HEALTHY LIFE
HEALTHY LIFE MAGAZINE INSIDE THIS ISSUE
2018
HOLLISTER • SAN BENITO COUNTY
A SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT TO:
A New SV Media publication HealthyLifeCover.indd 1
Friday, March 2, 2018
2/19/18 3:14 PM
sanbenito.com • Vol. 145, No. 9 • $1
HEALTHY LIFE
HEALTHY LIFE
2018
MAGAZINE INSIDE THIS ISSUE
A SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT TO:
Crime laws may return for a vote once again HealthyLifeCover.indd 1
2/19/18 3:14 PM
MAYORS, POLICE CHIEF LEAD WAY IN SEEKING NEW PUBLIC VOTE Nicholas Preciado Reporter
Ed Wong
A statewide initiative to ask voters to change portions of three crime-related laws is picking up steam in Santa Clara County, and is soon expected to reach San Benito County. Over the last week and a half, both the Morgan Hill City Council and Gilroy City Council passed support resolutions for a Reducing Crime and Keeping California Safe Act of 2018, which would change portions of voterapproved Proposition 47 and 57, as well as Assembly
BALER CHEER Michael Hogg with his daughter Sharida Hogg and her escort Mikey Cruddas, both students in the
➝ New Prop, 4
Life Skills program at San Benito High School, are honored at one of many inclusion events on campus.
SB students share Life Skills
THE LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE OF SAN BENITO COUNTY
MARCH 2, 2018
A supplement to the Hollister Free Lance
OU T & CA LE AB OU T ND EV EN AR OF TS
SAN BENITO HIGH SCHOOL HAS VARIETY OF PROGRAMS FOR STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES
Christin Burda brings more than the bouquet
Falling for Flowers WINE PASSPORT P12 | ON SENIORS P16 | SNOWSHOEING P17
Inside this issue: Burda’s bouquets
Staff report
➝ Inclusion, 8
said Jim Brumfield, whose 14-acre horse ranch on San Juan Highway is a short walk from the site of the planned bridge. The riverbed crossing will be funded completely with federal money from the Federal Highway Administration's Toll Credit Highway Bridge Program, with construction slated for the spring of 2017. “The key to a better transportation
TURN TO BRIDGE • A8
LOOK FOR IT ON THE WEB
An advocacy organization that re college instructors across Califo symbolically walk out of the clas what they call a significant pay d
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the death of his 6-year-old son, who was a passenger in his father’s vehicle, according to police. About 5pm Feb. 25, authorities responded to a single-vehicle accident on McCloskey Road, just east of San Felipe Road. The Highway Patrol reported that Jesus Mora, 30, of Hollister, had been driving a GMC Sierra westbound on McCloskey
Road with two children in the front seat, when he drifted “completely off the roadway onto the dirt shoulder” of the roadway, according to a press release from the CHP Hollister-Gilroy area office. The driver lost control of the vehicle and slammed into a wooden utility pole. Police said Mora allegedly swerved off the
make his pizzas. In starting the business, he is also bringing a taste of his family’s home country to his family’s hometown in Hollister. The Felice family is from the Calabria part of Italy and has deep roots in San Benito County as well. With the opening of Forno, meanwhile, Hollister will once again
Five people—including a 6-year-old boy and an adult bicyclist—were killed in separate traffic
accidents in San Benito and Santa Clara counties in less than a week, according to the California Highway Patrol. Two of the accidents occurred Sunday, Feb. 25 in the Hollister area, and were reported less than an hour apart. One of these resulted in the arrest of an allegedly intoxicated driver on a homicide charge in connection with
TURN TO PIZZA • A8
SUSPECTED DRUNK DRIVER ACCUSED OF MURDER OF 6-YEAR-OLD SON
7
San Juan resident: ‘Like our own
****ECRWSS**** Residential Customer
PAID
accepting and inclusive of all students and created opening for opportunities that may not have been there otherwise,” Guerrero said. COF also hosts banquets, dances, movie nights, classroom ability awareness presentations and an anti-bullying assembly. “Since the inception of COF, teachers, administrators and students have reported an improvement in inclusion and
Cake, anyone?
program founded by Barbara Palilis, COF pairs students with developmental disabilities with non-disabled peers to make a connection, practice social skills in a natural environment and raise awareness and acceptance of others on campus. The club, now the largest on campus, has students meet at lunch once or twice a week and also use texting, phone calls and social media as they are able. “I believe it has made the campus culture more
The San Benito County chapter of the national nonprofit organization Birthday Cakes 4 Free started last spring and group members have been bringing cakes, cupcakes and muffins to low-income seniors and children ever since then. Since the group started in June, its members have delivered about five cakes a month to the Emmaus House, Chamberlain's Children Center and the assisted living facility Whispering Pines Inn. Now they're looking to expand to individual homes in the county. A2
The Circle of Friends program, piloted with 30 students in 2010 by Special Education Program Specialist and Department Chair Casandra Guerrero, has blossomed to include about 250 general education students supporting nearly 60 students with special needs. Based on the inclusion
Solar revisions
HOLLISTER CA. PERMIT #48
Circle of Friends
The company vying to build a 247-megawatt solar farm in Panoche submitted a draft supplemental environmental impact report addressing plans to examine impacts under a revised, reduced proposal. PV2 Energy filed the supplemental draft EIR on Dec. 23. The prior company overseeing the project, Solargen Energy, had an initial EIR approved by the county board in late 2010. A5
SPORTS
Project planned for Y Road
KATIE HELLAND •REPORTER khelland@freelancenews.com
HOLLISTER
A $16 million bridge stretching 900 feet across the San Benito River is planned to connect Y Road and San Juan Bautista. But in this rural area, the number of people it will serve is small. “It's like our own bridge to nowhere,”
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The programs are not mandated curriculum, but rather put in place by staff and/or students, according to Cobb.
Five killed in separate accidents
Michael Moore
6
Soph surge
Inclusion is more than an educational buzzword at San Benito High School, where students with special needs are not just included, but embraced and accepted, by their general education peers.
A year ago, Brad Sparrer was the No. 5 player in the lineup on San Benito High’s golf team. But entering the 2015 season—practice starts on Feb. 1—the 5-foot-8, 140pound sophomore will likely be the Haybalers’ No. 1 player. Sparrer’s meteoric rise came the good old-fashioned way: hard work. B1
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HOLLISTER
The school has around 10 programs that focus on preparing students in the Life Skills program “to be active and confident members of our community and of society,” according to Paulette Cobb, the district’s director of special education. Beyond the benefits that these various programs have for students with disabilities, “we build empathetic and sociallyconscious general education peers through our inclusionary practices,” Cobb said.
road “due to his level of intoxication.” The collision resulted in fatal injuries to Mora’s 6-year-old passenger, who was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics, according to the CHP press release. The other child, a 7-year-old boy, was flown to Santa Clara Valley Medical Center with major injuries. ➝ Fatalities, 4
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