MORGAN HILL, CA – Leadership Morgan Hill (LMH) is proud to announce that committed community volunteer Mario Banuelos will be honored with the 2023 Leadership Excellence Award at an evening outdoor celebration/fundraiser at Guglielmo Winery on September 9, 2023.  The Leadership Excellence Award recognizes the vision and leadership that advance the spirit of community and charity; reflect courage and insight; and inspire others to lead in a like manner.

Steve Tate, LMH Board President remarked: “The LMH Board is excited about Mario’s selection. His broad, extensive community support aligns completely with the values of the Leadership organization.”

Mario was born in Jerez, Zacatecas, Mexico and when he was four years old, immigrated to Stockton, CA where he lived for three years until his family moved to the Berryessa area of San Jose. When interstate 680 was built, his family moved and bought a home in east San Jose where he and his four younger siblings grew up and where his mother still lives in today.

Mario earned an AA in engineering at Evergreen Community College before transferring to San Jose State where he graduated with a major in math with an emphasis in statistics.  While in school, he worked with one of his brothers providing satellite conferencing services. Once he graduated, he started his career with the City of San Jose in transportation planning using computer modeling to mitigate congestion impacts. Later in his career, he was instrumental in stitching together a whole series of digital maps for the City, integrating multi-faceted and diverse sets of data.  He retired from San Jose in 2014.

Mario and his wife Fawn Myers were married in 1986 in San Jose. In 1988, they moved to MH and became parents when they adopted a 3-year-old boy.  The following year, when their son Frank was four years old, they added sister Tirza and in four-year increments, two more siblings, Valarie and Max. They raised their four children in Morgan Hill, and now have two grandchildren, Tattiyanna and Cisco.

Mario loves to travel and is an avid hiker. He fondly remembers travelling to Spain in 2018, walking the Camino de Santiago, a thirty-day hiking trail, with his daughter Valarie. Upcoming travel plans include a hike in Machu Picchu, Peru in March and an Alaska glacier cruise in May. He also reads a lot – and he volunteers, boy does he volunteer!

Some of his early volunteering included the Hispanic Association of City Employees in San Jose, where he spent 23 years on the board supporting leadership training. In the 1990s, Mario helped with the fund-raising and operations for the Dayworker Center in MH. In early 2000s, he became a founding board member of the MH Community Foundation, a role he has held for 21 years. Through the MHCF, he has become involved with many other local non-profits for which the Foundation is the umbrella organization.  He currently is the incoming president of Rotary and is on both the MH Chamber Board and the MH Historical Society Board.

Mario is a fairly quiet volunteer, doing lots of work behind-the-scenes without any fanfare.  He feels like he personifies the American dream in a way, and he wants to give others the opportunities that he has had. He quietly goes forward paving the way with “one brick at a time”, a philosophy passed down from his late father.  Friend (and Honorary Committee Chair) Peter Anderson says, “Mario is perhaps the most unrecognized, broadly engaged, and deeply committed person we have in our community.”

Mario will receive his medal at the gala late summer tribute dinner at beautiful Guglielmo Winery.  Community leaders, supporters of LMH, his family and friends of the honoree will attend this community celebration to honor Mario and to benefit the local nonprofit LMH educational organization. Dinner and the award program will be followed by music and dancing.  In keeping with the setting, dress for the event is upscale casual, late summer fun.

Please save the date – September 9, 2023. Additional information will be announced later this spring.

The Honorary Committee for the event is being chaired by Peter Anderson and LMH Board members Cinda Meister and Darcy Foster lead the Event Committee.  

Awardees are selected by a blue-ribbon panel of community leaders featuring former Leadership Excellence Award recipients. Funds raised will benefit the non-profit LMH educational organization, now in its 27th year of building community leadership. The annual LMH program provides insight, tools and training that enables and inspires leaders in all walks of life to give back to the community through service. LMH graduates are found in leadership positions throughout the community in government, education, business and nonprofit organizations.

More information is available at www.leadershipmorganhill.org.