OBA Wine Tasting Moves to Zoom Setting With Great Success
More than 200 people virtually attended the Omaha Bar Association’s 2021 wine tasting event last week, held remotely for the first time in its 21-year history due to the pandemic.
OBA Executive Director Dave Sommers was not going to let a worldwide pandemic – nor a blizzard that blanketed the Midwest the week of the wine tasting – get in the way of the annual get-together. To get the wine and goodie bags into the hands of attendees, Sommers braved up to 12 inches of snow and cold to provide pickup sites throughout the city.
Dave Koukol, who took over as association president after the unexpected death of Judge Laurie Smith Camp last September, said he was pleased to see so many faces in attendance.
Koukol praised Sommers not only for organizing the virtual event but also for all that he has been able to do during the pandemic to continue to provide content for bar association members.
Having been thrust into the role a year earlier than expected, Koukol said his primary goal for the remainder of his term is to continue the projects that Smith Camp had started, including a bar association book club focused on local and legally related subjects.
Smith Camp, the first woman to be appointed to Nebraska’s federal bench, had also put into motion a plan to get copies of “Brave & Bold: Ten Heroes Who Won Women the Right to Vote” into the hands of Omaha’s grade school students. The book, written by New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, with illustrations by Maira Kalman, profiles 10 suffragists, including Susan B. Anthony, Sojourner Truth and Ida B. Wells, who fought for women’s right to vote.
With donations from OBA members, Koukol hopes to realize Smith Camp’s goal by Law Day this year. Koukol also mentioned that the OBA executive committee had formed a committee to look into placing a dedication to Smith Camp on the front inside cover of each copy of the book.
Before turning things back over to Sommers to announce the winning raffle numbers for gift cards for wine, beer and spirits, Koukol raised his glass and proposed a toast:
“Raise a glass and I’m gonna toast to our colleagues, our families, our friends who we lost this past year, including Judge Laurie Smith Camp and longtime OBA Executive Director Mardee Korinek Johnston, to the health of all who are still with us and continue to persevere through these trying times,” Koukol said. “May we use our skills as lawyers to help those who are less fortunate than us, and to the future when we can all meet in person, shake each other’s hands, look each other in the eye and get back to our normal.”
Koukol hopes that the OBA can start to host in person events again later this year. The wine tasting is sponsored by The Daily Record.
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