UW-Whitewater/Community Optimist Club

Happy Thanksgiving Week, Optimists!

I am thankful for all of you and the common purpose we have of serving the youth and our community.

I hope to see some of you at our meeting tomorrow.  Kevin Brunner and Brienne Brown, from the Whitewater Community Foundation, will be our guest speakers.

Football ticket taking will continue for our group as our UW-Whitewater Warhawks claimed a victory over St. Norberts on Saturday. We will be hosting Franklin College (of Indiana) this Saturday for a 12:00pm kickoff.  Hopefully the weather will be a touch nicer!!

On Tuesday, Dec. 3 during our 12:00pm meeting, we will be stuffing goodie bags for Breakfast with Santa.  Santa, Mrs. Claus, Frosty and all of their helpers will be on hand on Saturday, Dec. 7 at Esker Hall for the big event.  Breakfast will be served from 8:00am – 11:00am.  Tickets are $1.00 for children and $4.00 for adults.  Many tickets will be available through the Whitewater Food Pantry.

On Monday, December 9, we will have an Optimist Holiday Social at the Lakefront Pub (in the Whitewater Room), from 5:30pm-7:00om.  We will order off the menu for dinner.  Jeanine and I hope to see several folks there.  Feel free to bring friends and family members.

Dec 10 will feature our “Gifts with a Meaning,” so if you wish, please bring a toy, book or stuffed animal that represents you and one of your interests/hobbies.  For new members, please bring it unwrapped.

Speaking of new members, please continue to invite  friends, colleagues, neighbors, etc to our meetings.  It would be great to add some new faces and willing hands to our club’s membership roster.  The board regrettably needed to vote on three resignations from our club at our meeting on Nov. 18.

Lastly–mittens, gloves, scarves and hats are needed for the children in our community.  Anne Fellows will be arranging for school officials to come to our club meeting on Dec. 17 for our annual mitten tree presentation.  Please bring any contributions of these types no later than the 17th.  A tree will be set up outside of our meeting room for the presentation.  Several other trees will be set up throughout the community.

With gratitude,

Kim 🙂

Greetings Optimists,

Tomorrow will be a fun meeting with hosting youths of the month, in addition to guest speaker Amy Edmonds (interim director for UW-W Athletics).

Thank you to Kim Simes for starting a Facebook page for our club!  More updates to come soon.  Dave is also working at getting our events listed through the “Strive” ap so that others in the Whitewater and surrounding communities can see the programs that our club has to offer.

Here are some important activity dates to be aware of:

Guest Speakers at Club Meeting, Kevin Brunner and Brienne Brown (Whitewater Community Foundation)–Nov. 26, 12pm

Stuffing Breakfast with Santa Bags at Club Meeting–Dec. 3

Decorating for Breakfast with Santa at Esker Hall–Dec. 6

Breakfast with Santa at Esker Hall–Dec 7, 8am-11am

“Gifts with a Meaning” at Club Meeting–Dec. 10

Wrapping Gifts at Armory–Dec. 16

Academic Decathlon Judging–January 10

Our board will be meeting tomorrow evening at 5:30pm in UC 260,  We will have some updates to share following our meeting, budget approval, membership recruitment plan, etc.

Thanks–and see you tomorrow.

In Optimism,

Kim 🙂

Thanks for inviting me to present a little bit about social media and it’s implications for our club at today’s club meeting. I’ve added the presentation to our web site as a refresher for those at the meeting as well to help and inform those who couldn’t attend. Enjoy.

Sincerely,

Dave Halbach

Electronic Communications Chair

Online Optimists

Optimists,

I hope you enjoyed this snowy Veterans Day.

Thank you to all club members and their families who have served our country through the armed services!

Please join me for our meeting tomorrow as Dave Halbach brings us a program titled “Online Optimists.”  Dave’s presentation is sure to be informative and eye opening.  Please feel free to bring electronic devices to take notes and to explore some of the resources Dave will share with us.

Thank you to all who helped to organize our storage room at Starin Hall this past Friday.  We had a total of 19 people from our club and the Student Optimist Club/Burkina Faso group who were able to come and go and contribute to a much more organized space!

Board Members, I will send a separate note to you tomorrow, but please mark your calendars for a board meeting from 5:30pm-6:45pm on Tuesday, Nov. 19 in the University Center.  We only have one member who can not join us that evening.

Next week, we will not have a Tuesday meeting–rather we will have an evening meeting on Wednesday, November 20 at Jessica’s (in the back room) from 5:30pm – 6:30pm.  Our program speaker will be announced soon!

See some of you tomorrow!

In Optimism,

Kim 🙂

Greetings Folks,

This is an additional note to our Week 6 email.

Thanks to those who were able to attend the Youth Appreciation Luncheon yesterday and to help with bowling and ice cream distribution this week.  It’s great to have those hands-on connections with students during Youth Appreciation Week.  A big thank you to Therese for coordinating the events and schedules!

NOW…on to our storage room clean up/organization scheduled for this Friday from 3:00pm – 5:30pm at Starin Hall.  Thank you to all you have signed up.  As I have said, many hands will make lighter work.  I have attached the sign up sheet.  We have a number of folks from our club, a few Student Optimists, and a few other Burkina Faso travelers who are able to help.

Frank Bartlett and I have chatted via phone and email (see attached notes), and he will ensure that we are equipped with some necessary supplies such as tables, broom and trash bins.

I plan to be over to Starin by 2:50pm to finishing prepping our work space.  We will be propping open the basement hallway door so that helpers can come and go. The Dickens will need some help loading some items out of their vehicle down to the storage room.  We will sort through our boxes and bins in the hallway on the tables Frank is providing and then carefully label and place bins back onto the shelves in the storage room.  I will be bringing supplies to label all bins.

If you can’t come for the whole time, that is certainly understandable.  Please feel free to come for part of the time.  If the hallway door shuts and you can’t get in, please call my cell at 608-201-2151.  I will be ordering pizza and soda for anyone who would like to stay for some Topper’s at the close of our work session.

Thanks again, and please email or call me if you have any questions, suggestions or concerns.

Kim 🙂

Optimists,

Happy Youth Appreciation Week1

Therese is doing a great job of keeping everyone updated on the youth activities for this week.  Thank you to all who are helping with the bowling event and to distribute ice cream.

We should have an excellent turn out for our luncheon tomorrow.  Please remember that this is our Youth Appreciation Lunch and because of the anticipated attendance of 75-80, we will be meeting in the Old Main Ballroom (UC 275) in the UC.  The menu looks to be delicious–and our school counsels will be our program!

Board Members, please mark your calendars for our November Board meeting on Monday, Nov. 11 from 5:30pm-6:30pm in the University Center (Room TBD).

Also, Nov. 12 will be a great program with Dave Halbach at the helm helping us to get connected through our Blog, the OI web site, Linked In and Facebook.  I am confident we will all learn a lot from Dave!

Please mark your calendars for Wednesday, Nov. 20. for our evening meeting.  Jeanine will confirm the time and location soon!  Thank you to Jeanine, Connie, Linda and Dave for creating a plan for membership recruitment.

That’s all for now.  It’s time for the Packer-Bear kick off!

See many of you tomorrow.

In Optimism,

Kim 🙂