Morgan Hill Community Foundation will start new scholarship next year
Published in the Nov. 26 – Dec. 9, 2014 issue of Morgan Hill Life
By Staff Report
The Morgan Hill Youth Action Council receives an honor at the Philanthropy Night event.
A full house of guests filled the Morgan Hill Community and Cultural Center and enjoyed professional magic tricks and other entertainment at the 9th annual Philanthropy Night Nov. 14. The event was put on by the Morgan Hill Community Foundation to spotlight the people of various 18 local nonprofit organizations.
“We’ve had a lot of people say very nice things about (the gala),” said Amy Whelan, president of the foundation. “So I’d like to think that, all in all, people enjoyed it and found it not only fun but also it gave them a chance to say, wow, the scope of the things going on (in Morgan Hill) is really impressive.”
Whelan describes Philanthropy Night as a chance for the community foundation to honor many of the people who work hard with organization and inspire philanthropy and helping out in Morgan Hill.
“When you see the number of organizations that participated not only this year, but when you look back and see the last several years, you can see that philanthropy is front and center on this particular evening,” she said. “It’s a sentiment in a course of action that shows philanthropy is very alive and well in Morgan Hill. We can only do it because there are so many things to celebrate, not only with what the foundation does but with all the groups that participate.”
The event was first held at the Clos LaChance Winery as a lunch to honor volunteers of various nonprofit organization. It changed venues to the Community Center and continued as a lunch until 2011. In 2012, the foundation chose to celebrate its 10th anniversary with a $10,000 presentation of a check which went to Community Solutions.
“We just thought that for 2012 we’d make this an evening event so we could give away that grant in a very special setting,” Whelan said. “Once we had that event and we saw how successful it was and how complimentary people were for the evening format, we just figured that we’d go around and switch it all the way around. It just made sense to switch it from the lunch to the evening and it has proven quite a fun event.”
This year’s Philanthropy Night event had the theme of “Share the Magic.” The foundation hired magician David Gerrard to entertain guests with card tricks and mind-reading fun.
The foundation also announced at the event its kick-off of a new scholarship program it will start in 2015. Members of the scholarship committee will use the rest of the year to get ideas for the program and prepare an announcement in 2015 when details are available for Morgan Hill students to apply.
“I’m definitely grateful that people are responding to the community foundation’s efforts,” Whelan said. “We couldn’t pull off anything without community support. We’re looking forward to 2015 where we can continue on and expand and improve.”
