October 22, 2004

Thousands attend District 8’s Day in the Park – A Multicultural Festival

Bea Baechle
Editor

If you live in Evergreen and have never made it to Day in the Park, A Multicultural Festival, you are missing out. Seldom do we have the opportunity to experience such a day of community and cultural pride.

The 6,000 to 8,000 people who attended this year’s event at Lake Cunningham on Saturday, Oct. 16, enjoyed live multicultural singing, dancing and entertainment on three stages, a free pumpkin patch, a free hot dog BBQ by the San Jose Firefighters, special children’s activities and entertainment, and a variety of ethnic foods.

Information on government, business and community resources abounded, with more than 100 booths set up to answer questions and greet the community. These booths ranged from El Observador hosting a health clinic and free diabetes testing to historical displays from Evergreen Valley College’s Evergreen Heritage Room. It was also the place to be if you were looking for a neighborhood association to represent your concerns.

San Jose’s Sister City Cultural Exhibits, presented by Central County Occupational Center’s Interior Design Class, included elaborate displays for San Jose’s sister cities in Okayama, Japan; San Jose, Costa Rica; Veracruz, Mexico; Tainan, Taiwan; Dublin, Ireland; Pune, India; and Ekaterinburg, Russia.

Great Clips for Hair at Evergreen Village proudly sponsored Locks of Love, a not-for-profit organization that provides children with a custom, vacuum-fitted hairpiece made entirely from donated human hair.

Locks of Love collected more than 200 inches of hair from 19 people who donated hair. In the past three years, more than 1,000 inches of hair have been raised at Day in the Park from about 90 people who either cut their hair that day or brought in hair.

This year’s grand prize winner Mannie Cabarloc won two roundtrip tickets to anywhere Southwest Airlines flies. Special thanks go to Southwest Airlines, which donated the tickets. Amanda Le won the first prize, a night in Downtown San Jose, donated by Hotel Montgomery/San Jose Improv.

Other lucky sweepstakes winners included Xiangxi Tan (Pasta Pomodoro gift certificate), Donn Sheperd, (Megabyte Pizza Gift Certificate), Amy Tran (Target gift certificate), Gladys Suares (Blockbuster gift certificate) and Michael Gabler (2 Great America tickets)

Day in the Park would not be possible without the generosity of these sponsors:

Gold Sponsors: San Jose Police Officers Association * Shapell Industries * CCOC Interior Design Class Wendy Yegge & Students * Albertsons * Evergreen Times

Silver Sponsors: Southwest Airlines * Barbaccia Properties * Berg & Berg Enterprises * Lion Business Park * KB Homes * Norcal Waste Systems * East Valley YMCA * Pepper Lane Properties * Safeway * Brookfield Bay Area * GlaxoSmithKline * COMCAST * Beshoff Motor Cars * Otto Environmental Systems * California Waste Solutions * Pacific Rim Science Park * San Jose Conservation Corps * McDonald’s

Bronze Sponsors: Hotel Montgomery * Barry Swenson Builder * William Lyon Homes, Inc. * Summerhill Homes * San Jose Water Co. * ROEM Corporation * Royal Neighbors of America * Morely Hunter Group * Santa Clara and San Benito Counties Building Trades Council * The Steinberg Group * Santa Clara Valley Water District * Applebee’s

Day in the Park Organizing Committee: Olga Bove * Rick Caton * David Cortese, Jr. * Jim Zito * Lillian Jones * Linda Thornton * Tiffany Thornton * Mita Dey * Akash Dey * Lily Tavassoli * Jack Salois * Adrianna Cota * Kerynn Gianotti * Fred Mulipola * Parminder Sandhu * Navjot Sandhu * Harpal Sandhu * Maylene Mulipola

Additional thanks to: City Manager’s Office, Department of General Services, District 8 Staff, Lake Cunningham Park, San Jose Firefighters, Mount Pleasant High School ROTC Department, Silver Creek High School Interact Club, Silver Creek High School ROTC Department, Oak Grove High School Senior Economics Classes and the many others who made this event a success.