This summer time marked a milestone for Camp Hello-Sierra, a country former logging camp east of Sonora that has supplied out of doors adventures for greater than 55,000 Scouts from Santa Clara County over the a long time.
The Silicon Valley Monterey Bay Council of Scouting America, which bought 100 acres of the property from proprietor Ed Jenness for the kingly sum of $10 in 1949, marked the event with a reunion occasion in June and the ribbon-cutting of a brand new rifle vary in July.
“This is our 75th anniversary here at Hi-Sierra which has been very exciting,” Camp Director Bruce Lee mentioned, noting that greater than 200 folks attended the anniversary occasion, together with employees from the Nineteen Fifties by means of the ’80s. “It was really cool to see what these young Scouts who were staffing here in those years are doing today.”
The camp has advanced with the occasions, which is admittedly a really Silicon Valley factor. The Scouts — each girls and boys these days — sleep in previous Military-green canvas tents, collect round campfires and swim within the icy chilly water of the Tuolumne River, however in addition they be taught to make pottery, design video games, weld metallic and repel down a 50-foot climbing tower.
A four-year program, the Saga of Hello-Sierra, encourages return journeys as Scouts — and grownup leaders — obtain awards for participating in conservation and camp upkeep applications, in addition to studying new expertise and, properly, showering from time to time. In the event you’re questioning, I don’t have lifelong recollections of Camp Hello-Sierra myself, however I went up for per week each this July and final summer time with my son’s troop.
Michael Wilson, deputy scout govt with the Silicon Valley Monterey Bay Council, mentioned the camp started a change a few decade in the past because of profitable fundraising efforts to interchange previous buildings and add new ones.
“We’ve taken to heart that our camp was ‘lovingly consumed,’ as Phil Boyce from the Valley Foundation would say, and we’ve tried to take a small bite of that every year,” Wilson mentioned. “Every year, we’re doing something new.”
That’s included a brand new eating corridor, employees cabins, the climbing tower, an archery vary and the brand new rifle vary.
In July, Council Scout Govt Eric Tarbox was joined by donors Pepper Snyder and Gary Robinson, together with board members Mark Lazzarini and Todd Trekell, to dedicate the brand new rifle vary, which had been closely broken by heavy snowfall. A “cowboy action” taking pictures vary that was named after Snyder, the Sprig Electrical founder who was the honoree on the council’s Distinguished Citizen Occasion held at Levi’s Stadium.
The rifle vary itself has been named for Campbell native John Stephenson, who has been the vary teacher since 1981. Stephenson, who was visibly moved by seeing his identify on the brand new facility, says he first shot a firearm at Camp Hello-Sierra when he was a Scout in 1971 and takes his duty with taking pictures sports activities very severely.
“The most important thing we teach up here is safety,” he mentioned. “I don’t care if they can name the parts of a gun, if they remember those safety rules the rest of their lives, we’ve been a success in this program.”
And the camp’s evolution isn’t over but. An new observatory was underneath building this summer time and households obtained their first have a look at it throughout a Labor Day weekend camp.
“It’s been a very busy year of getting things done,” Lee mentioned.
SACRED HEART AT 60: Sacred Coronary heart Group Service will likely be celebrating its 60 years of offering a social security web for San Jose’s neediest residents at a gala occasion Sept. 28 on the Corinthian Occasion Heart in downtown San Jose.
Sacred Coronary heart’s roots return to 1964 and a girl named Louise Benson, who started making meals at her West San Jose residence for the hungry and later began accumulating objects like child garments and furnishings to offer these in want. (Benson, who died in 1986, additionally based Martha’s Kitchen to offer scorching meals). It turned a full-fledged nonprofit in 1972, discovered a house at Sacred Coronary heart Church on Willow Avenue in 1984 and moved into its present headquarters at First and Alma streets in San Jose in 1998.
The company offers companies to greater than 60,000 folks a yr, and Govt Director Poncho Guevara informed me this week that like many different social companies companies within the valley, Sacred Coronary heart has seen demand for its companies skyrocket for the reason that pandemic whereas donations and federal funding (tied to COVID-19) has been reducing the final couple years.
The anniversary gala will embrace performances by poet Mighty Mike McGee, singer Amy D and the San Jose Jazz Youth Orchestra. Buy tickets at bit.ly/SHCSLegacy.
NEW FACE ON CAMPUS: Evergreen Valley School in San Jose held a reception Monday to welcome Vinicio J. López because the neighborhood faculty’s ninth president. López, a first-generation faculty pupil who attended neighborhood faculty himself, most lately served as vice chairman of instruction at Skyline School in San Bruno.
BRING ON THE BEER: It’s September, which suggests it’s time for Oktoberfest celebrations within the South Bay and elsewhere, and Gordon Biersch founder Dan Gordon is including somewhat New Orleans taste to this yr’s historically German celebration on the San Jose brewery Sept. 28.
Which means the meals will embrace po’ boys and jambalaya (from Poor Home Bistro) together with German sausages and Bavarian pretzels, and the leisure will embrace music from the Creole Bells, Mike Rinta and the Left Coast Syncopaters. After all, there’ll nonetheless be the standard stein-holding competitions and lederhosen modeling.
Admission to the occasion is free — the beer and meals aren’t — to the celebration, which runs from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. at he brewery at 375 E. Taylor St. in Japantown.
