CYCLISTS

BY CURT HENTSCHKE

It’s summer! If you’re like me, you’re crawling out of your soon-to-be-sunburnt-skin. Sure, you’re still riding, but you’ve totally missed the Tierra Bella, the I Care Classic, and your other favorite event rides. Fear not, CalBike is offering up its Dream Ride Summer Extravaganza on June 10-13. That means four days of self-guided scavenger hunts and other cycle challenges, all while raising funds and awareness for the California Bicycle Coalition.

Santa Cruz Mountains Challenge is going virtual this summer, while other seasonal favorites (like the Marin Century and Martinez’s Bike the Bridges & BrewFest) are moving to the fall, hoping that we’ll be further out of the pandemic by then.

I don’t have to tell you that summer also means that school’s out! Besides reminding you to watch out for more kids riding bikes, this is a perfect opportunity to give a huge, end-ofseason shout out to the South County Composite High School Mountain Bike Team, aka, the Coyotes! This grinding group of South County high schoolers just wrapped its second GROWING SKILLS The Coyotes, aka the South County Composite High School Mountain Bike Team, are shown with Coach Sean Fissel.

year in the NorCal High School Cycling League, the founding league in the National Interscholastic Cycling Association (NICA).

My “Coyote Connection” is their Level 1 Coach Sean Fissel. Sean tells me the team has done well this year, and that “…it’s been awesome to watch everyone’s skills and fitness levels grow throughout the season.” Sean also gives kudos and thanks to this year’s Head Coach Chris Hauge and to Team Director Doug Hall for helping everyone grow as riders and racers!

June 10-13: CalBike’s Dream Ride Summer Extravaganza, calbike.org Devil’s Slide Ride, Pacifica

Santa Cruz Mountains Challenge, Santa Cruz

Marin Century/Mt. Tam Double

Bike the Bridges & BrewFest, Martinez

Curt “Cycle Guy” Hentschke is a cyclist, seeker, song farmer and scribe. Send your cycle celebrations to heycycleguy@gmail.com.

Gary Palacios voted Volunteer of the Year, 2021! Gary Palacios is a real estate leader, CFO, and founder of The Palacios Group, the #1 real estate team in South County. Named “BEST Realtor of Morgan Hill” & “Volunteer of the Year” in Morgan Hill, he uses his 18 years of experience and over 432 million dollars in sales to help you achieve your goals.

For more information on Gary Palacios visit: GaryPalacios.com

For the past 10 years, Gary Palacios has been the man behind the scenes and the success of feeding, clothing and gifting holiday toys to thousands of people in need in Morgan Hill. He says that he “saw the need” early on during his time as Cathedral of Faith Morgan Hill’s Campus Pastor. After designing a monthly food donation program through the church, in 2012 Gary and volunteers began serving meals to those most in need. The program started out feeding 15 people and quickly grew to 75 thanks to Gary’s outreach efforts which also included the creation of a program at Village Avanti Apartments called “It’s a new day at the village,” providing hot meals, groceries and games to apartment residents. However, for Gary Palacios it wasn’t enough. With the help of Martha’s Kitchen and Cathedral of Faith, the initial food service program was relocated to the Community and Cultural Center where it quickly expanded to serve 500+ people every quarter. Gary created the popular “I Love Morgan Hill” social media page in 2010 encouraging the entire community to become involved and play a role in feeding and clothing those in need in Morgan Hill. Above and beyond the efforts listed above, Gary spearheads a “Summer Backpack and Hot Meal Drive” through “I Love Morgan Hill” and a “Family Harvest Meal,” in conjunction with Cathedral of Faith/Reaching Out/2nd Harvest Food Bank, the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of every month which feeds over 200 families. In 2019 during Christmastime alone, Gary’s program served 1,500 people with toys, jackets, a hot meal and a bag of groceries. He loves Morgan Hill and encourages our entire community to not only “see the need” but be a part of meeting it.

The Palacios Group 408.623.5209 | gary.palacios@compass.com thepalaciosgroup.com DRE 01396802