UW-Whitewater/Community Optimist Club

Greetings Optimists,

!!! A Call for 2016-17 Club Officers. It’s time to create the slate of officers for 2016-17. I have received word from two club members they would be willing/able to be on the board as an officer or general board member next year, depending upon what time of day the monthly board meetings are held. I also want to let everyone know that I WILL continue on the board as past-president and will be more than willing to assist with weekly emails, web site updates and Facebook postings.  So…what would YOU like to do next year to contribute? Perhaps one that you’ve not held in the past? Please begin volunteering to be an officer for 2016-17. Contact me or Kim Adams if you’re willing to be an officer for next year. “Many hands make light work.”!!!

NFL “FUND CRAZR” RAFFLE TICKETS!! You can still pick up tickets for selling. We have sold (or are still selling) 85 of the 100 tickets we received. Selling all 100 tickets will earn the club $1,200. I’m keeping a list, by ticket number, of who has picked up tickets to sell. I’ll bring the tickets with me to our next meetings until they are gone. If you know you can sell tickets but can’t be at the next meeting, let me know and I’ll set aside whatever number you want/need to sell. All sold ticket stubs and unsold tickets must be returned to the SWIS District before August 28.

Upcoming events needing helpers:

***Gyro Stand.*** Teshona Bennett and Duane Dickens have started organizing the Gyro Stand for next month. We’ll need someone with a truck-type vehicle and trailer hitch to volunteer to bring the trailer from Jim McLernon’s place to Whitewater for cleaning and setup the week before the event. We’ll also need helpers to deliver product each day to the stand from where ever we store the items once purchased. Teshona has created a signup spreadsheet using Google. The link to this signup sheet is https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1h4pGvt-JuUBRMfL2WD1KrM09hXE4QXprLhjBladIoDo/edit?usp=sharing.  If you have trouble opening this spreadsheet, let me know what shifts you can work and I’ll add your name.

***Jefferson County Fair Ticket selling.*** Sign for ticket selling is going very well. 30 of the 38 slots have been taken. Please review the signup sheet at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1SDeuVZwl_Z75zxa8SxXP8PkcJTJoZetuZbEczlfXcnQ/edit?usp=sharing.  If you can’t help with the Gyro Stand, perhaps this is the event you can help with. The Club receives payment from the Jefferson County Fair for each hour that we have a club member working at the various gates. One day of work with all of the shifts filled can really help the club budget. If you have trouble opening this spreadsheet, let me know what shifts you can work and I’ll add your name.

Our club email account is: whitewater.optimist.club@gmail.com

Dates for upcoming club meetings and events:

• Tuesday, June 21, No meeting due to UW-W “Plan-it Purple” use of entire University Center for the day.
• Tuesday, June 28, Regular club evening meeting, 5:00 PM, Jessica’s Restaurant. Speaker needed.
• Friday-Monday, July 1-4, 2016, Gyro Stand at Whitewater 4th of July Celebration.
• Tuesday, July 5, NO MEETING!
• Wednesday, July 6, Jefferson County Fair ticket selling/taking.
• Tuesday, July 12, Executive Board meeting, 12 Noon.
• Tuesday, July 19, Regular club meeting. Speaker needed.
• Tuesday, July 26, Regular club evening meeting, 5:00 PM, Jessica’s Restaurant. Speaker needed.

That’s all for tonight.

Share the Optimism,

Dave Halbach

UW-Whitewater/Community Optimist Club

whitewater.optimist.club@gmail.com

920-650-6089 or 262-472-5749

Good Evening Optimists,

As promised, I am sending a second email this week in order to update you on our exciting “Back to School Rally”/NOW Meeting scheduled for this coming Wednesday, Sept. 24 from 4:00pm-5:30pm at the Whitewater High School Multi-Purpose Room.

I have attached WUSD Welcome Back Rally Noets, Sept, 17, 2014 from the planning meeting held yesterday. Thank you to Jeanine (one of our planners) for giving us a nice summary of the meeting notes–and to Lanora Heim, Joe Lynch and Dave Halbach for also serving on the planning team. Information about our menu and program order is included in the minutes.

If you are willing/able to contribute a dish to pass at the event (and you haven’t already volunteered), please contact Jeanine. She is coordinating the list of food and contributors for the event. Thank you to all who are assisting to make it a well-rounded tailgate menu!

Dave has volunteered his grill and grilling services for the evening. Joe will be assisting. They would gladly welcome another grill and griller–if there are any volunteers.

We would also welcome other members to help greet and answer questions, as well as collect new member applications. Hopefully, there will be several applications completed!

We are planning for 60 in attendance. If you are able to attend, please “replay all” by Monday, Sept. 22 at 4:00pm. Dave will be purchasing our meet and will need to know how to plan.

Thanks for reading a second note this week. We hope many of you will be able to join us. This will be a great opportunity to add some new and energetic members who are committed to working with youth.

Have a great weekend,

Kim 🙂

Good Monday, Optimists,

I will start off my weekly note by reminding you that we do not have a noon meeting on May 20. Rather, we will meet from 5-7pm at the Lakefront Pub in the Whitewater Room. Our new student intern, Kelly Holck will be joining us for this meeting.

Thank you to all who helped with baseball ticket taking this past week/weekend. And…thank you to our rummage sale coordinators! It was a beautiful weekend for outdoor activities.

When you have a chance, check out the “This Week in Whitewater” link. There is a nice story about the “Ambulance for Africa.” Jeff did a great job of capturing Hassimi’s story. (Please disregard the bit about the rummage sale. I tried to explain that our students were selling hotdogs at the rummage sale for the ambulance, not running the rummage sale for the ambulance.)

Please note our summer meeting schedule below. Our meeting on May 27 will be our last catered meal of the season. Please note, that all other meetings, you are encouraged to bring your own lunch (at the UC), order off the menu (at the Lakefront), or contribute to our summer party/potluck on July 29.

MEETING SCHEDULE…

• May 20, (Lakefront Pub), 5:30pm, individuals order off of menu
• May 27, (UC 259A), Noon meeting; last catered meal of the season
• June 10 (UC 268), Noon meeting, bring your own lunch
• June 24 (Lakefront Pub), 5:30pm, individuals order off of menu
• July 15 (UC 259A), Noon meeting, bring your own lunch
• July 29 Summer gathering/potluck at Kim and Angie’s; 5:30pm – 8:30pm
• August 12 (UC 259A), Noon meeting, bring your own lunch
• August 26 (Lakefront Pub), 5:30pm, individuals order off of menu

I have attached the Optimist Board Minutes, May 13, 2014 on Tuesday, May 13. We will be following the discussion suggestions listed in the minutes. Note that the meeting locations for the UC are correct in this email. I just confirmed them with Room Reservations.

I have also attached the Jefferson County Fair Sign Up 2014. Please get back to Don and Lou on that event. Duane has been sending out the Gyro Stand sign up info. We need more helpers–PLEASE. I will email the sign up over the weekend regarding highway clean up. Right now, it looks to be a good group for May 29 at 4:45pm. Rick, Mike and Al have the Fishing Derby well in hand for Saturday, June 7 at Cravath Lake. Willing helpers are encouraged to jump in on this event. Jordan Hammer of the UW-W Fishing Club and some of their members will be assisting, as well.

Next week’s meeting will feature Youths of the Month, as well as guest speakers Maggie and Dick Winz on the Ten Chimneys of Genesee Depot.

Thanks for reading. It was a lot to report this week!

In Optimism,

Kim 🙂

Greetings Optimists,

I am Optimistic that we will have a beautiful day on April 12 as we host our annual Easter Egg Hunt at Starin Park.  Right now, the weather forecast is for partly sunny and 62 degrees!  We do have a backup location at Whitewater Middle School.  Our intern (Seth) has distributed flyers to all of the schools, the chamber and several businesses.  Thank you to Connie and Wes for planning the event, Jeanine for helping to promote it, and to those who are helping behind the scenes, as well as at Starin Park.

At this week’s meeting, we will be stuffing Easter Egg Hunt goodie bags.  Additionally, our guest speaker will be Stacy Sherman, Assistant Marketing Director at the Young Auditorium.  Stacy will be giving us a preview of events at ILY.  Please note that our meeting will be in UC 261 this week.

At last week’s meeting, I brought up the possibility of sponsoring a fishing derby for kids on the free fishing day, which is Saturday, June 7.  Rick Fassl has shared some ideas on how we might do some outreach.  Please contact me if you are willing to help plan or work at the event.  Al is willing to help plan it, but can’t be there to facilitate the event.  In order to make the event happen, we need to have someone willing to take the lead for the day of.

Thank you to those working on some of our other spring projects!

Finally, If you need to use an email list for communicating with our club members, please work off of this one.  It includes Kate and Ken Ksobiech (our newest members)!

In Optimism,

Kim 🙂

Happy Ho, Ho, Ho to You, Optimists!

Our Optimist semester is winding down–but we still have some holiday service to provide.  Here are a few items to note:

*  Collection of toys for kids is today and the wrapping is at the Old Armory (beginning around 5pm).  Please contact Al Hutchison if you can help or if you have any questions.

*  The Mitten Tree presentation will take place at our club meeting tomorrow.  Please bring any contributions of mittens, gloves, hats and scarves at our meeting.  Anne Fellows has lined up school officials to receive the items.

Jeanine will be facilitating our meeting.

*  Denise will be distributing quilt raffle tickets to members who are willing to help sell them.  We have made $124 on the raffle so far (from Breakfast with Santa).  All proceeds will be contributed to the Whitewater Food Pantry. The drawing will take place on February 21 at a Trivia Night sponsored by our club and the Student Optimist Club.  This event has recently been approved by our board and could be a very large fund raiser for us, as well as a fun event to help host in the middle of winter.  Our portion of the monies raised will be donated to the Whitewater Emergency Fund.  The Student Optimists have a good start to the planning, but other assistance will be needed from our members.  More information to come soon.

*  Therese is offering an opportunity to our club to take tickets at two more events in late February and early March for the WIAC track and field and gymnastics championships.  As Therese says, at least we would be inside and warm in helping with these events.  She will have more information at the meeting tomorrow.  She may also have an update on the Academic Decathlon.

*  Please remember that we will not have club meetings on Dec. 24 and Dec. 30.  We will reconvene on Jan. 7.

Thanks, All–and have a happy and safe holiday season!

Kim 🙂

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 🙂

From Matt Amundson, Whitewater Parks & Rec Director.

On Wednesday, October 23rd & Thursday, October 24th volunteers joined City staff in the installation of a new playground at Optimist Turtle Mound Park. The UW-Whitewater Community Optimist Club made a $15,000 donation towards the project that was matched by the City.  A photo gallery of progress can be viewed HERE.  Surfacing material will be placed on Friday, October 25th, however, the playground will remain closed until a damaged support railing can be replaced. This is likely to happen the week of October 28th and when the yellow caution tape is removed the playground will be open.

A special thanks to volunteers that assisted with the installation including Derrick Wood, Dean Zweifel, Liesl Schultz, Russell Saunders, William Schmitz, Brian Backe, Travis Hartmann, Austin Stoltenburg, Brienne Diebolt-Brown, Duane Dickens, and Jamie Satre.  The volunteers assisted Department of Public Works staff including Rick Babcock, Kelly Freeman, Kevin Heckert, Dave Himsel, Andy Beckman, and Mike Kaspar in the installation of the equipment.

The playground includes a new main play structure for children ages 2-12, a 4-bay swing set with accessible and infant swings, and two independent components – the Kid Force Spinner and Comet Spinner.

Optimist Turtle Mound Park Equipment

Good Afternoon Optimist Members,

Our Week 4 email is a little longer.  Please take 2-3 minutes to read through the info.  Thanks–and here we go:

Tomorrow is our IMPORTANT Business Meeting.  Our agenda will include (but not be limited to) discussing the following:

• Proposed Updated Club Bylaws and Policies
• A Quick Review of the 2013-14 Proposed Budget
• Membership Dues (possible need for an increase)
• Catering for weekly meetings (possible per person increase and suggested RSVP’s for lunch)
• Commitment to the Whitewater Unified Schools’ Emergency Fund and the Whitewater Food Pantry
• Student Club Support
• Potential New Youth/Community Projects and Fund RaisersRecruitment of New Members/Younger Professionals

Please see the Optimist Halloween Invite 2013 for our Halloween Fellowship gathering scheduled for Oct. 30.

Thank you to those who signed up to help clean/organize the Optimist storage room this Friday.  So far, I have a few people on the list, but again—more hands with help the task go more quickly.  Anyone else who is able to join (even for a short time), please let me know.

Therese will be sending out a note and sign up info for Youth Appreciation Week.  Our Youth Appreciation Luncheon will be held in the Old Main Ballroom (UC 275 A & B) on Nov. 5th.  We will need to ask for members to RSVP for this meal so that we can be adequately prepared to feed members and all of our guests.

If you can’t attend the business meeting, please feel free to send questions or ideas about the proposed budget or other agenda items.  We will potentially be sending a survey to collect feedback on a few topics in the near futures.

Finally, please note that Denise has sent dues letters to all members currently on our club roster.

In Optimism,

Kim 🙂