One of Ocean Beach\u2019s own, Claudia Jack, associate director of OB MainStreet Association, has been named 2014 Irish Woman of the Year.
\nJack is a board member of the Irish Congress of Southern California, Inc., a nonprofit promoting appreciation of Irish culture, which annually plans and implements the St. Patrick\u2019s Day Parade and Irish Festival in Balboa Park.
\n“You ride in the parade and represent the Irish Congress, mostly at events in Balboa Park, throughout the year,” said Jack of her role as Irish Woman of the year.\u00a0
\nAs an annual St. Pat\u2019s parade volunteer, Jack said her job involves “doing all the logistics, including the setup and teardown.”
\nJack handles the arrangements for all the parade facilities, everything from the stages and fencing to the porta-potties. That task requires her to interface with the city administration, the fire marshal, the Park and Rec Department, the police, EMTs and the ABC, state Department of Alcohol and Beverage Control.
\nA key part of her job doing parade logistics involves keeping costs to a minimum. She said she does that by paying attention to detail, and by encouraging her colleagues to follow-through on all of their job functions.
\nOf her designation as Irish Woman of the Year, Jack said “it\u2019s a real honor.”
\nThe 34th Annual St. Patrick\u2019s Day Parade and Festival with the theme “Celebrating People in Public Service,” will be held Saturday, March 15. The free event, held from 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., will feature more than 100 entries including marching bands, equestrians, police and fire units, equestrians, Irish dancers and plenty of dignitaries.
\nJack has been doing volunteer work for the St. Pats parade and festival the last 10 years.
\nThe Irish Obecean also runs OB Services, which contracts with the BID to collect trash along Newport Avenue in the beach community\u2019s business district.
\nThere\u2019s a large Irish influence in San Diego, “more than you think,” noted Jack pointing out there are “Irish Societies” throughout the community, as well as a House of Ireland in Balboa Park.
\n“There are Irish events featuring dancing all year long,” Jack said. “It\u2019s a big thing.”
\nJack this year is chairman of seven-member\u00a0\u00a0board which represents the Irish Congress and conducts the St. Patrick\u2019s parade.
\nWhat does it mean to be Irish?
\n“That you\u2019re crazy,” answered Jack adding, “I\u2019m crazy.”
\nAsked if she\u2019s gotten any notoriety as Irish Woman of the Year, Jack replied that she has.
\n“I was over at the Imperial House Lounge the other night and two men from across the room bought me two shots of whiskey,” Jack said. “I didn\u2019t want to tell them I don\u2019t drink. So I acted like I did, but gave them to two of my friends. I didn\u2019t want to hurt their feelings.”
\nBorn and raised in San Diego to an Irish Catholic family, Jack was taught the importance of volunteerism and public service early on. Her dad worked for Convair\/General Dynamics and was constantly involved in volunteer activities which included his children. \u00a0He was a member of the Elks Lodge, whose members adopted a less fortunate family for Christmas.
\n“Volunteering is like a vitamin \u2014 it\u2019s good for you,” noted Jack who is carrying on her family tradition of volunteerism. She added being an Irish Congress volunteer is rewarding because it promotes the St. Pats parade and festival which are “very positive family events.”
\nJack has been chairperson of the Ocean Beach Christmas Tree Festival for 15 years and coordinates more than 200 vendors at the Ocean Beach Street Fair in June.\u00a0 She can also be found at the PGA\u2019s Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines, the Power Boat races on Mission Bay, the annual Oktoberfest and many more community events throughout the year.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One of Ocean Beach\u2019s own, Claudia Jack, associate director of OB MainStreet Association, has been named 2014 Irish Woman of the Year. Jack is a board member of the Irish Congress of Southern California, Inc., a nonprofit promoting appreciation of Irish culture, which annually plans and implements the St. Patrick\u2019s Day Parade and Irish Festival […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11561","_seopress_titles_title":"Claudia Jack claims honor as Irish Woman of the Year","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551,11593,11561],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-298287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-no-images","category-peninsula-beacon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298287\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}