Elana has been a Santee-Lakeside Rotary Club member for 10 years. She is a past club president several times over, and is currently our Foundation Treasurer. Click Read More below to see a few of the reasons she is so deserving of this honor!
Elana brings happiness to every Rotary meeting (and Happy Bucket - giving dollars to guests so they can share happy too), but she also does a ton of work behind the scenes, in addition to what you may see of her on Social Media. Elana takes club meeting speaker and event photos and posts them to our social media along with a detailed recap of the speakers. Each meeting Elana contacts our members, collects lunch orders each meeting, picks up the food and brings it to us. Elana greets every Rotarian like a long lost friend and brings joy and energy to every meeting and event she is part of. Elana is in charge of our cub’s Rotary District Grant program which includes the time consuming application and reporting process.
This year Elana did a great deal of Rotary international travel - to places like India to help build a dam and attend a meeting at the Rotary Club of Dehli West, and to Kenya and Ethiopia where she saw incredible animals and more incredible people, and went to a Rotary meeting in Addis Ababa. She travels with Rotarians from outside San Diego and brings the knowledge of their clubs, experiences and Rotary achievements around the world back to Santee.
When Elana is not traveling for Rotary, she is very involved with many of the organizations we support during our club’s Rotary events, and often year-round additionally. In the past year she has delivered food to seniors for the Santee Food Bank, had a weekly route with Meals on Wheels bringing food & cheer to Seniors, collected supplies for We Care Bags for Seniors, was on the SMOAC committee to plan Buddy’s Backpack collection and giveaway to students, participated in our Feeding San Diego food sorting event, volunteered at Special Olympics at West Hills HS, helped build a home in a day in Tijuana with Project Mercy, helped Stamp Out Hunger with the USPS by collecting donations from the trucks and delivering to the Santee Food Bank, participated in the I Love a Clean San Diego trash cleanup at Mission Trails Regional Park, was a facilitator at the 3-day RYLA camp for exceptional high school junior leaders we sponsor in Idyllwild, collected and delivered books for our donation drive with the Friendly Used Book Store, and coordinated the homemade cards for Seniors at the holidays with our Elementary schools. If Elana is traveling during one of our events, she is active in making sure all bases are covered in her absence with the organizations and Rotarians.
Elana has also supported other local Rotary Clubs in their projects and fundraising such as she helped make 10,000 meals with the Outreach Program with Mission Valley clubs, helped with food distribution to military families with Club 33 downtown and walked in the End Polio Now Walk with District Rotaract (college age Rotarians). Elana collected food, clothes, blankets and toys and brought them to Ensenada Rotary Club for an event that benefited 1,000 families, recruited several Rotarians to join her on a Chula Vista club winery hike and a Trivia Night.
Outside of Rotary, and Rotary supported organizations, Elana serves food monthly at St. Vincent de Paul Village and for the Salvation Army on Thanksgiving and Christmas for the past 24 years. She just completed a third four-year term as a Santee School Board member.
Elana deserves this recognition because she takes the time to share upcoming volunteer opportunities, fun events, and fundraising events for good causes around the county and beyond, that she thinks will appeal to our Rotary Club or her fan base. She participates in many of them.
Elana personally supports all of Santee and San Diego’s offerings. Her volunteering is mixed in with a weekly adventure day with her two grandkids Trevor and Layla, Aztec basketball and Padres baseball games, numerous adventures with her Take a Hike group, very regular attendance at Off Broadway Live (where she also volunteers), Old Globe Theater, San Diego Musical Theater, Temple Emanu-El events, 80’s music performances and so much more.
And YET - with all of that volunteering, travel and fun - Elana never misses an opportunity to better our club. No matter where she is in the world, she will read my emails and ask if I also wanted to share with the club a particular piece of information or registration link. She shares upcoming dates. She is my best “reminder” for anything and everything and I appreciate her each and every day for keeping me on task, and for keeping our club at the top of her priority list. She keeps very regular tabs on most every Rotarian in our club and offers to bring a support card for us to sign if one is needed or offers a ride to a Rotarian who might need one. Elana doesn’t miss opportunities to do 100 small things that make people happy and feel included. Her posts always start with thanking each and everyone and organization involved in a project and making them feel seen and appreciated.
I have certainly left out much. She is amazing. There could not be a better Rotarian than Elana Levens-Craig and I am proud to help honor her commitment!
Karen Fleck, Santee-Lakeside Club President 2023-2025