Photo credit: Roger Humphries Photography
The 2019 Friends of Scottish Rite Dinner was a record-setter! This year, the Dinner and Auction was held on Friday, October 25th, welcoming a record 232 guests! Dinner guests enjoyed a hosted wine tasting and fine Scotch tasting, bid on extraordinary silent and live auction items, including a handmade hope chest made by A.J. Johnson, a Sonoma Wine Tasting trip, a luxury Mexico getaway, autographed baseballs, basketball and hockey tickets, golf foursomes, and numerous baskets donated by members.
The evening was a benefit for the Scottish Rite Foundation of Omaha’s principal philanthropy, the RiteCare Speech and Language Clinic at the UNMC Munroe-Meyer Institute.
Our emcee for the evening was Chris Baker, radio host on KFAB-1110 AM. Chris called up Charles V. Sederstrom, Jr., 33°, SGIG in Nebraska, to recognize our 2019 Friends of Scottish Rite honoree Dr. Karoly Mirnics. Karoly is Director of the UNMC Munroe-Meyer Institute. Under his tenure, MMI has raised more than $90 million dollars for a new building on the Ak-Sar-Ben campus and grows their capacity to serve children with intellectual and developmental disabilities. He has been a passionate advocate for MMI services, and an enthusiastic supporter for the RiteCare Speech Clinic. As General Secretary Emeritus Curt Edic, 33° G.C. recalled, there were several reasons he was the obvious choice for Director at MMI:
His building relations with and securing grants from local, state, and national government organizations
Building relationships with community organizations, including the Autism Action Partnership, Autism Center of Nebraska, WhyArts, and the Scottish Rite
His nationally-recognized research
And most importantly, Karoly is “a really nice guy.” In that assessment, Curt could not have been more right, and Dr. Mirnics has been a true friend to the Scottish Rite Foundation.
Chris welcomed RiteCare parents Andrew and Amber Francis, who spoke about how their child Caleb has received services, and how he continues to make strides in his ability to communicate and learn.
This year marked a significant change for the Friends Dinner. For 11 years, it has been Friends of Scottish Rite, but now it will be known as the Friends of RiteCare Dinner, recognizing the true purpose of the event - raising funds for the RiteCare Clinic services and supporting our principal philanthropy.
The Scottish Rite is indebted to the Nebraska Student Speech-Language Hearing Association (NSSLHA) students at the University of Nebraska at Omaha who volunteered for the evening, setting up, serving hors d’oeuvres and dinner, and cleaning up afterward. NSSLHA students have been involved for many years as volunteers. Beginning in 2020, the NSSLHA students will receive additional recognition by being called up to give a few minutes presentation on their activities during the year as speech students.
The evening raised approximately $60,000 for speech therapy, including about $8,000 for a special appeal directly for RiteCare speech therapy.
Next year’s dinner will be on Friday, November 6, 2019 at the Scottish Rite. Plan to join us for another great Dinner and Auction!