“Our 2023 awardees serve as a catalyst for us all,” says CEO of Chamber

Charles Weston is the 2023 Man of the Year and Mary Cortani is the 2023 Woman of the Year. Photo by Marty Cheek

By Robert Airoldi

Many Morgan Hill people, businesses and organizations make a difference in the South Valley.  The Chamber of Commerce will honor several of them as its 2023 Celebrate Award recipients at a March 12 gala at Guglielmo Winery.

“The 2023 awardees are a stellar reflection of inspiration and community engagement,” said Chamber President/CEO Nick Gaich. “With more than 350-plus awardees to date we are proud to recognize brilliance in the organizations and individuals proudly serving Morgan Hill.”

The winners are nominated by the community and selected by a voting committee made up of past winners.  The Celebrate Awards has been a legacy event for more than 67 years honoring those that have gone above and beyond for our community, he said.

Along with the traditional categories of Man, Woman, Student, Educator, Volunteer, Nonprofit Organization, Small Business and Large Business of the Year, and Special Merit Award, the chamber introduced a Legacy Award this year, given to an individual whose contributions have proven year after year to substantially influence positive change for the betterment of Morgan Hill.

“Our 2023 awardees serve as a catalyst for us all; reminding us of the strength and power of individuals, business, and nonprofits working in unison to create an unwavering force of inspiration, creativity, and commitment,” Gaich said.

For more information and to purchase tickets to the March 12 fundraiser and celebration – the theme of the evening is “Sip & Celebrate: A Vintage Garden Party” – visit tinyurl.com/43mae7ps.

Man of the Year – Charles Weston

2023 Man of the Year Charles Weston

Charles Weston, AIA, started volunteering early as a Boy Scout in Hollywood and then as an Eagle Scout. At 18 when his draft number came up as No. 11 he matriculated. He was told . . . when you are in the Army . . . don’t volunteer! But soon he volunteered to become a “shake and bake” Buck Sargent. Flying to Vietnam at 19 he did what was required and became both a combat engineer and a medic since there was a shortage. He then became a hero when he rescued a USO building filled with people from conflagration with his forklift earning the Soldier’s Medal for bravery. Years later he received the Carnegie Medal for bravery for yet another fire, in this case the rescue of a man from a burning car on Uvas Road.

Upon his return from Vietnam looking for relief and challenge he used his prodigious speed and strength to run fast and long in Poly Canyon at Cal Poly SLO where he studied architecture. His favored race then and now has been the marathon, a lifelong challenge. More than 50 years later he is still focused on qualifying for Boston if not every year at least in every new age group.

Developing relationships and community engagement has been the focus of his volunteerism. A life of volunteering as a planning commissioner, on multiple city committees, a stint as president of the Freedom Fest, working on a clinic and structural retrofitting a school in Haridwar, India and directing the Freedom Fest 5k and 1 mile run for the past 21 years led to his current focus and passion for the Veterans Run. The challenges of being a Vietnam Veteran and running came together eight years ago with the idea of staging a veterans run benefiting local veterans organizations. In his day job as principal at Weston Miles Architects, a company shared with his wife Lesley Miles, AIA, he ensures that all projects are designed and detailed with conscientiousness and care. He proved to be the person for the job when he and Lesley developed The Granary on Depot Street in downtown Morgan Hill. This year is the 20th anniversary of purchasing the derelict building and he reflects . . . ”What in the world were we thinking?”

His joy is to teach and work as a team sharing ideas and creative concepts with WMA staff, consultants and owners. His principal work, educational buildings is a practice that is always exciting with the opportunity to create positive change for children’s learning. You may see him driving a minivan . . . the shrimp mobile. With four grandchildren; June, Vera, Evie and Weston it is a necessity. Volunteer driver, baby walker and overall a wonderful grandfather, he balances life with business, family, (his daughter Alicia and husband Sam and Madeline and husband Colin all live close by) volunteerism and walking his dog, Spud.

Woman of the Year – Mary Cortani

Mary Cortani is the founder and executive director of Operation Freedom Paws (OFP) a nonprofit founded in 2010 that works tirelessly to train and partner service dogs with those in need. Mary is an Army veteran, Master Instructor of Canine Education, and AKC Canine Good Citizen Evaluator who saw a need in her community and built an organization and team that could serve that need.

Through her work with OFP, Mary empowers veterans, first responders, children and individuals with disabilities by pairing them with rescued dogs and teaching them to train those dogs to support their disabilities to regain their independence and engage in their communities. Mary and her team have helped more than 500 clients and their families at no cost to them, and have worked to reignite hope, heal families, and save lives.

Mary is also committed to educating and advocating on behalf of veterans and other individuals with disabilities. She is a children’s author, speaker, documentary consultant and participant in a John Hopkins research study. Beyond creating life-saving service dog teams, Mary and OFP have helped coordinate with first responders, shelters and clients during wildfire evacuations and provided COVID-19 relief for their community at a time when they too were struggling. Mary has been recognized for her work by being awarded a top CNN Hero Award, Coretta Scott King Award, Clara Barton Award, Frontline Hero during the veteran’s day game for the San Francisco 49ers and “Woman of the Year” for the 17th Senate District of California.

Small Business of the Year – Rosy’s at the Beach

Rosy’s at the Beach opened its doors in 1998 by Rosy Bergin and her husband Rich. During the 23 years Rosy’s has been serving up fresh fish and seafood in downtown Morgan Hill it has become a local hot spot full every day of regulars who love the food, atmosphere, and people. Rosy’s is ingrained in the community. Rosy never turns down an ask for gift cards to give away at local events or dinners to auction off in order to help raise funds for nonprofits. They also often provide free food for nonprofit meetings or events like the Wineries of Santa Clara Valley “Wine Week” and on opening nights at the South Valley Civic Theatre. The restaurant itself functions as a community space as well, opening its doors early to serve as a meeting space for local groups and nonprofits, providing free advertising space for community events, and allowing local artists to display and sell their art! This city loves Rosy and named her 2012’s Leadership Morgan Hill LEAD award for her continued leadership in the community.

 

Large Business of the Year – Specialized Bikes

Specialized Bikes, founded by Mike Sinyard, and has been operating in Morgan Hill since 1984. They are a company with global reach, employing nearing 1,500 people worldwide, but their home is Morgan Hill where they employ about 350 local residents.

They strive every day to promote healthy habits and exercise through their bike advocacy programs like Outride and People4Bikes. They also partner with the Morgan Hill Police Department, Boy Scouts of America, and Pony Baseball leagues to teach local youth about bike safety.

Specialized takes pride in their environmentally responsible manufacturing practices; using the best materials, sourcing responsibly, and recycling bike parts and batteries whenever possible. Specialized has also brought in a lot of tourism money by hosting the Amgen Tour of California, a televised bike race that showed off all the Morgan Hill has to offer to those interested in outdoor recreation.

Educator of the Year – Janelle Rotman

Janelle Rotman is a chemistry teacher at Ann Sobrato High School where she is known by her students for her innate ability to make science come to life and by her peers for her love of collaboration and passion for the job. Her work ethic is rooted in compassion and care for others, always prioritizing class culture and community.

She is passionate for supporting each and every student to ensure they have access to academic materials. She values collaboration and dynamic learning and will often reach out to other staff members to work together in improving the student experience on campus.

As the science department chair she works tirelessly to ensure they are using the best practice for the students. She led a staff wide discussion about equitable grading; she emphasizes the importance of collaboration in professional learning; and utilizes educational research sought through her own reading and training attendance in order to create professional development sessions for colleagues. Janelle is compassionate, patient, and supportive; an active listener who is always first to step up when someone needs help. Ms. Rotman will go above and beyond to ensure the success of staff and students alike.

 

Student of the Year – Emily Celallos

Emily Celallos

Emily Celallos is a senior at Ann Sobrato High School. She has a passion for life and is unafraid to take on what she needs to in order to accomplish her goals. Emily has a desire to connect her learning to her own world and has strong collaboration, critical thinking, and writing skills. She is confident and curious without being presumptuous; always humble in her pursuit of knowledge.

Emily is a dedicated leader on campus serving in ASB all four years of high school. She is currently the ASB Vice President and was the class president for both her sophomore and junior classes. She works closely with administrators and counselors on several fronts at Sobrato where student voices are needed. She is currently in her second year as a representative of Sobrato’s School Site Council, a body of teachers, students, and parents that meet monthly and serve as a governing body of the school. She also serves as a student representative on Sobrato’s Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) team, the Student Voices team, the LatinX Student Union, Bring Change to Mind Club, and Operation Smile.

Emily clearly has a drive for bettering her community and strives every day to do as much as she can in accomplishing that. This past summer Emily interned with Kaiser Permanente, helping her on her way to achieving her goal of entering the medical field where she will continue to serve and help wherever she can. She will be working her way toward this goal as a student of Stanford where she was just granted early admittance!”

Volunteer of the Year – Kathy Chavez Napoli

Kathy Chavez Napoli was born and raised in San Jose before moving to Morgan Hill in 1985 and spent much of her youth working the fields of San Jose and Morgan Hill with her family. She worked all through her time as a high school student and continued to work her way through college graduating from San Jose State University with a degree in education along with Lincoln Law School where she earned her Juris Doctor after attending night classes.

After graduating from college she taught elementary school and during the past 40 years her and her high-school sweetheart turned husband built a successful business together that created jobs for our community and built strong and lasting relationships with their customers.

Kathy gives back every chance she gets. She writes grants for the Morgan Hill Historical Society that help them to continue to preserve the history of our city as well as promote cultural events like the Mariachi Competition that Kathy heads up every year. She is a proud member of AAUW and helps organize their Wildflower Run and spread their mission of empowering women by speaking to the community about key issues like Missing Indigenous Women. She is also a member of Kiwanis Morgan Hill and the Morgan Hill Chamber of Commerce where she takes every opportunity she can to help the community through things like Rock the Mock. She is also now serving on the Board of Trustees for Gavilan Community College where she continues to put her passion for education to practice.

 

Special Merit Award – Morgan Hill Police Department

Celebrate 2023 Morgan Hill Police Department

The Morgan Hill community is proud of its police department who proactively prevent and solve crimes and build community partnerships that enhance quality of life for all our residents. Their honor, courage, commitment, leadership, and teamwork while always conducting themselves with the highest ethical standards does not go unnoticed and we want everyone to know how deserving the department is of the Special Merit Award.

Non-Profit of the Year – American Association of University Women (AAUW)

The American Association of University Women, founded in 1881, is a national nonprofit with more than 170,000 members that is dedicated to advancing gender equality and economic security to girls and women.

The Morgan Hill branch of AAUW formed in 1981 and to this day is one of the most active branches in the country. This past year they were recognized as a “National Five-Star Branch” for their outstanding display of alignment with the AAUW mission.

AAUW is an incredibly valued organization here in town best known for their beloved Wildflower Run, a 100 percent volunteer led event that uses all of its proceeds to fund the branches academic scholarships, community and leadership grants, and national AAUW programs and beyond that is a day the community looks forward to as a way to gather and give back.

AAUW also has several scholarship programs like the Tech Trek Scholarship that sends eight girls to a math and science camp at Stanford every year and the Leadership Morgan Hill Scholarship that pays for a woman from our community to be part of the Leadership program every year.

Members of AAUW partner with young girls in our community through their Young Women Leaders program and serve as mentors in leadership and community engagement. AAUW works hard to put their community grants to good use and this past year awarded $7,000 in grants to nine different local businesses, nonprofits, and schools for the betterment of the community as well as $5,000 in emergency grant money to Gavilian Community College benefitting students impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. AAUW is also a leader in public advocacy and run local candidate forums for every major election and speak to members of the community through things like their monthly educational programs held at the Morgan Hill Library and to schools about diversity, equality, and inclusion as well as climate education.

Legacy Award – Cecelia Ponzini

Cecelia Ponzini is the recipient of the inaugural Legacy award.

Cecelia and her foundation, The Edward Boss Prado Foundation have won more awards than we have room to list from multiple agencies throughout the region. Including in multiple categories from the Morgan Hill Chamber of Commerce as well as the city of Morgan Hill,  Santa Clara County, the 30th Assembly District, the State of California and multiple local agencies such as Kiwanis, AAUW, Gavilan Community College, the MHPD and MHFD to name but a few.

Even though we live in a wealthy area, many local families struggle with the issues of poverty and homelessness and it was Cecelia’s  vision  to create a local honest charity dedicated to serving children, adults and families in need with dignity. To date the Edward Boss Prado Foundation has served well more than 30,000 families. She has given out more than $200,000 in scholarships and manages more than 15 programs that serve the residents of Morgan Hill and neighboring communities providing food, clothing, toiletries and other necessities.

Cecelia and The Edward Boss Prado Foundation also provide financial contributions and other support to outside nonprofits and organizations, such as The Morgan Hill Chamber of Commerce, The Morgan Hill Boys and Girls Club, South County Compassion Center, Youth Alliance, Kiwanis, Rebekah’s Children’s Services, The Morgan Hill Unified School District, Magical Bridge Playground, and CARAS.

The foundation was started in Morgan Hill, but now many communities in South County including San Jose, Hollister, Gilroy and San Martin are the beneficiaries of her philanthropy. Cecelia works every day to ensure her programs serve those in need wherever she is able.