Volunteer service day at the Escondido Moose

Come help the members of the Escondido Moose Lodge in finishing cleaning their newly revamped park in anticipation of reopening as soon as County health rules allow.

Volunteers are needed to assist with sweeping, raking, and light cleaning of the park grounds. Water will be provided.

All volunteers should wear a mask, and social distancing will be practiced.

The event will begin at 9 a.m. Saturday, March 6. View the calendar listing.

Driving interest in your online events

As the COVID pandemic drags on seemingly intermittently, we have gone from “Two weeks to flatten the curve” to coming up on a full year of severe restrictions on in-person gatherings.

Many nonprofit and public service agencies have simply had to shut down: Youth sports leagues have been able to hold limited practices, but not games. Volunteer auxiliaries for our public libraries, museums, and city, county and state parks have simply gone on hiatus as those facilities have been shuttered.

Others have switched to online “virtual” meetings on platforms such as Zoom, GoToMeeting, Google, etc.

But more than 10 months into the shutdowns, it is getting more challenging by the week to keep our members – whether Scouting units or service club members – to participate in the virtual meetings.

The folks at The Events Calendar, whose website calendaring software we use here at Knights of Buena Creek for the Community Calendar, have put out a list of ways to help sustain enthusiasm for and participation in virtual events.

Among their suggestions are:

  • Send multiple email reminders, with embedded links
  • Include Q&A sessions at the end, or hold a raffle for those who attend
  • Make sure you have the right moderator – someone with the personality to hold the (virtual) room’s attention.

You can read the whole article on The Events Calendar’s blog.

Moose Lodge hosts Lions Club’s Eagle Scout ceremony

Four Eagle Scouts were installed into the highest rank of the Boy Scouts of America at a noon ceremony on Oct. 11 at the Escondido Moose Lodge (#1874). Troop 651, sponsored by the Lions Club of San Marcos, welcomed the Troop’s four latest Eagles.

The ceremony at the Moose was the result of a January breakfast between the Moose, the Lions and the Lake San Marcos Kiwanis Club on ways to coordinate their service to youth through their Scouting units. As the Lions Club and Kiwanis do not have their own lodges, the Moose has made its campus available for those clubs’ Scouting units alongside its own unit.

The Moose Lodge charters Cub Scout Pack 640, while the Kiwanis charters Pack 662. All three units – plus others – pitched in at two recent volunteer workdays at the Moose, helping clear brush along the creekbed to lessen this year’s fire danger.

Sunday’s ceremony was held under the County’s health order; only immediate family were present in person – while the ceremony was livestreamed via Zoom to the rest of the troop, the Lions Club, and extended friends and family. Those who attended wore masks, and practiced social distancing.

Scouts help clean up Escondido Moose Lodge

More than two dozen Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts and parent volunteers gathered at 8 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 12 to work in den and patrol groups to help the Escondido Moose Lodge (#1874) clean up brush and complete tree removal. The volunteer clean-up day was in response to the Deer Springs Fire Prevention District’s ongoing abatement program to try to lower the fire danger in the region.

Cub Scout Pack 662 (Lake San Marcos Kiwanis Club) joined the Moose Lodge’s own Pack 640. Also participating were Boy Scout Troop 651 (San Marcos Lion’s Club), Escondido Troop 659, and Troop 760 from the Vista Boys & Girls Club.

More than a ton of greens debris was loaded into two large stake bed trailers and taken to the Escondido recycling yard to be converted into mulch.

Lions Club, Boy Scouts pitch in at Escondido Moose

Boy Scout Troop 651 (San Marcos Lions Club) showed up Saturday, September 5, at the Escondido Moose Lodge to assist with fire abatement efforts. Working with Moose members, the Scouts helped clear away brush, gathered palm fronds being cut down, and stacked firewood.

Lake San Marcos Kiwanian elected District Governor-elect

Lake San Marcos Kiwanis announced that member Margo Dutton was elected Governor-elect of the Cal-Nev-Ha District for the 2020-2021 term.

The California-Nevada-Hawaii District of Kiwanis International is composed of 40 divisions spread across three states, with dozens of individual clubs. In turn, those clubs sponsor dozens of Circle K (colleges and universities), Key Clubs (high schools), Builders Club (middle school), K-Kids (elementary school, and Aktion Clubs (special needs adults). In addition, Kiwanis Clubs charter dozens of Boy Scout troops, Cub Scout packs, Venturing crews, Sea Scout ships, and Exploring posts. Other youth service organizations sponsored by or receiving financial support from Kiwanis Clubs include 4-H clubs, Future Farmers of America, JR ROTC detachments, and more.