January 17th club meeting

Mike McIntosh started the club of rigth with a close-enough-to-count recount of last week's quote: "I want to be all I'm capable of becoming" - Mike recited something that sounded very similar to the U.S. Army's motto, "be all that you can be." Thanks, Helen, for the inspirational quotes. Perhaps I can talk to her about blogging/posting the quote every time there is a new one. It would be a great thing to save on the club webpage.

DIMES collected so far: $43! Remember to bring yours every 3rd Thursday of the month.

TRI-STAR update: Sheila Newland bragged on all the help and how well it went on January 8th, and she even read aloud the list of winners. Mike McIntosh's son was amongst the winners! Way to go, Joe! And way to go to Sheila and Scott for chairing this committee to put on a great tournament.

Tri-Star Finals are to be held in the NC Fieldhouse on March 12th at 2:00 pm

TRI-STAR BANQUET - February 15th, 6:30 pm @ Mancino's - RSVP Sheila for Pizza
buffet and attendance. We'll be awarding all the winners with dinner and a trophy.

MONTHLY BIRTHDAY MEETING - January 31st - President Helen will be honoring all January birthdays, so don't forget to join us to treats!

COURIER-TIMES clippings of club minutes needed for November. If you keep old Couriers, look to see if there are Noon Optimist club minutes printed and pass these to Jan for the scrapbook.

ZONE MEETING: this Tuesday (we just got word!), Jan. 24th at 7:00 pm.

Our own Christian Miller was the guest speaker at club, and she gave a wonderful speech about local history in celebration of upcoming Black History Month. Check out her pictures and research on display at the New Castle-Henry County Public Library. Very informative, Christian - she is a fount of knowledge!

Jerry Schaeffer won the 50/50 drawing and gave back to the scholaship fund.
See you all next week when Gene Dickerson will be in the Membership Spotlight.

November 22nd Meeting

Helen prepared a wonderful holiday club meeting before Thanksgiving.

Our guests were Mike Burch, Lt. Governor of our Zone 9, and his wife Jackie. They bragged on our zone clubs rising membership and how well the Youth Appreciation Banquet went. Juanita Sheward was also a guest, and bragged as well, but also reported how sorry she was that only the Breakfast Optimist Club name was listed in the Youth Appreciation week in the Courier Times article. Her club is writing a letter to the editor to report this mistake.

Dimes were collected on this 4th Thursday of the month - can't wait to see what all our purse-dumping and pocket-clutchings amounted to! And save those dimes for the end of December.

Our own Kevin Flannagin had to attend a funeral, so he wasn't able to speak. Helen prepared some lovely readings, in which Melissa True read an "I'm thankful for..." poem and I (Angela) read a Thanksgiving story from an Ideals book. Helen read her favorite Psalms scripture and spoke of her own family memories. It was a very nice to reflect for what we are thankful.


OTHER NEWS

Board meeting - Tuesday, November 29th, 11 am, Mancinos

Brandy Conley reported the Mini Winter Fest event to be held at Kenny Irwin Jr. Camp December 10th from 10-12 pm; would take any gift or cash donations for childrens' presents giving.

Juanita Sheward announced the Breakfast Club's annual Christmas auction at the alternative school - December 19th at the old 7th grade bldg. on Walnut/14th St. from 8:30-2:00. The club will need help with all the wrapping in the cafeteria, so come on out.

Nov. 29th - montly birthday celebration
Dec. 6th - Chinese auction
Dec. 13th - Club Christmas program

See you at club!

Vegas Raffle Winners!

On September 12th, we had our annual Vegas Raffle drawing. Becky Price won the grand prize and Jeannie Hall received a $100 savings bond from Citizens.

Thanks to everyone who worked hard at selling tickets. It all goes to the youth of the community!

President Angela

September 13, 2005

My next-to-last club meetings as president was quite an exciting one. We welcomed Jack Spangler, who just transferred to be an Optimist club member. He has been president of the club in the past, and we are pleased to have him back. Also, Josephine Kaiser from the New Castle-Henry County Library has just joined our club as well! It is a great time to be an Optimist.

Janet Modjeski was the guest speaker from the Pregnancy Life Center. The organization had a successful Walk for Life fundraiser this year, which is annually on the Saturday after Labor Day.

Jack Blum won the 50/50 drawing and received 10 dollars! Shelia Newland and Jan Preusz donated items for additional drawings, and Wilburne Stamper and Jack Spangler won a homemade apple pie and an original Broadway cast recording of THE LION KING respectively.

REMEMBER: September 26th is our next Youth Center visit at 6:30 pm. And please RSVP soon for the Annual Initiation Banquet on September 27th, 6 pm at the Ratliffe Tree Farm!

President Angela

Kudos - Youth Center, Part 1

Thanks, Winnie, for making this Optimist Blog a reality and making the club very technically savvy to boot! This online journal is a wonderful new tool to get our club activites out here on the web, and to create a new form of newsletter for our group.

Also, thanks to Ruth C., Francis, and Melissa for coming to the Youth Center for games last night. We had a wonderful time getting to know the kids and spending time with them. Duretta from the New Castle Breakfast Club, and Youth Center staff, always has some creative games up her sleeve and we played a great icebreaker to kick it all off. Thanks again!

See you all at the next Youth Center Optimist night, September 26th at 6:30 pm.

-President Angela