The legend is still retold to this day of how Sister Philippa,
principal of St. Mary School in Gilroy, used to push back all the
tables at the wild St. Patrick’s Dinner as the night wore on and
jump up on stage to lead an Irish jig. The dinner guests danced
long into the night.
The legend is still retold to this day of how Sister Philippa, principal of St. Mary School in Gilroy, used to push back all the tables at the wild St. Patrick’s Dinner as the night wore on and jump up on stage to lead an Irish jig. The dinner guests danced long into the night.
And tickets to the event back then? They cost $4!
Gilroy’s popular annual St. Patrick’s Dinner started in the family room of Laurel and Vince Mahoney in the 1960s. The two of them were a young couple who, along with former City Manager Fred Wood and his wife Virginia, joined together to hold a small St. Patrick’s dinner for their friends.
Several couples gathered to enjoy the evening at the Mahoney home, and they enjoyed it so much that they did it again the following year. When the Mahoneys moved, the dinner moved too. Soon, the dinner was so popular – “We fell out the door,” as Laurel Mahoney put it – the couple switched over to meeting at the larger Woods home.
The dinners grew so large that they had to be moved to what used to be known as Peralta’s Busy Bee – now known as the Longhouse Restaurant – on Monterey Street. When the dinner outgrew the Busy Bee, it moved to St. Mary’s gym, where it is held annually.
The dinner was still a bargain at $30 on March 12, and what began as a simple dinner idea in someone’s home more than 40 years ago, has grown to become a successful fundraising event.
Many businesses, organizations, churches, former mayors, city council members and volunteers collaborate to make it the successful St. Joseph’s Family Center fundraiser that it is.
The center provides a central location for people to come to in a crisis or emergency situation. Low-income families they see each day are some of the hardest hit by the recession.
“We were able to provide timely rental subsidies that kept 450 working families from losing their housing,” Executive Director David Cox said of this past fiscal year.
They are also providing employment services and a housing program for domestic abuse families in South County.
In 2010, St. Joseph’s distributed 2 million pounds of food to the hungry.
“Their sincere respect and constant follow-up during the most difficult time in my life was special,” said Brian, who has received help from the center in the past. “I was not just another number – not rushed in and out of their offices – but treated as an individual human being. I will always hold St. Joseph’s Family Center with high regard for all they have done for me and my family.”
Dan Derry, senior priest of St. Mary Catholic Parish, provided a little comic relief at the dinner by regaling the crowd with a number of Irish jokes in which someone by the name of “Pat” seemed to figure prominently.
He reminded the crowd of what really mattered as he prayed before the meal. He said the money raised during the effort will give a much-needed helping hand to families and individuals struggling to survive.
I will never forget the mother I overheard at St. Joseph’s Family Center as she was getting sample toothpaste tubes and free toothbrushes.
“Now remember,” she said to her young child as they were walking away, “Only brush your teeth every other day. We have to make these toothbrushes last.”
