Community Corner

NAACP Leader, Environmentalist Honored By Local Democrats

Lake Elsinore was well represented during the annual event.

The woman who heads the and a man who leads an environmental action committee for the Sierra Club and is an outspoken opponent of the local Liberty Quarry project were both honored this past weekend by the Democratic Club of Southwest Riverside County.

Mary Venerable and Fred Bartz were honored by the club as “Volunteers of the Year” in recognition of their community activism. The honors were presented at the club’s annual awards dinner Feb. 4 at Harveston Community Center in Temecula.

Also honored at the event for their volunteer service to the community were Brenda Phillips of Lake Elsinore and Nick Shestople of Temecula. Among other things, Phillips serves as secretary of the local NAACP branch and has volunteered her service to the California State Federation of Chapters of the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association. Shestople, among other things, is an active supporter of the local temple Chabad Jewish Center in Temecula and serves as president of the NARFE Southwest Riverside County Chapter #478.

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For her part, Venerable has been a longtime presence in Lake Elsinore. She helped found the Lake Elsinore/Southwest Riverside County Branch of the NAACP in 1997 and is currently serving as its president. Since 2005 she has been a member of the Citizens Advisory Committee to the Riverside County Transportation Commission. A retired Federal employee, Venerable is also active in the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association, and in 2008 was selected as the organization’s first National Service Officer of the Year.

Bartz is a member of the Sierra Club Santa Margarita Group of the San Gorgonio chapter. He is also a member of the Save our Southwest Hills organization and as such has been an outspoken leader in the opposition to the

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“A recent arrival to the Temecula Valley after retiring from Chrysler-Mercedes Benz, Bartz told the group that he never anticipated being a community activist but couldn’t just sit by and let the Liberty Quarry despoil the local environment,” according to a news release from the Feb. 4 event.

 

 


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