UW-Whitewater/Community Optimist Club

Happy Spring, Optimists,

What a beautiful day!

Here are a few quick updates:

1) We have a noon meeting this Tuesday in UC 259A. It will be a catered meal. Courtney Nelson (from Downtown Whitewater) will be our guest speaker.

2) We are needing to put together a slate of officers for 2017-18. Thank you to Cort, Susan and Joyce for saying yes to joining/continuing as board members for the new Optimist year. We are still in need for volunteers for several other positions, including that of president/co-president. Please contact Kim or Angie if you would be willing to serve on the Board.

3) Congratulations and welcome to Lori Heidenreich for being our newest member! We look forward to seeing Lori at a meeting in the near future. We are hoping to induct Lori and Robin Fox on Tuesday, May 2.

4) This past Tuesday, the Board voted to donate $250 to the Campus Memory Garden in memory of all deceased members of the UW-Whitewater/Community Optimist Club. More info to come in the neat future.

5) This is a reminder that our Club is not sponsoring the City-wide rummage sale this year. This has been communicated to the Chamber and to Jim Stewart.

6) The Board also voted not to be involving other youth groups to help staff the 4th of July Gyro Stand. Rather, we will staff the booth more efficiently and will count on our members, as well as the Octagon members and UW-W Student Optimists to assist with the fundraiser. Dave Halbach will be following up with other event helpers, starting a sign up sheet, and contacting the 4th of July Committee to confirm our participation.

7) Last Monday, we delivered over 100 birthday items to the Whitewater Food Pantry. This included 67 completely wrapped and stuffed shoe boxes. Thank you to those who donated time and product to this service project. The workers at the Food Pantry were very grateful to receive the donations.

8) We will be holding 4 landscaping work sessions at Lakeview Elementary on Tuesday, April 25; Thursday, April 27; as well as Tuesday, May 2 and Thursday May 4 (all from 4pm – 8pm). If you would like to help out, please contact Kim or Angie. We will need all of the helping hand we can get for this project. Some of the money from Trivia Night will be used for this project.

9) Next Wednesday, April 26, our Club meeting will be held at 5pm at Jessica’s. Our interns (Anne and Kayla) will be our guest speakers. Please plan on joining us!

10) Speaking of our Optimist Interns, we sill be interviewing several candidates for summer and fall positions (in the coming weeks).

That’s it for now. Enjoy your week–and “Just Keep Smiling!”

Kim and Angie 🙂

Happy Sunday, Optimists,

Thank you to all Club members, Student Optimists, Kayla (our intern), and other community volunteers who helped to facilitate our Annual Optimist Easter Egg Hunt yesterday at the Middle School. A special thank you to Connie Murray for chairing the event and to her stepson for serving as our Easter Bunny. We had beautiful weather, a record turn out, and three news photographers there to cover the event. Watch for a story on the Whitewater Banner and in local papers. In the meantime, enjoy the group photo I have attached.

We do not have a Club meeting this week. Rather, we have a Board Meeting on Tuesday, April 11 at 12pm in UC 268. I will send an agenda by tomorrow evening. Please let me know if you can not participate (in person or via phone). Right now, I know of only one member who can not be there.

Angie and I are starting to work on the slate of officers for next year. Thank you to those who have said YES so far and to those who are considering a position on the Board!

In addition, thank you to those who contributed to the Birthday Box Project for the Whitewater Food Pantry. If anyone is interested in helping to stuff and label the boxes, we will be working with the Service Learning and Leadership students tomorrow from 8:30am – 10:00am in UC 259A&B. Many hands make light work–so please know we would gladly take any member’s assistance.

Another volunteer opportunity for Community Optimists, Student Optimists and Service Learning students will be to help with landscaping work sessions at Lakeview Elementary on April 25 and April 27, May 2 and May 4 from 4pm to 8pm. More information to come soon. In the meantime, feel free to contact Angie or me if you are interested in helping.

Our meeting schedule for the next few weeks is as follows:
Tuesday, April 11–Board Meeting, UC 268
Tuesday, April 18–Cub Meeting, 12pm, UC 259A (Guest Speaker: Courtney Nelson, Discover Whitewater; Youth of the Month)
Wednesday, April 25–Club Meeting, 5pm, Jessica’s Restaurant (Guest Speakers: Anne and Kayla on their work as Optimist Interns)
Tuesday, May 2–Club Meeting, 12pm, UC 259A (Induction of New Members; Guest Speaker TBD)

Angie and I will share key points from our Board meeting within the next week. There are a few important decisions that the Board will need to make this week.

Lastly, please note that our Club is the featured business for the Whitewater Chamber this week. Check out the Chamber’s web site for more details! They promoted our Easter Egg Hunt and offered to feature several Club photos.

Thank you for your commitment to being Optimists, and as always–“Just keep smiling!”

Kim and Angie 🙂

Good Evening, Optimists,

Well…April Showers bring May Flowers! And…so far the weather looks to be good for the Easter Egg Hunt this Saturday, April 8. Please let Connie know if you would like to help out with our annual Easter Egg Hunt. Set up will begin at 10am, the hunt will start at 11am (complete with the Easter Bunny and McGruff), and all goodie bags will be handed out by 12:00pm!

Speaking of goodie bags, we will be stuffing 200(ish) bags on Tuesday April 4 at our noon meeting in UC 259A. Mike Flanagan will also be our guest speaker at this meeting.

There will not be a Club meeting on April 11. Instead, the Board will meet in UC 268. We have many topics to address at this meeting. Board members, please let Kim know if you can not attend.

Therese has indicated that the NCAA Division III Regional Baseball Tournament will be hosted by UW-Whitewater and that they are hoping the Optimist Club would be willing to take tickets. This would be an additional fund raising project for our club, in addition to being a nice service for us to offer. The dates of the tournament are May 17-21, and the hours look to be from 10am – 7pm on most of the days. We will need three members per shift. We will start a sign up sheet on this project very soon. By the way, Happy Opening Day tomorrow!

We are still collecting items for the Birthday Box Project for the Whitewater Food Pantry. If you are interested in contributing items, please drop them off to Kim’s Office by 8:30am on Monday, April 10. Members are also invited to help with the wrapping and stuffing part of the project on April 10 from 8:30am – 10:00am in UC 259A & B. The items will be delivered to the Pantry immediately following this wrapping session.

Mark your calendars for Saturday, June 3 for the Optimist Fishing Derby. Thank you to Al Hutchison for leading this project. The event will likely take place at Trippe Lake Park. A flyer and other promos are being designed by our interns.

That’s it for now. Have a great week–and “just keep smiling!”

Kim 🙂

Greetings, Optimists,

We hope you have had a relaxing spring break.

Here are a few tidbits related to upcoming Optimist activities:

1) We have a noon meeting this week (March 28). We will be featuring three “Youths of the Month!” We will also have a guest speaker–to be announced!

2) On Tuesday, April 4, we will stuff goodie bags for the Easter Egg Hunt, as well as host guest speaker Mike Flanagan, from the Crossman Art Gallery. Our meeting will be in our usual location–UC 259A.

3 Our Easter Egg Hunt will be Saturday, April 8, starting at 11:00am and set up begin an hour or so before the Easter Bunny arrives. Thank you to Connie for organizing this event. Sign up info will be coming out very soon!

4) The Board will meet on Tuesday, April 11 in UC 268. There will not be a Club meeting on that day. We have many topics to address at this meeting. Board members, please let Kim know if you can not attend.

5) Therese has indicated that the NCAA Division III Regional Baseball Tournament will be hosted by UW-Whitewater and that they are hoping the Optimist Club would be willing to take tickets. This would be an additional fund raising project for our club, in addition to being a nice service for us to offer. The dates of the tournament are May17-21, and times are yet to be determined. We will start a sign up sheet on this project very soon, as well.

6) Mark your calendars for Saturday, June 3 for the Optimist Fishing Derby. Thank you to Al Hutchison for leading this project. The event will likely take place at Tripp Lake. A flyer and other promos are being signed by our interns.

That’s it for now. Enjoy the rest of your day–and “just keep smiling!”

Kim 🙂

Happy Sunday, Optimists,

This will be a very short note.

Thank you again to all those you helped to contribute to our Optimist Trivia Night.  We are pleased to say that we met our financial goal—raising (gross proceeds) just over $11,000.  A full report will be shared with the board on March 14, and then will be given to the full membership.  In the meantime, the Student Interns and Student Optimists will continue to work on thank you notes.

Our intern Anne is working hard at posting photos and information on FaceBook and on the web site on a regular basis.

Our intern Kayla is almost done designing the Easter Egg Hunt flyer and those will be distributed to the elementary schools in the near future.

This week’s meeting will be held on Tuesday evening from 5:00pm-6:00pm at Jessica’s.  Dave will be leading the meeting, and our guest speakers will be UW-W Wheelchair basketball coaches Jeremy “Opie” Lade and Christina Schwab.

“Just keep smiling,” everyone!

With Optimism,

Kim and Angie 🙂

Good Evening Optimists,

Here are some very brief updates:

We do not have a Club meeting this week.  The Board will meet this Wednesday (Feb. 15) from 5-6pm at Jessica’s.  Please let me know if you can not be there.  We have a couple of important items to discuss, including the requests for the City-Wide Rummage Sale and a proposal for help with the Gyro Stand.

Here are our speakers for upcoming meetings:

February 21–Brenda O’Beirne, Counselor Ed Dept. Award

February 28–Jeremy Lade & Christina Schwab, Wheelchair Basketball

March 7–Jan Bilgen, Campus Memory Garden

The Club clothing order is in.  Thank you to Jenny for organizing it so quickly.  Please make sure you get your money to Jenny or me.  Right now, I have the running list.

Lastly, it looks like we are going to have a beautiful day for the 4th Annual Optimist Trivia Night this Friday.  Thank you to all who are contributing to the efforts.  We are very pleased to have 30 teams signed up for the event.  If you are willing to help set up for the event or to volunteer a few hours during the evening, it’s not too late to sign up.  Please contact Lanora or me.

Thanks so much–ad see many of you soon,

Just Keep Smiling!

Kim and Angie 🙂

Happy Sunday, Optimists!

We do just have to say–“what a Packer game!”

On to Optimist business.  Please note the following:

1)  We will begin the University semester with our Club meeting on Tuesday at noon in UC 259A.  Catering will be provided, and Artanya Wesley (our new Dean of Students at UW-W) will be out guest speaker.  

2)  Please watch for a survey to be sent out by our Intern Brandon Linholm.  It should take less than two minutes to complete.  The board has approved the survey–which will help us to learn when the best times are to hold meetings for our members.  Please share your feedback.  Your input is important!

3)  We received a check for $1650 from UW-W Athletics for Football Ticket Taking.  Thank you to Frank for coordinating the sign up list and to all members who assisted with taking tickets during our regular season and post season home games.

4)  Trivia Night Planning will be going strong during the remaining 4 1/2 weeks before the event (Friday, February 17).  Our next planning meeting will be this Friday at 11:45am in UC 268.  If you are interested in helping with the planning or in helping to staff the event, please contact Kim or Lanora.

5)  Thank you to Connie Murray for saying “yes” to chairing the Easter Egg Hunt.  Mark your calendars for Saturday, April 8 to welcome kids of all ages, the Easter Bunny and McGruff.  The event will be held at the Whitewater Middle School–rain, snow or shine!

6)  We are sad to say goodbye to Teshona Bennett and Josh Tepps as members.  They have both submitted their resignations.  PLEASE keep inviting potential new members to our meetings.

Thanks so much–and “just keep smiling!”

Kim & Angie 🙂

Greetings, Optimists,

Thank you to those who served as judges for the Academic Decathlon this past Friday.

Our first Club meeting of 2017 will be on Tuesday, January 17 (the first day of classes at the University).  Our guest speaker will be Artanya Wesley (our new Dean of Students at UW-W).  We hope we can have a good turnout at the meeting to greet and learn about Artanya.  We will continue into the new year with a catered meal.

Please watch for a brief survey regarding meetings to be sent out by our intern Brandon in the next week.

Thanks and stay safe on our slick streets and sidewalks.

Of course, we encourage you to “just keep smiling!”

Kim & Angie 🙂