Lisl Schick Day: WEDU “Be More Involved” Award Winner!

Be More Involved | Mason Dixon Award for Volunteerism

Mrs. Schick will recount her amazing journey from Vienna to England to the United States at 1pm on March 1.  A regularly scheduled docent tour of the Museum’s permanent exhibition will begin at 2pm.

Mrs. Schick was selected as the winner of this year’s WEDU Be More Involved | Mason Dixon Award for Volunteerism. In honor of this wonderful accomplishment, Lisl Schick Day will take place on March 1, 2016 at The Florida Holocaust Museum. A percentage of all admission on this day go to educational programs that Lisl Schick supports!

Lisl Schick was born in Vienna, Austria in 1927.

In 1939, at age eleven, she and her seven year old brother escaped Nazi-occupied Austria on a Kindertransport train for England, where they lived for six years before being reunited with their parents in New York.

This life-defining experience has led Mrs. Schick to volunteer hundreds of hours speaking at schools and with tour groups at The Florida Holocaust Museum. She translates staggering numbers into an individual story, situating it in historical context for audiences and emphasizing how we all have the potential to make a positive difference through upstander behavior.

Sharing her testimony with children who are the same age she was during the Holocaust is a powerful teaching tool, something to which students attest in their thank you letters:

• “You showed us responsibility and maturity. I was intrigued when I heard that you, a young girl at the time, could be so responsible and uplifting to your brother on the train. This is meaningful to people because they could look back and act like you did.”
• “I intend to use this information in the future so that I will not be a bystander if someone is getting bullied.”

To honor local educators Mrs. Schick sponsors the annual Walter Porges Teacher Appreciation Evening in memory of her brother. She also serves on The Florida Holocaust Museum’s Board of Directors and the annual gala committee.

In addition Mrs. Schick helped found the Ruth Eckerd Performing Arts Center, serving on its first Board of Directors. She helped establish Planters, the women’s educational and fundraising branch for the Morton Plant/Mease Foundation. She held leadership roles for the Pinellas County Medical Auxiliary, American Cancer Society, and Hadassah, for which she was the first elected National Vice President from the State of Florida.