Published in the October 11 – October 24, 2017 Issue of Morgan Hill Life

Come December, there will be a giant slide down Nob Hill, a slide intended for you to whiz down on the seat of your pants.

The slide was omitted from the city of Morgan Hill’s plans for the new downtown park. The problem, of course, was money. Rotary Club of Morgan Hill decided not to let that happen. After all, the city’s three new parks will be the backyard for the vibrant new downtown and its many residents.

Six years ago, the club began socking away a chunk of its income from fundraisers and its permanent endowment. The vision was to save for a major gift to the community.

In September, club members handed the Morgan Hill City Council a check for $100,000. It guaranteed the construction of that really long slide, and aided pedestrian access to the park with the Rotary Peace Bridge.

Rotarians are excited about their major gift because it is the single largest gift in the club’s history (founded in 1955).

Six Rotary presidents set aside money in their annual budgets to create this gift, and then the club sifted through 14 proposals to choose what to fund. They debated among themselves: What would bring long lasting enjoyment to the most people? What can we make happen that won’t otherwise get funded?

Their answer was to offer embellishments for the city of Morgan Hill’s visionary new park system.

The 56-foot long, green plastic slide will come down the face of the downtown side of Nob Hill, the steep wooded hill adjacent to the town. The Rotary Slide will start below the big green water tank and descend in two segments, one faster and one slower. The landings of each slide will become observation platforms with spectacular eastern views of the downtown and the valley. The slide itself is set in a woodland area with walking trails.

The Rotary Peace Bridge is a 30-foot, metal span across West Little Llagas Creek and serves as the Second Street entry to the park. Rotarians named it their Peace Bridge, reflecting the international organization’s century of work to help bring about world peace through its humanitarian work.

Not that the kids will be thinking about world peace when they coax their parents onto the slide.

For those who have missed it, the city of Morgan Hill is constructing three new downtown parks:

  • The Nob Hill Trail Park, below the water tank, will include the slide.
  • The Downtown Creek Park, located west of the creek at the base of Nob Hill between Second and Third streets, includes the bridge.
  • The Railroad Park will be located at the corner of Depot and Third streets near the train station.

The official ribbon-cutting celebration for the slide is tentatively set for Dec. 2.

This gift and Rotary’s many other giving and scholarship programs are made possible by the Rotary Club of Morgan Hill Endowment. The Endowment started as a nonprofit charitable organization when a local family bequeathed their house to Rotary in 1992. Today the Endowment receives tax deductible donations from individuals, families, trusts, foundations, corporations and fundraising events. Every year the interest and dividends from the gifts are used for community projects.

Respected and knowledgeable local Rotarians serve on the board of directors that oversees the fund and maximizes the use of every dollar. These unpaid directors have held administrative expenses to less than 1 percent, thus returning 99 percent for philanthropic good.

The club has been able to do incredible good in this community because the community has believed in Rotary.

A piece of that good work is a brisk slide down Nob Hill with the kids.

Sherry Hemingway has lived in Morgan Hill for 17 years and been in Rotary for 15 years.