Omaha Bar Association Promises Return of Fall Kickoff
For the first time in 50 years, the Omaha Bar Association’s Fall Kickoff, usually held the first Thursday after Labor Day, was canceled due to health concerns caused by COVID-19.
The annual meetup was scheduled for Sept. 10, but instead of getting together for food and drinks, the OBA produced a short video lamenting the cancelation and reassuring members that the Kickoff will return in 2021.
“We are going to miss the outdoor patio where we used to gather with the new members of the bar, welcoming them into the embrace of the Omaha Bar Association,” U.S. District Court Judge and OBA president Laurie Smith Camp says in the video.
“We will miss seeing the familiar faces that we have seen year after year after year,” Smith Camp continues. “It has been a tremendous highlight largely due to the generosity and the hospitality of the First National Bank and the officers of that bank who have graciously welcomed us now for almost five decades.”
The video also includes remarks from Tom Gaughen, the event’s longtime chair, and the event’s founder, J. Terry Mcnamara.
Gaugher says that “2020 will long be remembered as a very, very strange year, but it’ll be remembered by me as a year that this 50-year tradition just missed, and we’ll have to carry it on to next year.”
Mcnamara is already looking forward to a COVID-19-free barbecue next year.
“I’m sorry we missed it in 2020,” Mcnamara said. “It’s been a crazy year. It will get better, we’ll get through this and we’ll be better for it in the future.”
The first Thursday after Labor Day in 2021 is Sept. 9. Watch the OBA tribute video marking this year’s missed event online via YouTube at youtu.be/zRPH2ItZuF0.
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