Editorial

    There were 3,500 people living in the small community of Orinda in 1946. The Orinda Country Club and Casa Orinda would be familiar to the 19,000 residents today, but the farms and ranches south of what was then Mt. Diablo Boulevard – and what is now a modern freeway with a BART station in the middle – would look like they were from another time.
    But farms or suburbs, 3,000 people or 19,000, one thing has remained consistent: A vibrant, enduring community spirit.
    No organization exemplifies that spirit more than The Orinda Association, which was founded in that inflationary, post-war year. And since 1946, it has served as the tentpole for a broad array of civic groups that all strive to make Orinda a better place to live.
    The OA and its board work hard to keep the community informed with The Orinda News, and keep it entertained with the 4th of July Parade and Classic Car Show, but also reaches out to sometimes isolated seniors who lack transportation with its justly praised Seniors Around Town program.
    But The OA is far from alone. Long-time service organizations such as the Rotary Club of Orinda and the Orinda Woman’s Club have raised funds and sponsored community projects for decades. The Orinda Community Foundation donates to deserving groups and also has absorbed the Orinda Park and Recreation Foundation, which for many years, helped build and maintain open space and parks.
    The Orinda Junior Women’s Club, the Orinda/Tabor Sister City Foundation, the Orinda Historical Society, the Lamorinda Arts Council, the Friends of the Orinda Library and the Orinda Network for Education (ONE) have all contributed, in a variety of ways, to making Orinda the cohesive community it is today. (And we do not have the space to mention every volunteer group that works hard to improve and maintain the city – we apologize in advance to all who deserved to be mentioned, but were not.)
    But The Orinda Association can point with pride to being the first of many such organizations. And for any volunteer organization to survive and thrive for 80 years is a testament to the time and energy invested by its members – time and energy that is still being invested today.
    And without The OA and all the other volunteer organizations, from school to sports to the environment, Orinda would not be the city it is today – and we would all have much less to celebrate and enjoy about the city we live in.