Escondido Sunrise Rotary; Meeting to Serve our Community in Person and via Zoom; and “Stories of Survival… The Holocaust from a Personal Family Perspective…” September 2, 2021
As we all try to conduct our professional pursuits in new ways, it’s appropriate to remind ourselves of who we are as a Serving Organization… Our accomplishments, our fellowship and the reminder of our many successes is valuable as we seek new opportunities to serve…
President Richard opened the meeting in our new location, and in a hybrid format… Most of us in person, a few online…
Our new meeting location at the Escondido Chamber of Commerce…
As a Club, we honored our nation with a salute to our Flag, led by Past President, Mike Muehl…
And, an invocation was offered by Past President, Jack Anderson…
Guests and Visitors:
Jeffrey Epp, Past President… Was Jack Anderson’s guest. Jeff is on track to re-join Escondido Sunrise…
Kendra Koe, a friend of past member, Bonnie Maloney joined us
Some more members joined our meeting after the pandemic hiatus… Good to see Burhan Kivrak again, along with Past President, Susan Maney and Bob Portillo…
Welcome Back!!
Now, some Sunrise Rotary member milestones…
Birthdays:
September 7: Glenna Hoekstra
Kathy Herbert
8: Past President, Mike Muehl
Lorraine Paige
Happy Birthday Blessings to All….
Anniversaries:
None this week
Rotary Anniversaries:
None this week…
Rotarians Having Fun and Serving…
All kinds of fun and service and fun…
Pictures are worth a thousand words…
The Popes Enjoy a Shooting Range Visit…
President-Elect Tina and Allen with Liz and their future son-in-law… Testing his acumen with a handgun… Fun!!
Gator ‘Huntin’ in The Bayou…
Past President, Mike Muehl travels far and wide to find his ‘game’… Wrestling gators in the Bayou with Hurricane Ida on his heels…
Sunrise Rotarians Serving, and Announcements:
Mark you Calendars…
Note some service opportunities coming up…
District 5340 Conference…
The District Conference will be held in Coronado September 10-12… Be there or be square… Includes a golf event on Friday the 10th…
Dixon Lake Cleanup on September 18…
A multi-Escondido Club event… Plenty of service opportunities at Dixon Lake, followed by a picnic…
District Governor, Dan Gensler will Visit Escondido Sunrise on September 16…
Plan on attending that meeting for sure, to show our Sunrise Rotary Strength and Service…
Grape Day 5K October 9…
Make your fund-raising contacts… And encourage participants to sign up…
Hi Fives:
New Sunrise Rotary Meeting Space…
Remember our new meeting place…
Thanks too, to Past President Tony Criss for helping to arrange the meeting space and for bringing donuts for the meeting…
See you at 7:30 AM on September 9…
Support for Community Service and Local Projects…
Past President, Rich Aeling spoke to Sunrise Rotarians about the upcoming fundraising event hosted by Neighborhood Health… Sunrise Rotary has a assembled a “Manly” gift basket for their auction…
Rich also shared about our ‘hands on’ project at the Downtown Escondido Heritage Park… Escondido Sunrise has been part of the development of the Heritage Park site at Juniper and Grand. Recently, Berg Electric (one of our Grape Day 5K sponsors) installed lighting throughout the park…
Our project will be to spread 15 yards of mulch around the Park to cover the trenching areas from the lighting project…
Past President, Rich Aeling encouraging us to Serve our Community!!
Sunrise Rotarians, along with a few After Five Rotarians met at the Heritage Park Project…
Rotary Foundation Update…
Past President and Foundation Chair, Kevin Svetich reported on the Rotary Year ending District Foundation giving results… Escondido Sunrise, with an amazing year-end surge, ended with $583.63 per capita giving, The Encinitas Coastal and La Mesa Clubs squeaked by us… “We’re Number 3!!!”
Past President, Kevin Svetich reporting to Sunrise Rotarians on our Foundation Philanthropy…
Grape Day 5K Fliers Available for your Business Locations as we Market our Amazing Community Event…
Past President, George Beitner shared the availability of fliers advertising the October 9 Grape Day 5K Community Celebration… George also reminded Club Members that September 1 is the deadline for Major Sponsors to be secured so that their logos can be displayed on the Event Shirts…
Grape Day 5K Event Status…
President Richard, Past Presidents, Jim Ponder and George Beitner shared information on the fundraising progress to date… $30,016.00 has been collected to date… 60 participants have registered to date…
President Richard reminded Club Members that our goal is 1,000 participants, so continue to remind people to sign up to participate as well as to contribute funds…
There are 37 days left ’til our Grape Day 5K Event…
Program
Scott Peck sharing a family history of survivors of the Holocaust…
Scott, a former member of the Escondido East Rotary Club shared a history his parents experienced as they survived imprisonment and torture during the Holocaust.
To put the ideal of freedom in context with the Holocaust, Scott shared that prior to 1940 or so Rotary existed in Germany, Italy, Cuba and Russia… But with the advent of totalitarianism, Rotary was not allowed to exist…
Scott Peck speaking to Sunrise Rotarians…
Scott started his story with some history of his mother growing up in Czechoslovakia, a country that was easily defeated by Hitler’s Nazi troops…
At a young age of 15 years, her family sent her to Poland to live in a “safe” environment… In 1943, while living in the Warsaw Ghetto, she was incarcerated at Auschwitz…
His mother was naturally bound to her mother, and as they were imprisoned at Auschwitz, the maniacal Joseph Mengele would decide which individuals were to become workers and which were to be executed… Sadly, Scott’s grandmother, a frail woman, was sent to be executed, however his mother was spared as she was young and healthy…
During her stay in Auschwitz, she avoided execution two times… always facing Dr. Mengele as her life hung in the balance…
Ultimately, at age 21, her camp was liberated by the Russian army and she found herself as an immigrant in New York… All the time, she was longing to travel to and live in Palestine…
Scott ran out of time as he began to share information about his father and how his parents met in America.
Suffice it to say that his father described his own heritage as coming from a line of “thieves and gamblers”… And, he was arrested by the Nazis in Budapest, and forced into slave labor until liberated by the Russian Army…
Scott Peck pictured with President, Richard…
The Opportunity Drawing is Back…
Tickets are available at each Sunrise Rotary meeting…
Big Pot; $569… Past President, Jack Anderson had the lucky ticket… But, his card was not the lucky Joker… Too bad, so sad Jack…
Lunch Money; $18… Past President Kevin Svetich can buy Debbie a burger…
See you in person on September 9…
Next Week’s Meeting:
Gerry Fay… Navigating the Amazon maze…
Thanks for Attending Today’s Meeting…
Support for our Escondido Community …
Our great community and the success of its businesses is all of our responsibilities… Support the businesses that are doing all they can to survive during this challenging time… Take out some chow… Be ready to support them when the economy begins working again…
The ‘Giving Arch’ on Grand Avenue and Centre City Parkway reminds us that Escondido is a caring, giving community…
To all; be safe and be well…. God Bless those men and women that carry the load at our medical facilities, and God Bless the first responders… May our governmental leaders be wise, thoughtful and smart as this pandemic is overtaken by our hard work and collective support…
In Person and Online Meetings:
Technical Support for Online Meetings:
Our meetings will begin as a hybrid setting with in-person and on-line opportunities…The meetings will be technically managed by President Richard Agnew… Thanks for that Richard… And, Richard is prepared to support all of our attempts at joining the on-line meetings… Look for his email with details and links to log on to the upcoming Zoom meetings…
Watch for emails defining the next meeting. The system works fine, dependent upon your technical support available through your PC or laptop…
SEE YOU SOON… AT The Escondido Chamber of Commerce, 720 N. Broadway; IN PERSON… OR ONLINE… Next meeting;
