Decked out with balloons and banners, Gavilan Community College
threw a lively party Saturday to celebrate the jubilations of
spring.
Decked out with balloons and banners, Gavilan Community College threw a lively party Saturday to celebrate the jubilations of spring. The college’s GavFEST drew locals from the South Valley area to the main campus for an afternoon of entertainment, including music performed by students, art exhibits and games for all ages.
The free open-campus event drew an especially large number of youngsters. Among them was 10-year-old Raina Poria of Morgan Hill who, along with nine of her friends, had fun getting hair and nails done by students of the cosmetology department.
It was a beauty-school day-out for her birthday celebration, Poria explained, as cosmetology student Christina Rodriguez painted the girl’s fingernails with purplish polish.
“They did my hair first, then I went for my nails to be done,” said Madison Cupples, 10, who was part of the birthday group. The cost was a $2 donation for each child for the hair-and-nail makeovers.
“This is really a fun outing,” said Anisha Patel, 9, another friend who got a beauty treatment. She said the group planned to tour the rest of GavFEST later in the afternoon.
Among other events of the day was line and salsa dancing lessons, story-time for kids, science department demonstrations such as robots, theatrical performances and nature hikes. The Watsonville Taiko played in a Japanese drum circle and the Baile Folklorico performed folk dances.
In the art classroom, Jesse Molina, an art student, helped GavFEST visitors make small vases on a pottery wheel.
“Kids love to play with the clay,” he said. “Maybe it might inspire them to want to do more art some day.”
Jenessa Keswick, a child development major, said there was no charge to make the vases which would later be baked in the art classroom’s kiln.
“Our job is to basically give them tips and show them how to do it,” she said.
In another section of the campus, Cheryl Brown, an instructor with the campus’s Disabled Student Program and Services center, helped guide children through a “Multisensory Maze.” Each child had to stop at various sections and – using only their senses, such as touch or smell – identify common objects.
“It teaches kids and adults what it’s like if you have a disability,” she said.
At the Gavilan swimming pools, GavFEST participants were having a wet and wild time racing each other in large boats made of cardboard. Physics student Martin Irwin of Gilroy said the rule of the contest was the boats could only be made using cardboard and glue. Irwin’s girlfriend, Debbie Thompson, and his father, John Irwin, joined him on the crew of a boat made with a Viking-like dragon’s head at the stern.
“Someone was pulling on the side and it started to take in water,” Martin said, explaining why the boat ended at the bottom of the pool. “It went down nice and slow and gave us time to get out.”
Judging by the turnout of this year’s GavFEST, the event might become an annual celebration, said Jan Bernstein-Chargin, Gavilan’s director of public information and a GavFEST organizer.
Besides providing a fun time for people in the Gavilan district, the event also was intended to spur interest among prospective students, including youngsters who might never have been on a college campus before, she said.
“It’s been a great day,” she said. “There’s something for everyone….
It’s great to see how many families are out here.”
