When asked about her volunteerism, civic involvement and long life, longtime community leader Deborah Szekely is the first to acknowledge that getting involved is as simple as identifying a need and getting others involved.
“When you’re very healthy, have lots of energy and things that you see need to be done, you do it, you get involved,” Deborah said. “I have the good fortune of having many friends. So, whenever I get really involved in something, I get all my friends involved. That works better!”
Youthful Friendships
When asked about the key to living a happy and gratifying life, the centenarian is quick to share the secret – friends.
“Good friends! You don’t need lots of them,” she emphasized. “A friend is the kind of person if you were to call in the middle of the night and say ‘I need help,’ they’ll be in a car and on their way.”
She walks daily to the park in her neighborhood and has a lively social calendar with events to attend every weekend, thanks to her close friends.
“It’s having a few really good friends that share and think as you do and support you. Particularly at my age – you always need friends who are younger, because then you’re doing the things when you’re 40 that the 30-year-olds are doing! So have close friends who are younger.”
Those friends have been a key part of Deborah’s service to causes near and far.
She helped start the then-Pacific American Foundation, now known as the International Community Foundation, which has 15 staff members and granted $12.5 Million to organizations in Latin America, the Caribbean and China in 2022. She joined with her friends as a founding member of the San Diego Women’s Foundation, a supporting organization of San Diego Foundation (SDF), in 2000.
She called on her friends when she fundraised to rebuild the Old Globe Theatre after it was destroyed in a fire in 1978, and again to found the Combined Arts and Education Council of San Diego County (COMBO), a local arts funding organization active from 1964 through the 1980s.
While her many friends donated time and treasure to the fundraisers she volunteered for, Deborah has always been judicious with asking others for assistance. She said, “I never asked either my children or my friends for anything that they would want to say no to.”
Getting Started
When it comes to getting started in volunteering and philanthropy, Deborah has very straightforward advice.
“Become a volunteer in several organizations,” she said. “And once you get started, you have so many chances to be able to make a better world.”
A better world, to Deborah, means two things in particular: good health and a lack of poverty.
So much of her work – both professional and personal – has focused on these two issues. When Deborah thinks back on her early volunteer efforts in Mexico, she tells the story of a young woman who was a housekeeper at Rancho La Puerta. The young woman had left her job to have a baby. When Deborah ran into her in town, she inquired after her baby. The young mother was distraught since doctors had diagnosed the baby with developmental issues. Deborah asked to see the baby and it became a turning point for both the child and Deborah’s fundraising.
“She brought me the baby [to meet],” Deborah said. “She was a really healthy vigorous little girl playing with her toes. I had read someplace that many children are misdiagnosed [with developmental issues] because they are deaf and this had stuck in my head. I had on my desk a stack of books and I dropped them on the floor, and the baby didn’t flinch.”
With that proof in hand, Deborah arranged for the mother to take the baby to Mercy Hospital, where they examined her and fitted her for hearing aids. That one action – of helping one person in need – grew into fundraising for hearing aid batteries via a jar at the front desk of Rancho La Puerta, the world-renowned wellness resort and spa Deborah and her family manage in Tecate, Mexico.
That initial act led to starting a school to teach sign language to deaf children and their families in Mexico. Deborah repurposed a trailer at Rancho La Puerta and hired a teacher for the deaf. It became the first school of its kind in Baja California and families came from Tijuana and Ensenada. Eventually, the Mexican government recognized the need and created a school for the deaf in Baja California.
“It’s very satisfying to be able to help everybody, but particularly children — they have a life ahead of them,” Deborah said. “And I enjoy doing that.”
Lessons for Living
In looking back at her century of living, Deborah has helped many people and causes. She is the first to admit that she never did anything alone.
“I don’t create these things myself,” she stated. “But I have the good fortune.”
That good fortune is something Deborah continues to be grateful for – and she ascribes her longevity and strength to it, too.
“When I wake up in the morning, I don’t just jump out of bed,” Deborah said. “I spend a few minutes being thankful for my good fortune and making gratitude real. It’s not just words, but really feeling the blessings. And we are so blessed. In my case, I think that feeling blessed gives you a lot of strength.”
Ways to Give
Deborah is one of many donors who partner with SDF to amplify their giving. Whether you want to make an immediate impact, a big impact or a lasting impact, San Diego Foundation provides opportunities for you to get started or grow your philanthropy.
