Emery: Join the celebration June 23 at the Community Church of Poway
By Bob Emery
It’s all over but the partying! The restoration of the historic chapel at the Community Church of Poway is all but finished and it is time to celebrate the 125th anniversary of its construction.
Bob Emery
Saturday, June 23 has been set as the day to commemorate the building of the chapel with a dedication and picnic between 3 and 6 p.m. A proclamation adopted by the City of Poway will be read and the winners of an art contest will be announced. Artists of all ages were invited to submit their renditions of the chapel for judging and display during the festivities.
At 4 p.m., an old fashion picnic catered by the Hamburger Factory will begin with hot dogs, hamburgers, potato salad and the other necessary “fixins” to ensure no one goes away hungry. Picnic meal tickets are $15 for adults and $12 for children under 12, senior citizens and the military. Tickets may be purchased by calling 858-748-3304 or stopping by the church’s office at Community Road and Hilleary Drive.
Rounding out the activities for the day will be an antique car show, tours of the chapel, kids’ games and entertainment by the “Rattlesnake Creek Old Time String Band.”
This is truly a community-wide event. Many, many people outside the local congregation contributed generously to the restoration, raising over $50,000, most notable among them, the Green Valley Stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who contributed over $16,000. So get your tickets and join with your neighbors and friends to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the building of the oldest, continuously used house of worship in San Diego County.
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On a much sadder note, four more souls have lost their lives needlessly on state Highway 67 between Poway and Ramona. Not because of poor engineering or a curvy road but solely because of speeding and reckless driving. The atrocity took place on a four-lane section of SR 67 where the road is quite straight and wide. A pickup truck sped out of control sliding sideways into oncoming traffic and slammed into two cars. The driver of the pickup and a passenger were killed as were an elderly couple from San Ysidro. Several others were seriously injured.
I have written on this matter before and probably will again as a minority of drivers continue to ignore safe driving rules and put others at risk. If they only endangered themselves, it would be one thing, but, as with the couple from San Ysidro, out for a drive, it is too often the innocent who pay the ultimate price.
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A hearty congratulations and thank you to our local VFW, Fleet Reserve, American Legion and Fleet Reserve Auxiliary for conducting the annual Memorial Day services at Dearborn Memorial Park. It is always a moving ceremony with hundreds of American flags placed at the graves of veterans by local Cub Scouts and speeches by veterans and active duty military personnel.
This year’s speaker, a young Marine captain from MCAS Miramar, used two pennies to illustrate his point of remembering not only today’s fallen service members but also those of past conflicts. One of his pennies was dated 2012, and he asked that a veteran of Iraq or Afghanistan come forward. The other penny was dated 1967, the height of the fighting in Vietnam. He asked for a veteran of that war to come forward and then presented each penny to those veterans as a symbol of remembrance and gratitude. After the ceremony, I approached the Marine who was the speaker to thank him for his moving words and was struck by just how young these kids are who we send to do the fighting for old politicians who are safe behind capitol walls.
Reach Emery at Powaybob@cox.net.
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Posted by Staff
on Jun 6 2012. Filed under Columnists.
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