State of the City 2022

Last night, the annual State of the City presentation took place during the regularly scheduled City Council Meeting. Watch a recording of Mayor McNamara's speech and presentation at: https://escondido.org/meeting-broadcasts

Congratulations to all of this year's City Council Award winners. Thank you for your service to your community and neighbors!

Fill the Boot Drive

On March 10, members of the Escondido Firefighters Association along with Chief Officers and uniformed support staff collected donations at the intersections at Broadway & Hwy 78 and at Via Rancho Parkway & I-15 in support of the annual San Diego Burn Institute "Fill the Boot" fund drive. The Escondido Fire Fighters Association has participated in the "Fill the Boot" fund drive for the Burn Institute for many years and Escondido residents have always been very generous! This year, Escondido firefighters' boots overflowed with more than $10,100!

The Burn Institute's 22^nd Annual Firefighter Boot Drive is the organization's largest one-day fundraiser and all of the funds raised through the Boot Drive will stay locally here in San Diego County. Proceeds benefit the Burn Institute's fire and burn prevention education programs and burn survivor support services such as Camp Beyond the Scars for burn-injured children. This unique camp program has provided a safe place for hundreds of young burn survivors to share their experiences in a supportive and nurturing camp environment. In fact, several children in Escondido attended the camp last year.

The Burn Institute provides other valuable programs to the community such as:

 Youth Firesetter Intervention Program which uses evidence-based risk assessment tools and education to intervene in dangerous fire setting behavior and stop it at the source. This program is available in English and Spanish and is free of charge to residents in San Diego County. Each year, 1 to 2 children in Escondido are referred to this effective program.

 Fire Safe Kids education program for elementary school age children that is delivered at schools in partnership with local Fire Prevention  officers. Thousands of children have been impacted by this program in Escondido.

 Fire Safe Senior program that provides free smoke alarms to homeowners 62 and over. Nearly 100 smoke alarms have been installed in senior citizen's homes in Escondido over the past three years through this program.

Donations can be made anytime by visitingburninstitute.org/donate.

Trail Maintenance at Daley Ranch

Recently, the National Interscholastic Cycling Association (NICA) youth participated in trail maintenance at Daley Ranch. In total, 35 youth and coaches pitched in and did amazing work on the Crest trail.

To make the day even more of a success, Specialized Bicycle sponsored the work day as part of their Soil Searching Initiative to support trails. Specialized graciously provided lunch, refreshments and some awesome merch for all of the participants.

Thank you to everyone who participated in this volunteer opportunity, the City of Escondido appreciates your hard work! Learn about other volunteer opportunities in Escondido here.

State of the City 2022

The 2022 State of the City will take place on Wednesday, March 23as part of the regularly scheduled City Council meeting. This is also when the 2022 City Council Award winners will be announced. The State of the City will be live-streamed at 5p.m. and available for viewing after at:https://www.escondido.org/meeting-broadcasts

Kit Carson Park Fitness Court Now Open

Escondido's next Fitness Court is now open in Kit Carson Park! This past weekend a ribbon cutting ceremony, fitness demonstration, and competition took place on the new court. Members of the City Council, City staff including competitors from Police and Fire, the public, volunteer Fitness Court Ambassadors, and Daisy Camacho the local artist who created the mural that adorns this fitness court were all in attendance. The Fitness Court is an outdoor bodyweight circuit training system that provides a full-body workout to people of all ability levels. With 7 functional fitness zones, the Fitness Court can be used in thousands of ways. Learn more at: https://recreation.escondido.org/fitness-court