S.D caterer honored for her giving spirit

By Donald H. Harrison

SAN DIEGO – Caterer Olga Worm was honored Friday night, Feb. 5, with the Tifereth Israel Synagogue Sisterhood President’s Award. Speakers lauded not only her contributions to Sisterhood, but also her commitment to foster children, outreach to people down on their luck, and her generosity to the employees and clients of Bekker’s Catering.

A parade of speakers lauded Worm, starting during Sisterhood-officiated Erev Shabbat services at the Conservative Synagogue, and continuing in the social hall at a kosher chicken dinner for 120 catered by The Place. (Had Worm been involved in the catering, one assumes she would have focused on making sure everyone else was happy, instead of listening to the tributes.)

Judy Gumbiner, president of the Tifereth Israel Sisterhood, listed some of the honors that Bekker’s  has won in the last several years.  In 2015 alone, these included accolades in the San Diego Business Journal as “Top 10 List of Independent Caterers;” “Most Admired CEO;” and  “SD Top 100 Fastest Growing Companies.”  That same year the Union-Tribune included Worm’s company in the “Top 5 Caterers in San Diego County;” the National Association of Women’s Business Owners conferred on Worm its “Signature Award;” and at the annual Business Women’s Mega Mixer, Worm was given the “Women Making History Entrepreneur Award.”

Gumbiner recalled that when weather threatened an outdoor dinner for paid-up Sisterhood members at Tifereth Israel Synagogue, Worm came to the rescue by “providing heat and overhead protection in the form of canopies” to save the day.  Gumbiner also noted that in over 35 years  of association with the synagogue, Worm had served as Sisterhood President on several occasions.

“You have the energy of ten people,” Gumbiner commented. “You have always been available to help with whatever was needed for our organization.  You have done so with such graciousness and so willingly and with a smile.  You have provided leadership and we know we can always count on you.”

Gail L. Robinson, a Sisterhood member, said that Worm is a person who “makes it appear easy… from a Sisterhood dinner of 50 to feeding 10,000 at Petco Park.  And individually she is always there when you need her.  She could wear a T-shirt, ‘No kid or Yid left behind.’  if you’re just out of jail and need a job or a fellow lantzman needing a seder, Olga is always there.”

Cristina Rosas DiMaggio, a program coordinator with the County of San Diego’s Foster Adoptive Resource Family Service Operations, in a letter read to the gathering, wrote that “I burst into tears the first time that Olga catered an event for me.  Olga had quoted me an absolute bargain price to cater a picnic lunch at Mission Bay for my program.  Given this, I expected to see a few chafing dishes, Styrofoam plates, plastic forks and paper napkins flapping in the wind.  Instead I arrived to find beautiful bright canopies shading rows of festively decorated tables holding a lavish array of homemade Mexican fare. All this set among fresh flowers, replete with colorful fruits and veggies presented as edible works of art.  The plates were crafted of bamboo, a sustainable and biodegradable material, the cutlery of equally sustainable, biodegradable potato starch, the napkins and table covers-multi-hued linen…

“The recipients of this profuse act of kindness are among San Diego’s most vulnerable foster children, and their amazingly dedicated foster parents….” DiMaggio wrote.

An even more personal salute to Worm’s dedication to foster children was delivered by Heather Cole.  She said that when she was a foster child attending high school, she met Worm’s daughter Marla, and learned that Olga was producing “Sentimental Journey,” a musical show.   “I auditioned and got a part, which I was very excited about.  My foster parents were planning on moving to Oregon, and they were not happy when I told them I did not want to go.  I ended up back at Polinsky Children’s Center.  I took a bus to school every morning, which required me to be up at 4 a.m., but staying in theatre and being with my friends was all I had, so I did.  We were rehearsing for a play and I remember everyone coming up to me and congratulating me, but I didn’t know why. Someone told me to ask Marla, and she told me ‘we are going to be sisters!’  That same day I packed up my bag and drove with my mentor to the Worms’ house in Alpine and I never looked back.  I came to find out that Olga had found out that I needed a place to live, and her response had been simply, ‘she can live here.’

“From the moment I walked through the door at the Alpine house, I was family,” Cole continued.  “Not ‘I was treated like family,’ I was family.  I had chores, I bickered with my siblings, I got in trouble all the time.  I was a pain. But they didn’t do what foster parents do, foster parents give you back.  Parents tell you to cut it out, take away your TV, and send you back to school the next day.  Parents teach you how to be better.  The Worms helped me visit Europe, got me through high school, taught me to drive, gave me a work ethic and taught me to be a good person.  Olga taught me to be a woman, and because of her I am strong. I learn from her every day…”

Cole now works at Bekker’s as does “Doc” Tyler, who wrote a nine-stanza poem in tribute to Worm.  These four stanza’s convey the poem’s sentiment:

An opportunity to get back up
After you’ve had a fall
With no pre-, present-, or post-judgment
She helps you stand and walk tall

No matter what her means or mode
Personal belief or stance
Whether it’s a warm, gentle hug
Or a swift and mighty kick in the pants

I’ve heard it be said
It’s her way or the highway
That’s just it, it is her way
Forget about the highway!

Personally, Olga has been that shining star
In my darkest hour
In my withering garden
She’s been that blooming flower

There were other tributes from daughters Lara and Marla, as Olga’s husband, Oscar, beamed through it all.  Olga’s father, Al Jacobs, accompanied on the piano some of the tributes that were put to song.

In her own remarks, Worm recalled her 35 years with the Sisterhood, remarking at one point that “during that year of being president, my son, Scott, was born.  The ladies had the best time passing him around at board meetings while I ran the meeting. I think he was the only baby to be born to a serving Sisterhood president.”

During a 12-year period the Worm family lived in Alpine, where Worm organized a group called the Alpine Jewish Connection.  She also served as vice president of education on the Tifereth Israel Synagogue board and as president of the National Council of Jewish Women, as a volunteer for Food on Wheels, a 4H leader, and Girl Scout leader.

Worm commented that Tifereth Israel has “an amazing Sisterhood team that bakes and trays goodies for every service.  Think of all the community services we have done over the years such as serving at the Cottage of Israel, helping needy families, visiting the bereaved and so much more. We have interesting, fun and educational programs throughout the year.”

“Even with all the wonderful ‘things’ we have done and continue to do together,” she added, “I think you will all agree that it is the relationships and deep friendships that keep us together.  We all have our common bond of Jewish community, and our common goal of Jewish continuity, but we all rely on each other to make us feel good.

“One of my favorite quotes is from Maya Angelou: ‘People won’t remember what you said.  They won’t remember what you did.  They will only remember how you made them feel.’  So I do my best to make people feel good.  And Sisterhood has made me feel good for 35 years, and I look forward to many more.”

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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World.  He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com  Comments intended for publication in the space below must be accompanied by the letter writer’s first and last name and by his/ her city and state of residence (city and country for those outside the U.S.)