The Santa Clara Parents Nursery School participates in the Santa Clara Parade of Champions Saturday, Oct. 1, 2022, in Santa Clara, Calif. The parade honors the community and frontline heroes. (Photo by Jim Gensheimer)
Santa Clara’s Parade of Champions will live up to its name on Saturday with Olympic gold medalist Donna De Varona as one of the event’s grand marshals.
De Varona, who competed in both the 1960 and 1964 Olympics, grew up in the Mission City, where she graduated from Santa Clara High School and competed with the Santa Clara Swim Club. She’s no stranger to the role, either, having served as grand marshal for the Parade of Champions back in 1995.
This time, she’ll be joined by iconic cheerleader Krazy George Henderson, as well as Snoopy, Lucy and Charlie Brown characters from California’s Great America.
Along with the usual contingent of elected officials, there’ll be several special guests in the parade, too, including Artistic Swim Head Coach Chris Carver and Rudy Vera, who has been an umpire with the Santa Clara Police Athletic League for 50 years. The cultural nonprofit Tai Ji Men, which will have the grand opening of an academy in Santa Clara over the weekend, is hosting international guests including a former prime minister of Lesotho and a former president of Croatia.
The parade, which begins at 11 a.m., runs on Monroe Street, starting on Market and wrapping up on Thompson Street. But there’ll be plenty going on before and after, too, including the 8 a.m. Breakfast of Champions at the American Legion post on Homestead Road, opening ceremonies at 10 a.m. and “Salsa on the Street,” with dancing following the parade until 5 p.m. You can get more details at www.scparadeofchampions.org.
SPOOKY FUN FOR NEW BALLET: San Jose’s New Ballet is getting ready for “The San Jose Nutcracker” in December with a Halloween Dance Party on Oct. 21 at the Hammer Theatre. The festive fundraiser, which starts at 7 p.m. and is open to adults and kids, will include a season preview from New Ballet’s professional company, dancing to DJ music and a silent auction. Costumes aren’t required, but they’re encouraged as there will be a contest. You can secure a ticket by making a donation at newballet.com/halloween.
The New Ballet also has been thrilled with the addition of a new board member, former San Jose City Councilmember Raul Peralez. While you may not have pegged Peralez — who since leaving office in January has returned full-time to the San Jose Police Department — as a pirouette kind of guy, he got involved because his young son, Jorge, has been enrolled in classes at the ballet school.
By the way, if you’re looking for a New Ballet preview in a more traditional setting, the company returns with its formal preview of the season at the San Jose Museum of Art this Friday. Director Dalia Rawson will introduce the dancers at 7:15 p.m., and they’ll present excerpts from several pieces, including selections from “The San Jose Nutcracker,” “Cinderella,” and a work danced to big band music from the videogame “Cuphead.” Admission is free, and you can RSVP at www.sjmusart.org.
CANINES JOIN ‘MRS. CHRISTIE’ CAST: The mystery of which dog would be cast in TheatreWorks’ new production of “Mrs. Christie” has been solved, though in this case the whodunit ended up with two likely suspects — and they both got the role. Two pooches, Murphy and Anubis, will trade off in the part of Peter, the dog of famed mystery writer Agatha Christie, who is played by Jennifer Le Blanc.
TheatreWorks had an open casting call for the role and Jeffrey Lo, TheatreWorks’ associate producer of casting and literary management, auditioned several pups at the company’s Redwood Shores headquarters in late September to find the right dog for the role. The show, directed by Giovanna Sardelli, runs through Oct. 29 at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, and you can get tickets at www.theatreworks.org.
FALLING INTO FALL: The seventh annual Fall Festival at Martial Cottle County Park in San Jose is Saturday, and the vast agricultural acreage out at 5283 Snell Ave. will be filled with craft vendors, animal presentations, antique autos and farm equipment, live music and a pumpkin patch from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
The UC Master Gardeners Fall Garden Fair will take place at the same time, and that will have plenty of talks on cool season gardening, starting a home orchard, capturing rainwater and growing native plants. And there’ll be a plant sale with vegetables, seedlings and California native plants. Get more information on the festival at www.parkhere.org.
Originally published at Sal Pizarro