Center to open for Garlic Festival shooting survivors
GILROY » A new center dedicated to helping survivors of last summer’s mass shooting at the Gilroy Garlic Festival is slated to open in Gilroy next week, authorities said.
The Gilroy Strong Resiliency Center will operate at the Neon Exchange, 7365 Monterey Road, the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release Wednesday. Services will include trauma education and counseling.
At first, the center will be open Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., but expanded hours are expected in April.
A grand opening is planned for Tuesday. District Attorney Jeff Rosen is set to tour the center and hand out the annual awards for this year’s Justice for All high school art contest.
The theme this year was “# Gilroy Strong.” Entries from more than 35 students will be displayed at the center until the end of the week, and the winning art will be displayed indefinitely.
“Like people, communities can crumble after a tragedy,” Rosen said Wednesday. “Like the police officers that day, Gilroy came together and showed the world how to face hatred — with courage and caring. Today, we honor this city’s heroic spirit through our art contest and a center that shows a continued commitment to healing.”
Three people — Stephen Romero, 6; Keyla Salazar, 13; and Trevor Irby, 25 — were killed and 19 others were injured in the July 28 mass shooting. The gunman, 19-year-old Santino Legan, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at the scene.
Ana- Gabriela Cadena, a senior at Abraham Lincoln High School in San Jose, created the winning contest entry. It depicts a young woman striding through a field, her right hand clenched in a fist above her head. She is surrounded by cloves of garlic and butterflies.
“I wanted it to be less about the act of violence that Gilroy has endured, but more about the sense of community,” Cadena said. “I read about the community coming together and how Gilroy does not want to be known for the violence but its resiliency.”