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Pumpkins in the Park a Huge Success!
On Saturday, October 10, 2009 the Guadalupe River Park & Gardens hosted the 15th annual Pumpkins in the Park, anenvironmental harvest festival for young families designed to create awareness of the Guadalupe River and celebrate the fall season.  10,000 to 12,000 people attended Pumpkins in the Park to learn about the Guadalupe River, make scarecrows, decorate pumpkins, taste apples and cider, listen to great music, eat great food and  partake in countless other activities. Guadalupe River Park Conservancy would like to thank all of our sponsors:

Air Systems Foundation
Cisco
City of San Jose
Clif Kid
Cortese Brothers Farms
Garden City Sanitation
Greenwaste Recovery
Hewlett Packard
Kaiser Permanente
S. Martinelli & Company
The Mercury News
Mix106.5
NBC11
PG&E
PW Markets
Santa Clara Valley Water District
Radio Disney
Target
Watershed Watch
Whole Foods (Campbell)

Health Trust and the Silicon Valley HealthCorps
Recently, we added a new member to our staff, thanks to the generous support from the Health Trust and the Silicon Valley HealthCorps. Terry Fergus has joined Guadalupe River Park Conservancy as an Americorp Member hired to help develop Education Curriculum to further the Health Trust’s mission of increasing youth & adults knowledge of healthy behaviors and daily fruit and vegetable consumption through the development of community and school based gardens and farm to school programs. With the newest City of San Jose Community Garden in Guadalupe Gardens, our 3 acre Historic Orchard and an established Field Trip program – adding new curriculum will be the perfect fit an exciting addition to our outreach programs.

Terry Fergus started out as one of our Education Volunteers. She moved from Greenock, Scotland to San Jose, CA, 26 years ago to get married and she has been volunteering ever since! Along the way, she and her husband have raised 2 boys...one still in school at West Valley and the other recently graduated with a Biology degree from UC Davis. Terry's love of the outdoors is apparent from her hobbies: birding and photography. We’re looking forward to working with her since she’s the type of volunteer that quickly understands what needs to happen and jumps in to help. Her enthusiasm and Scottish accent help captivate everyone she meets.

Podcasts
We have developed several pod casts that serve as a sort of self guided tour through a partnership with San Jose State's Journalism and Mass Communications Department. These mp3 files can be listened to here on our web site, or downloaded onto to your portable listening device. Each of them references a point on this map. Click here to check them out!

We hope to add more of these soon!

Thanks to Dan Fortune and his students who produced this project!

Education
For more information, contact our Education Coordinator, Linda McCabe

Indians, Acorns, Baskets & Canoes!
Friday, November 13th
3:30 to 5:00 pm
$10/members, $15/non-members
Ages: 5-10
Come learn the ABC’s of the Ohlone Indians! Join Friends of Guadalupe River Park & Gardens and discover how Indians lived off the land near the Guadalupe River using native plants and animals to survive. Gather acorns and grind them as the Indians did long ago. Examine closely Indian relics like arrowheads, clapper sticks and rope made from tule. Could you survive in the outdoors today? We’ll use all our instincts as we explore this park and learn how the Indians became so resourceful!

Coming up!

Annual Holiday Wreath Workshop! – with 2 time slots available and registration required – sign up now!

Along with Silicon Valley Reads, latest pick “In Defense of Food” Michael Pollan’s latest book and his gentle commandments: Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly Plants – the Friends of Guadalupe River Park & Garden celebrate this theme with a new series of six adult classes that begin in February.
Sustainable Vegetable Gardening
Wednesdays, February 10th – March 17th
7:00 – 9:00pm
6 classes
$60 /members, $70/ non members
Instructor: Master Gardener Ann Northrup
Gardening year round is easy and rewarding in our mild Mediterranean climate. Learn how to have a successful, environmentally responsible food garden that provides delicious vegetables and herbs every month of the year. This course stresses sustainable gardening practices such as mulching, efficient watering methods, on-site composting, integrated pest management, and use of organic fertilizers and soil amendments. Topics include: soil preparation, amendments, and fertilizers; irrigation methods and systems; working with both seeds and seedlings; cultural requirements of specific warm and cool season crops and varieties that do well in our area; and how to identify and manage common pests, weeds, and diseases of vegetable crops in Santa Clara County. Check out our website to read more about Ann Northrup.

All programs take place at the Guadalupe Visitor & Education Center, 438 Coleman Ave, SJ and parents need not be present. Pre Registration is required, space is limited. For more information, visit www.grpg.org or call 408 298-7657.

Volunteering
For more information, contact Volunteer Coordinator, Lucy Perez

Office Volunteers
A variety of volunteer opportunities exist in our office at the Visitor & Education Center.  Activities include clerical work, answering the phones, organizing the library, preparing materials for educational programs, greeting visitors, etc. We presently have openings Monday and Wednesday afternoon and anytime Thursday and Friday. Please call us to review a convenient schedule for you. Our office hours are Monday-Friday 8:30-5:00.

Volunteer Profiles

Guadalupe River Park Conservancy Board Member: Sandra Wheatley As Director of Global Community Relations for Cisco, Sandra Wheatley leads the strategy development and execution of the company’s community relations initiatives in the United States and major sites worldwide. In addition, she spearheads Cisco’s Civic Council programs, which drive employee community service throughout the world, and Cisco’s global employee matching gifts programs. Before moving into community relations in 2007, Wheatley spent eight years in Cisco’s Corporate Public Relations group, working in the Office of the President on a range of corporate and business issues as well as education and health care. Wheatley, who has more than 18 years experience in the high-tech industry, previously managed public relations for Advanced Micro Devices. Wheatley serves on the boards of directors for Guadalupe River Parks and Gardens, the Santa Clara Family Health Foundation, InnVision, and the Silicon Valley Education Foundation STEM Initiative. She has a bachelor of science degree in political science from Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, Calif.

Meet Matt Rode Matt joined the Wednesday volunteer group in July, after wandering through the Heritage Rose Garden one day. Fortunately for us, he realized that helping maintain the roses was an interesting and rewarding thing to do. Matt was born in New York City, but was raised in Oregon.  He has been living in California for about 40 years.  Matt retired from his own printing and copying business three years ago.  In addition to volunteering in the Rose Garden, he enjoys fishing, hiking, and traveling in his spare time. We are glad Matt joined our organization - we hope to keep him here for a long time.  Thanks Matt!