Warsaw Breakfast Optimist, June 16, 2021

Sherry Searles, Launchpad, was our speaker

Presiding – Mitch Goon

Attendance – 86

Invocation –  Daren Maierle

Greeter –  Jeff Owens

Guests – Herb Duncan, Sponsor, Daren Maierle; Kevin McClamroch, Rick Swaim; Tim Frame, Sponsor Randy Polston

Announcements –           

  • Triathlon – June 26th – Paula Deming. Still need a few people to help with various aspects of the Triathlon
  • Greeter signup will be made available soon
  • Fall Displays – Rick Swaim, Rick is looking to mentor a member to take his place working with Fall Displays
  • Meetings of June 30, July 7 & 14 will be held at 105 9th St, Winona Lake (Westminster Hall)  Parking available at College & 7th St
  • New Memberships Incentives – $100 off 1st year              
  • Pay 1st & 2nd quarter dues – mail to: PO Box 344, Warsaw, IN 46581 or see Austin Donovan
  • Veterans – email your Service photo and a current photo to Alan Lucht for our Veteran’s Day program (ajlucht68@yahoo.com or call 574-527-1060 for questions)
Happy Birthday to Kris Williams

Birthdays –  Kris Williams June, 13; Michael Hawkins June16; Scott Clay June 17

Membership – 3rd Reading Herb Duncan, Sponsor Daren Maierle; 3rd Reading Kevin McClamroch, Sponsor Rick Swaim, 1st reading, Tim Frame, Sponsor Randy Polston

50/50 – $51.00 to Don Reinholt

Sergeant Chris Plack asked member Jason Gergley “Five Questions”

Sergeants at Arms – Jenny Lucht, Bob Jackson and Chris Plack charged members a $1.00 for trumped up charges.

Program – LaunchPad – Sherry Searles, LaunchPad is the Child Care and Early Learning Coalition, established in October of 2018 to help solve the child care crisis in Kosciusko County.  According to recent data, there is a shortage of 1,700 child care seats, and of the seats that we do have, less than one third are considered high quality according to Indiana’s rating system.  We know that low and moderate income families cannot afford the cost of care, which can be $9,000 or more or more per year for one child.  Another problem that compounds the situation is the lack of qualified early childhood educators.  Early childhood education is one of the lowest paying professions.  While regulations call for more education for teachers, wages are low and benefits are negligible.

Next Week’s Program – We will be packing Triathlon participant bags

Positive Message –  “Smart people learn from everything and everyone, average people from their experiences, stupid people already have all the answers.” – Socrates