A celebration of life event for longtime El Granada resident and Pacific Coast Dream Machines Show founder Bob Senz will be held Sept. 10 to honor his contribution to the coast.
Senz owned the Ocean Shore Hardware store and helped create Dream Machines, which features more than 2,000 flying and driving machines from the previous two centuries that takes place in April at Half Moon Bay Airport's Eddie Andreini Field. Senz, who died in June, founded the show, now in its 30th year, as a way to see Model-T cars, boats, law enforcement vehicles, motorcycles, antique engines and tractors and historic military aircraft. The annual event is one of the largest aside from Half Moon Bay’s Pumpkin Festival.
Tim Beeman got to know Senz through his community activities and described him as a generous, kind and friendly person who made people feel like his best friend. Beeman said Senz's real passion was helping people and machinery, as he often visited local drag strips in the 1950s and ’60s to see car races. A Bob Senz Big Crazy Cacklefest often occurs at the Dream Machines event, which is the mass firing up of all motorized engines to honor the show's founder.
"He was one of the most warmest and gracious people I have ever met," Beeman said.
Senz was also known for his generous contributions to the Coastside Adult Day Health Center through money raised from the Dream Machine event. The nonprofit center opened in 1982 and provides care and support for people with dementia, the elderly and those needing physical and occupational therapy. As part of its services, it also provides clinical social work services, with 90% of the people it serves on low income and who often don't qualify for Medi-Cal.
Janie Bono-James, the executive director of the health center, said one of the reasons Senz started giving money was because he wanted to help one of his employee's husband, who had a stroke and used the center and needed money to help pay for bills. Bono-James said the Dream Machine event helped raise about $75,000 to $80,000 a year to help cover scholarships and deficit expenses that often come up at nonprofits.
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"I don't think we could survive without it," Bono-James said.
Senz was also a veteran and part of the Coastside American Legion Post 474 and was known for his giving nature to the entire coast community.
"Bob was a great supporter and friend to the Legion, and it's an honor for us to host this gathering as part of our Dedication of the Coastside Post 474 Veterans Garden, which he was part of bringing to life," Bob Resch of the Legion said in a press release.
The celebration of life event will take place at the American Legion Post 474 on Sunday, Sept. 10, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 470 Capistrano Road in Half Moon Bay. The celebration will include Grant Walters & Friends playing music, Sam's Chowdermobile and a taco truck. Admission is free, with dogs on leashes allowed, but alcohol is not.
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