Rotarians At Work Day 2014
On Saturday, April 26, 2014, from 7:30 AM until 12 noon, La Jolla Sunrise Rotary held its annual Rotarians at Work Day at San Pasqual Academy planting fruits and vegetables in San Pasqual's huge gardens. San Pasqual is a residential high school for foster teens located in Escondido, California.Together with the Coronado Rotary Club, the Escondido Highway 76 Club, University of Michigan Alumni and Friends of San Pasqual, over 170 people participated in the 2014 work day. The organizer and coordinator for this project was La Jolla Sunrise Rotary’s Lauren Pickard.
The tradition of the Rotarians at Work Day evolved from the former “Christmas in April.” In the 1990s, La Jolla Sunrise Rotary members actively participated in Christmas in April projects by sponsoring the internationally known “Paintfest” at local hospitals and retirement communities, as well as painting and refurbishing senior centers and private homes. As time went on, however, the scope of club volunteer work expanded until today, when Rotarians at Work Day projects may require the participation of multiple Rotary clubs and friends.
La Jolla Sunrise Rotary’s relationship with San Pasqual Academy began In December, 2000, when our club handed the Child Abuse Prevention Foundation of San Diego (now Promises2 Kids) a check for $35,000. The money was raised at an October fund-raising luncheon, For Kids Sake San Diego, at the Wyndham Emerald Plaza Hotel. Joanne Baron, comedienne, actress, film producer, entrepreneur and child abuse survivor mesmerized the audience with the story of her childhood abuse and how she overcame her problems to become a prolific producer of independent films.
The Foundation had originally planned to use the money to help fund programs for abused and neglected children throughout San Diego, including the Polinsky Children’s Center, but it later decided to donate some of the monies to San Pasqual Academy, which was to open in September 2001.
Every year since San Pasqual Academy opened its doors, La Jolla Sunrise Rotary members and their spouses, children and grandchildren have donated their time and money to help the school and its residents. Gifts are donated at Christmas for the students. Every spring for the past 10 years, La Jolla Sunrise Rotary’s Rotarians at Work Day has been spent working at San Pasqual Academy. “For the first three years, we fixed houses around the perimeter of the school,” said Lauren Pickard, a member of La Jolla Sunrise Rotary and coordinator of the annual event. “We painted houses inside and out, furnished a home, renovated a bathroom and landscaped” Beginning in 2008, the club turned its attention to San Pasqual’s vast fruit and vegetable garden. When the planting was done, the San Pasqual students fed the hungry group with chicken, beef, salad, sides and dessert.