{"slug": "san-jose-state-students-help-build-christmas-in-the-parks-future", "title": "San Jose State students help build Christmas in the Park’s future", "summary": "San Jose State University engineering and industrial design students are modernizing the Countdown to Christmas display for Christmas in the Park, building on a partnership that began last year with the Penguin Flight School upgrade. The nonprofit's executive director Ted Lopez aims to expand the program through the Lighting the Future campaign, which seeks $1 million to fund seasonal jobs and scholarships while updating the holiday attraction. The students' redesigned display, featuring moving elves and 3-D printed elements, will debut when Christmas in the Park opens Nov. 27.", "body_md": "**Getting your**\n\n[Trinity Audio](//trinityaudio.ai)player ready...We’re still about six months until [Christmas in the Park](https://christmasinthepark.com/) opens, but I paid a visit to the nonprofit’s warehouse off Senter Road this month and found it looks a lot more like Santa’s workshop than ever before.\n\nLast year, a small group of [San Jose State engineering students modernized the Penguin Flight School display](https://www.mercurynews.com/2025/11/01/these-san-jose-state-students-are-a-lock-for-santas-nice-list/) for Christmas in the Park. Both Executive Director Ted Lopez and Operations Director Keith Peffer hoped it would be the start of a mutually beneficial relationship between the university and the nonprofit that operates San Jose’s beloved holiday display.\n\nThis year, that Christmas wish appears to be coming true as a larger group of about a dozen Spartans — this time including industrial design students — are working to reimagine one of the event’s most visited displays, the Countdown to Christmas.\n\nThe new version will still have the traditional arrow counting down the days to the holiday but also will include moving elves who are helping prepare things for Christmas. Design students created several models at increasing levels of detail with cardboard and then clay before any work started. A 3-D printer will be a key tool in creating some elements, along with traditional fiberglass casting.\n\nPeffer said it’s all combined to make this year’s effort to modernize a lot easier than last time.\n\n“Having an industrial design team to think about all the little aspects of the design, the story of it, means the mechanical engineers just have to pick up the mechanical aspect of it,” he said. “Now, I have a formula here that I can keep improving on every year, and I can see the improvements. I feel like we’re setting these kids up for success. It’s an endless feeling of pride and joy.”\n\nIt’s also given Peffer and Zack Tatar time to work on updating a new display for sponsor Broadway San Jose, which will replicate San Jose’s Center for the Performing Arts with a revolving stage that shows a musical theater performance on one side and backstage chaos on the other.\n\nLopez said he would like to see the program grow even more. To start with, he’s actively looking for professionals who can lead a weekend workshop for both high school interns and San Jose State students, as well as provide a financial sponsorship to keep the program going. But the ambitious goal is the [Lighting the Future campaign](https://christmasinthepark.com/lighting-the-future/), which aims to raise $1 million and create seasonal jobs and scholarships for students while modernizing Christmas in the Park’s displays.\n\n“Watching these students take real ownership of this project has been one of the proudest things we have been a part of,” Lopez said. “They are exactly the kind of talent we want to keep here in San Jose, and they are showing the next generation what is possible.”\n\nYou’ll be able to see the students’ finished work when Christmas in the Park opens Nov. 27, the Friday after Thanksgiving.\n\n**HERITAGE ORCHARD GROWS ON: ** Elisabeth Maurer tells me that even though Charlie Olson has retired at age 91, the Sunnyvale heritage orchard is still quite fruitful. Maurer took over Olson’s agreement with Sunnyvale to continue to farm the orchard on Remington Drive, and cherry season is in full swing with apricot season fast approaching.\n\nBing and Rainier cherries, apricots, jars of Elisabeth’s Jam and dried fruit are still available for sale at the Apricot Store at the orchard barn. You can check out some of the products online at [www.apricot-store.com](https://www.apricot-store.com/). And Maurer says you still might run into Olson if you visit.\n\n“Charlie still has his office at the barn and likes to visit with customers and friends,” she said.\n\n**STILL GOING STEADY:** Let’s raise a toast to a couple of June weddings that started long before Silicon Valley was even an idea.\n\nJim and Joanne Campbell’s family is gathering to celebrate the couple’s 78th anniversary on June 1, their daughter Nancy Brown reports. They were married a week after Joanne graduated from Ansonia High School in Ohio in 1948 and promptly drove west to San Jose.\n\nAnd on June 2, Richard and Marjorie Heredia of Gilroy will have their 70th wedding anniversary. The couple’s daughter, Paula Heredia, says they’re both in good health at ages 94 and 90, respectively. In fact, both still drive and her dad even flies his bi-plane on occasion.\n\n**WELL-HEELED GUYS:** The YWCA Golden Gate Silicon Valley’s annual Walk a Mile in Their Shoes will take its usual route around Santana Row on June 11. That stroll may be a bit painful for the guys wearing heels, but it’s more than worth it to support sexual assault survivors and spread awareness about preventing it to begin with.\n\nWith less than two weeks to go, teams have raised more than $80,000 of the $150,000 goal with perennial sponsor Kaiser Permanente leading the way with about a quarter of that total. Other top fundraisers include IBEW Local 332, which always has a good turnout, and Waymo, which makes me wonder if they’ll have high heels walking around without anyone’s feet in them.\n\nThere’s still plenty of time to sign up, and it might be good to practice walking in heels. Talk to any woman you know, and they’ll tell you it’s a skill. Get more details at [bit.ly/walkamileintheirshoes2026](https://app.betterunite.com/ywcaggsv-2026walkamileintheirshoes).", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/san-jose-state-students-help-build-christmas-in-the-parks-future", "canonical_source": "https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/05/30/san-jose-state-students-help-build-christmas-in-the-parks-future/", "published_at": "2026-05-30 13:30:33+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-05-30 16:21:56.008410+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["robotics", "ai-tools"], "entities": ["San Jose State University", "Christmas in the Park", "Ted Lopez", "Keith Peffer", "Spartans"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/san-jose-state-students-help-build-christmas-in-the-parks-future", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/san-jose-state-students-help-build-christmas-in-the-parks-future.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/san-jose-state-students-help-build-christmas-in-the-parks-future.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/san-jose-state-students-help-build-christmas-in-the-parks-future.jsonld"}}