These San Jose State students are a lock for Santa’s ‘nice’ list

For the past few months, a group of engineering students from San Jose State University has been working on a project that’s sure to land them at the top of Santa’s “nice” list. Instead of building the next AI platform, they’ve been trying to bring smiles to the faces of kids and adults by making penguins fly for Christmas in the Park.

“Penguin Flight School” was one of the more whimsical displays at San Jose’s beloved holiday tradition at Plaza de Cesar Chavez every year, a carousel with stuffed penguin toys floating down on little canvas parachutes. But time took its toll on the exhibit, and it was pulled from the display the past few years in hopes that it could be repaired.

The San Jose State crew — seniors Derek Do, Cesar Jair Romero Callejas, Daniel Jimenez Hernandez, Mark Bennett and Zachary McGee — worked with Christmas in the Park Program Manager Keith Peffer to do more than that. They replaced the old plush penguins with new figures made out of fiberglass that can flap their wings as they descend.

Peffer said the design students had to figure out how to make the animatronic penguins work and built them from scratch, ordering parts online and making others using a 3D printer. They also had to figure in maintenance and sustainability, to make sure the display lasts as long as possible.

“They took note of all those things and kind of dove into it,” Peffer said. “It’s really neat to see the different iterations and problem-solving these guys have been doing, figuring out what works and what’s going to cause problems.”

It’s been such a success that Peffer said talks have already started on collaborating with San Jose State on a whole new display for next year, working not only with the engineering and robotics students but also with marketing and design. “This would be an all-encompassing display working with multiple departments at the school,” Peffer said. “We foresee this being a bigger thing that we can grow.”

Christmas in the Park Executive Director Ted Lopez said the collaboration with San Jose State isn’t the only one the nonprofit has lined up. It recently agreed on a five-year sponsorship with Broadway San Jose and also has a new partnership with ArtHouse Studio that will feature student artwork in a digital display throughout the run. Lopez says he also wants to start new team-building initiatives like candlemaking and creating children’s toys out of wood scraps.

You can check out the San Jose State student’s efforts soon as the holiday display will start being installed at Plaza de Cesar Chavez this week to have everything ready in time for the opening and tree-lighting ceremony on Friday, Nov. 28.

Tickets also are on sale for Blinky’s Drive Thru Light Show at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds, which opens Nov. 21. Get more information at www.christmasinthepark.com.

RUNNING START: When a lot of us are sleeping in Sunday morning, Amanda Rawson will be running the streets of the Big Apple in the New York Marathon. “I am still surprised with myself that I am going to do this big thing in one of the most famous cities in the world,” said Rawson, a partner and project manager for the San Jose-based Art Builds Community.

Rawson says she was never much of a runner but started running during COVID. She joined running clubs like Arete Women’s Run Club, Renegade Running, Hella Bay Run Club and Oh Run Club. But she really hit her stride with the Good Time Bar Run Club, which is based at the downtown San Jose wine bar on Fountain Alley.

She started signing up for races and setting some new goals for herself, including running in the New York City Marathon by the time she was 40. That didn’t happen, but Rawson has her chance now at 41.

Getting into the marathon is very competitive, and Rawson got her chance to run by partnering with an NYC-based nonprofit Ali Forney Center, which works to keep LGBTQ youth from homelessness and provides job readiness and healthcare support for them. Rawson said she reached out to them because of the work they do and feels privileged to fundraise for them.

HONOR ROLL: Congratulations to Barbara and Bill Heil, who were honored last Wednesday as the recipients of the President’s Award from Bellarmine College Prep. In addition to supporting the San Jose boys Jesuit high school, the couple also has been very supportive of the Tech Interactive and are sponsoring an expansion of the Tech Challenge engineering event to the Bay Area and Kenya.

The award they received is designed and produced each year by students in Bellarmine’s Maker Lab, under the direction of faculty member David Dutton. The students who made this year’s award were Diego Vasquez and brothers Dev Thakkar and Jai Thakkar.

COUNTRY CHRISTMAS: Now that we’ve broken the seal on Christmas, it’s a good time to mention that tickets are selling fast for Valle Monte League’s annual Christmas Tree Elegance event. This year’s theme is “Boots & Bling, A Country Christmas,” and there’s a champagne brunch and a dinner gala set for Dec. 5 at the Santa Clara Convention Center.

In addition to a fashion show (plus a casino night and line dancing at the dinner), the big highlight each year are the elaborately decorated designer trees, which are raffled off at each event, with proceeds benefitting Caminar’s Family & Children Services and Hearts & Minds Activity Center. Go to www.vallemonte.org for more information and tickets.