The support that made #Gilroystrong
Two months ago, a mass shooting devastated the city of Gilroy, Calif., but even today people are still reaching out, offering help to the victims and survivors, and renewing hope with the slogan #Gilroystrong.
On July 28, the third and final day of the 41st annual Gilroy Garlic Festival, a gunman opened fire, killing three people — Stephen Romero, 6; Keyla Salazar, 13; and Trevor Deon Irby, 25 — and wounding 17 others.
One of the nation’s bestknown food festivals, the Gilroy event draws up to 100,000 visitors annually from around the country. It is a time of togetherness, a civic celebration and a wonderful way to greet visitors. It would be an understatement to say that the mass shooting was a shock to this friendly city of 52,000 in southern Santa Clara County.
The Gilroyans have rallied around, though, and they are holding one another close during this difficult time.
Bob Mann, a principal partner of South County Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram, was devastated by the tragedy and wanted to help out. Every year, his South County Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram staff runs a booth at the Gilroy Garlic Festival. Though he was not there the day of the shooting, several members of his team were. His business partner Angela Greenwood, CFO and owner member of the company, and other staff were leaving when they saw police arriving and securing the area. Angela called Bob, hysterical, and told him what was happening. Bob was shocked by the news, felt helpless, and wanted to be of assistance.
Later that night, he learned of the death toll. Bob was on a call with his sister, Premeileen Valverde, and they both wanted to do something more for the victims, so they started a Gofundme account with $5,000 for the family of Stephen Romero. The next morning, they did the same for Keyla Salazar’s family. (Bob tried but was unable to reach the family of the third victim, who had set up their own Gofundme account; a requirement of account setup is the approval of the recipient’s family.) Bob did not know any of the victims, but he wanted to help those who were affected by the tragedy.
The two accounts Bob set up quickly grew to several hundred thousands of dollars each in just 24 hours. “I felt like I was chosen by God to do it for them,” Bob said. His sister visited the families of the dead and injured in the hospital. Bob went to both children’s memorial services and reached out to his own church, Redemption Church in San Jose, whose pastor, Ron Carpenter Jr., offered his building at no charge for Stephen’s funeral.
“I’ve never seen an outpouring of help that fast,” Bob said, praising the people of Gilroy, San Jose and surrounding areas who did fundraisers, offered emotional support and all who contributed to the Gofundme accounts (which closed two weeks after the tragedy).
“When things happen to a small town, we’ve got to make the best of what we can do with sources and connections,” he said.
Though he has only been in Gilroy for five years, his business partner, Angela, is a native. Bob is also a close friend of Garlic Festival founders the Christophers.
“In my wildest dreams, I never imagined this could happen here,” he said. “The whole thing has been a tear-dropper. Very emotional. I got 20 to 50 calls a day, with people saying ‘Thank you for what you did. You brought Gilroy closer.’ ”
Immediate help also came from the Silicon Valley Community Foundation in Mountain View, which donated $10,000 to the Gilroy Foundation to start the Gilroy Garlic Festival Victims Relief Fund on the night of the shootings. That fund now has nearly $1.7 million and donations continue to pour in, ranging from children emptying shoeboxes full of change to corporations writing six-figure checks — including an anonymous donation of $250,000.
In the first two weeks after the shootings, more than $1 million was donated, with funds coming from as far away as Sweden and several African nations. One day, the Gilroy Foundation received over 300 emails with payments from Paypal.
“We’re healing because we’re ‘Gilroy strong,’ and we’re going to be stronger,” says Donna Pray, executive director of the Gilroy Foundation.
Both the Gilroy Foundation and the Silicon Valley Community Foundation are allocating 100 percent of designated festival-shooting donations to the victims fund. At the moment, the Gilroy Foundation is still devoting almost all of its resources to processing and disbursing the funds to help victims, their families and nonprofits helping survivors.
Applications are available for victims will be on the Gilroy Foundation website through Jan. 31, 2020, www. gilroyfoundation.org. Donations can also be made there.
“If you know Gilroy, you know that we help each other,” Donna said. “It’s not ‘six degrees of separation; it’s three. Even if you think you’re a stranger, you’re not. What has been amazing is that so many other communities around the world have been donating to us.”
“All communities got together in a time of need, whether you were in Gilroy or San Jose,” Bob said. “Everybody reached out to support this cause.”
On Sept. 2, the Santa Clara County Health System announced that the final two patients at Valley Medical Center had gone home. Also that day, Christmas Hill Park reopened for the first time since the rampage, and the event was marked with a moment of silence and a prayer. Dozens of residents and city officials attended. The park now includes a small garden to honor the victims, with three large stones memorializing the dead, and they are surrounded by a fence with 17 posts, one for each person injured.