Published in the December 9 – 22, 2015 issue of Morgan Hill Life

From left, Home Instead employees Trina Fournier, Jennifer McLain, Jamie Morgan, Ingrid Rodriguez, Aireen Strong, Uly Dana, and owners Brian and Trina Jackson.

From left, Home Instead employees Trina Fournier, Jennifer McLain, Jamie Morgan, Ingrid Rodriguez, Aireen Strong, Uly Dana, and owners Brian and Trina Jackson.

Robert Airoldi

Robert Airoldi

For most Morgan Hill residents, the holidays are a time to gather with friends and family, celebrate, reflect on the past and plan for the future. Many seniors, however, don’t look forward to the holiday season with that same anticipation. To that end, for the past nine years, Home Instead Senior Care’s “Be a Santa to a Senior” program has helped provide 1.2 million gifts to more than 700,000 seniors.

Locally, the program targets seniors who might be living alone and not likely to get gifts during the holidays. A tree is set up at the Starbuck’s on Walnut Grove Avenue just off Dunne Avenue.

Those willing to give can select an ornament from the tree that has a senior’s name and their desired gift. They can purchase the gift and bring it to the Aging Resource Center, where it will be delivered to the facility where the senior resides and given to them on Christmas day.

Local Girl Scouts will help wrap the hundreds of gifts and volunteers will help deliver the gifts.
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On Friday Dec. 11, Family Giving Tree, a local Bay Area nonprofit, will officially launch its 25th annual Holiday Wish Drive. Each year, Family Giving Tree conducts two drives: a Back-to-School Drive and Holiday Wish Drive. Serving more than 100,000 underserved children and individuals this year, Family Giving Tree will provide supply-filled backpacks to K-12 Bay Area students living below the federal poverty line and fulfill the gift wishes of children who might otherwise go without during the holidays.

This year, Family Giving Tree has a goal of fulfilling the holiday gift-wishes of 75,000 of the Bay Area’s most underserved, which include many families here in Morgan Hill.

The nonprofit works with more than 500 other nonprofits in an effort to bring joy to children and individuals living below the federal poverty line. In Morgan Hill, a few of the agencies that receive donations include The Boys & Girls Clubs of Silicon Valley-El Toro and Morgan Hill Unified School District-Migrant Program.

For information on Family Giving Tree’s annual Holiday Wish Drive visit: www.familygivingtree.org.

It’s great to see so many of our local nonprofits, agencies and businesses step up this time of year to help those less fortunate.
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Don and Beverly Jensen in front of their damaged home.

Don and Beverly Jensen in front of their damaged home.

Don and Beverly Jensen got quite a surprise when a massive oak tree limb fell onto their downtown home last month, damaging a corner of it. Beverly and child were evacuated from the residence, which is located on E. Fifth and Monterey streets. The huge limb cracked off a 60-foot, 350-year-old Valley Oak tree and crashed onto a 1904 historic home. The limb disconnected a line between a power pole and the home. Glad to hear no injuries were reported and no other homes were damaged.

The Santa Clara Valley Water District received applications from 21 people interested in filling the District 1 board seat left vacant when Dennis Kennedy stepped down last month due to health reason. The potential field of water district trustees are: Rolando R. Alvarado, Charlie Andrews, Joseph Carrillo (a Morgan Hill resident), Joe Cassibba, Rich Constantine (a city of Morgan Hill council-member), Jeffrey R. Cristina, Tom Cruz, Jenny Derry, James Dill (a Morgan Hill training and education consultant), Joe Eisenman, Carol Fredrickson, Erin Gil (who owns of Grass Farm based in Morgan Hill), John Haniotis, Trina Hineser (the president of the San Martin Neighborhood Alliance), Fernando Huerta, Sr. (a Morgan Hill Realtor), John B. Perez, Laura F. Quemada, Ken Ragghanti, Glenn Stansbury, John L. Varela (a former mayor of Morgan Hill), Forrest Williams.

The SCVWD board has until Jan. 4 to select a new member.

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California Attorney General Kamala Harris on Dec. 3 gave her provisional consent to let BlueMountain Capital Management invest in the financially troubled Daughters of Charity Health System, which runs Saint Louise Regional Hospital in Gilroy that serves the South Valley. The deal is the largest hospital transaction in California history.