San Diego Foundation Commissions Fab Lab to Design and Install Public Art Piece for Annual Gala
The San Diego Foundation Celebrates 37 Years of Giving Back to the San Diego Community
On Tuesday, July 17, 2012, The San Diego Foundation celebrated its 37th Annual Meeting at the Gliderport in Torrey Pines.
The unique venue, with its important surrounding landmarks, was chosen to symbolize The Foundation as we strive to continue to be a visionary leader in the San Diego community. Unbeknownst to some, the site has no doubt played a role in supporting other historical visions that have made San Diego the unique place known for its three key industries: tourism, military and bio-tech.
To begin with, Charles Lindberg established the Gliderport as a “soaring site” on February 24, 1930, when he flew along the coast from Mt. Soledad to Del Mar in a Bowlus Sail plane. Also, many guests were surprised to discover that during WWII, the Gliderport and its surroundings were transformed into U.S. Army Camp Callan, an anti-aircraft artillery training facility. In addition to its rich history, the Gliderport served as a reminder to those in attendance how important and prominent San Diego’s three main industries really are: overlooking the beautiful beaches; surrounded by The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, The Sanford Burnham Medical Research Institute, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and the University of California San Diego campus; and soaring above, military planes from Marine Corps Air Station in Miramar – guests couldn’t forget why we all love living in San Diego and why thousands flock to visit each year.
Most importantly, these profound landmarks made us ponder the question – what lies ahead for San Diego? What vision is going to be fulfilled next? Conveniently, The San Diego Foundation previously asked millions of San Diegans to answer this same question. More than 30,000 participants responded, and we reported the results and resulting “big ideas” in Our Greater San Diego Vision, which was publicly released at the event that day. It is The Foundation’s goal, through The San Diego Foundation Malin Burnham Center for Civic Engagement, that the community becomes more vocal and uses this Vision to understand the issues we face today to act now before it is too late.
Amongst the crowd of donors, volunteers, scholarship recipients, and elected officials, were visionary historical figures from San Diego’s past. Philanthropists and entrepreneurs including Kate Sessions, Alonzo Horton, Charles Lindberg and Ellen Browning Scripps mingled with our guest and spoke about the vision they once had and implemented for San Diego to serve as a reminder of the visionaries before us who hopefully inspire each of us to make our lasting legacy on our beautiful region. Ambient music was themed around change, future and vision filled the air while guests enjoyed hors d’oeurvres, cocktails and desserts.
Snigdha Nandipati, local Francis Parker High School Student and National Spelling Bee Champ, opened the program with Malin Burnham by displaying her spelling skills with symbolic words like ‘collaboration,’ ‘visionary’ and ‘community.’ President and CEO of The San Diego Foundation, Bob Kelly, later went on to announce that The San Diego Foundation is the first community foundation in the nation to create an App available for download on the Android, iPhone and iPad.
The main reason we came together was to celebrate the success of the immediate past fiscal year. In the 2011 – 2012 fiscal year, The Foundation granted $42 million to the San Diego Community and Endowment Funds grew to more than $317 million. Additionally, we took the time to thank our outgoing Board of Governors – Paul Meyer, Carisa Wisniewski and Jim Ziegler – for their dedication and years of service to The Foundation and the San Diego Community. We also welcomed new our Board of Governors – Kevin Harris, Jennifer LeSar, Jim Farley, and Horacio Valeiras.
Source: San Diego Foundation.org