Take a look at the ground and enjoy the street art murals of Nacho Moya, a talented Morgan Hill artist.

Photo by Nacho Moya
Ignacio “Nacho” Moya painting one of 30 squares around town.

By Robert Airoldi

Robert Airoldi

Renaissance artistic genius Michelangelo painted on the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Morgan Hill artistic genius Ignacio “Nacho” Moya paints on the downtown Morgan Hill sidewalks.

If you happen to be strolling downtown Morgan Hill, take a look at the ground and enjoy the street art murals of this talented local artist. He was commissioned to paint 30 squares in various locations throughout town to promote the local merchants as well as South Valley wineries.

The project is expected to be finished by Christmas. The works sponsored by the Wineries of Santa Clara Valley Association feature wine bottles, glasses and grapes. They have QR code people can scan with their smartphones to find the nearest winery. Other murals show maps of the downtown with various businesses highlighted so visitors can easily find them.

“The maps are taking longer because there’s more details. The other ones are easier,” Moya said.

Former Mayor Steve Tate will be honored at the 2019 Cops & Robbers Ball

Former Morgan Hill Mayor Steve Tate has played a pivotal role in the construction of many of our community’s public buildings. One of his proudest achievements is the Morgan Hill Library, which opened in July 21, 2007 at 28,000 square feet, and was recently expanded.

A number of residents thought Tate should be recognized for all his work during 20 years serving the public. They proposed that the city council pass a resolution to rename the Morgan Hill Library to the Steve Tate Morgan Hill Library. Councilmembers voted 3-2 in favor of the resolution at the Dec. 2.

Roger and Janie Knopf, longtime civic advocates, sent Mayor Rich Constantine, councilmembers and the city staff a letter encouraging the name change. Yvonne Martinez Beltran and Rene Spring voted no.

“When Morgan Hill needed to rebuild our library, we turned to Steve Tate to create a budget and political plan to gain support and get the job done,” the letter read. “When the county’s library district needed to seek new funding, it was Steve Tate who stepped up and ran a countywide campaign to raise much-needed tax dollars to rebuild libraries across the county.”

Well done, Steve, for all the many years of civic leadership you provided

Let’s hear it for several local young people who have a goal to protect lungs.

Morgan Hill’s Warriors Against Vaping and E-Cigarettes team recently received a $3,500 Youth Action Project Grant from Breathe California and the Santa Clara County Public Health Department to create a campaign to increase teen awareness of the health dangers of vaping and tobacco use.

The WAVE team is a subcommittee of the city’s Youth Action Council. The Youth Action Project grant program is youth driven, youth led and supported by adult allies. It provides teens with the opportunity to share how vaping and tobacco impact their communities and highlight the disingenuous marketing strategies employed by vape and e-cigarette manufacturers to lure teens into vaping.

“We’re working daily to make an actual change within our schools to promote the health of the students within them. Many of us know through personal experience how dangerous the vaping epidemic is through our own schools,” said WAVE members Hassti Tirgardoon, Jorge Uribe, and Giselle Naranjo in a joint statement.

This grant will enable WAVE to purchase promotional giveaway items and provide support for various activities within the awareness campaign. Plans for the campaign include hosting virtual anti-vaping/tobacco awareness events addressing the reality of peer pressure and a variety of social media and virtual challenges that promote healthy competition among teens to engage in anti-vaping/tobacco activities, with the ultimate goal of getting teens to pledge not to vape. WAVE’s first virtual event will be held starting 6 p.m. Friday, Jan. 15, hosted through Zoom. For more information and to reserve your spot please contact YAC Advisor, Chiquy Mejia at [email protected]

“I’m proud of the WAVE subcommittee members for applying and being granted the Youth Action Project Grant from Breathe California and Santa Clara County Public Health,” Mejia said. “This will be a great opportunity for them to create and lead a peer-to peer online campaign to grow awareness of the danger of vaping and tobacco use”.

Photo by Marty Cheek
Starbucks employees and Gary Ponzini, with the Edward Boss Prado Foundation, set up a barrel in early December 2019 to collect canned food and toys for local families in need.

Let’s all be generous during this challenging Christmas season and bring some holiday cheer to boys and girls in need throughout South Valley.

The Edward Boss Prado Foundation is now holding its annual Toys 4 Our Own Christmas Toy Drive. Collection cans have been placed at various locations throughout the city including the Morgan Hill Chamber of Commerce office, Community Garage, Bike Therapy, Lin Engineering, Thinker Toys, Nick the Greek, Paramit, Toray, Caliber Collision, the Morgan Hill Police Department, Cherisse Richards White Hair Salon, Jubilee Bridge Church, Booksmart, Spark Networking Group, Heritage Bank, the three Cal Fire stations throughout the city, and Pinnacle Bank. For more information, visit www.edwardbossprado.org.