You can count on the weather in sunny Southern California. Except when you can’t.
You can count on the weather in sunny Southern California. Except when you can’t.
And the unseasonal thunderstorms, lighting strikes, and torrential downpours on the weekend of July 18-19 caused cancellations of important events throughout San Diego County. Over The Line fell prey to the weekend’s wet weather on both days. So did the Sunday Padres baseball matchup against the Colorado Rockies, with a rain delay followed by rescheduling the game for early September. Members of the Old Mission Beach Athletic Club, organizers of the OTL tournament, plan to announce soon when a new round of games completing the contest will continue the play.
But the major annual charity fundraiser for the Santee Lakeside Rotary Club Foundation and the Santee Lakes Foundation, this year’s Fourth Annual Concert At The Lakes, had to be cancelled and cannot be rescheduled. The event was to be held at Santee Lakes Preserve, Lake Five, on July 18, with proceeds slated to support scholarships at local high schools and youth programs at Santee Lakes. Specifically, the money brought in from the event was to go toward scholarships to graduates of Santana, West Hills, and El Capitan High Schools as well as other educational materials in local grade schools. The Santee Lakes Foundation uses funds from Concert At The Lakes for improvements and recreational projects within the Santee Lakes Recreation Preserve.
Event organizers posted their regrets and explanation on the event’s web page, writing, “This is the first cancellation in the history of this event and the first time it rained on July 18 in Santee in thirty years! The safety and comfort of our patrons, the entertainers and our staff were our primary concern—we had no choice except to cancel. We are not able to reschedule this event for many reasons: availability of the performers, the equipment and the venue are just three of them. …We thank you for your support and trust that you agree we made the right decision. It meant a heavy financial burden on both of our charities but the safety and comfort of everyone were far too important to us to proceed.”
The event’s planned four-hour agenda for the evening included a catered dinner, a large silent auction featuring many donated prizes, and the cap to the night of a concert performance from Bella Donna, an acclaimed Fleetwood Mac and Stevie Nicks tribute band. Organizers directed the caterers to deliver the food that had been prepared to local shelters. The event’s flowers were to be taken to area hospitals and nursing homes.
The combined committee from the foundations stated their intent to honor their financial obligations for payments to the entertainers, the stage, lighting and sound agencies, and the caterers. They also offered repayments to ticket purchasers for the event. Ticketholders may receive their money back, or they may request that their purchases be changed to tax-deductible donations.
Tickets should be mailed to this address: Santee-Lakeside Rotary Club, Ticket Refund Request, P.O. Box 711408, Santee, CA 92072–1408. Ticketholders are instructed to include their name and address, together with a note stating whether to swap the ticket price for a contribution or to send a refund.
William E. Pommering is concurrently serving as president for both foundations. Two days after the cancelled event, he had this to say, “We certainly appreciate the outpouring of support from our sponsors, table sponsors and individual ticketholders. Their understanding and support mean so very much to us and let us know that we did the right thing for all concerned. Their willingness to change their ticket purchases to donations means that we will be able to meet some of goals this year and that we can continue to fund scholarships at the three local high schools.”
He concluded with hope and a promise, “We were not able to reschedule this event due to the availability of the performers and the venue. Rather than cause further inconvenience to our supporters, we decided to wait until next year and come back even bigger and better!”
