.
Right now, one national organization and one local organization are experiencing serious shortfalls. St. Joseph’s Family Center needs $100,000 to provide its usual level of services of food for the hungry, utilities for the poor, and the Ochoa Migrant Camp for homeless families this winter.
The sum of $100,000 is a tremendous amount of money… but if every family in Gilroy chipped in $10, the shortfall would be eliminated. The address is St. Joseph’s Family Center, 7950 Church St., Gilroy 95020.
The Red Cross experiences shortfalls in blood donations every summer as regular donors go on vacation. Call 1-800-GIVE-LIFE or go to www.BeADonor.com (code: GILROY) to find out about the next time the Blood Mobile will be in town.
Thirteen million Americans say they would donate blood, but they don’t understand the process. It is easy. You make the appointment. You walk in. You read some disclaimers. A nurse checks your vitals. You lie down. They stick a needle in your arm. It hurts less than stubbing your toe. You eat cookies and drink juice.
In 1835, Alexis de Toqueville wrote that in America, “When a private individual mediates an undertaking, however directly connected it may be with the welfare of society, he never thinks of soliciting the co-operation of the government; but he publishes his plan, offers to execute it, courts the assistance of other individuals, and struggles manfully against all obstacles. Undoubtedly he is often less successful than the state might have been in his position; but in the end the sum of these private undertakings far exceeds all that the government could have done.”
That is America. That is Gilroy. Happy volunteering!
Cynthia Anne Walker is a homeschooling mother of three and former engineer. She is a published independent author. Her column is published in The Dispatch every week.
