Attendance – 85

Invocation – Rick Swaim

Greeters – Jason Gergley & Bill Crane

Guests – Randy Hall, Sara McNeal Strahan, Lamont Waddell, Paul Finley & Scott Skiles

Membership – Scott Skiles had his third reading; Andy Shepherd was given his first reading; while Paul Finley was inducted into the club.

Birthdays – Heather Smith, Doug Blatz, Jeff Crawford, George Paton, Travis McConnell, Josh Gordon, Dirk Sommers and Vickie Lootens all celebrated birthdays this week.

Committee Reports –

*Car Show is Sunday, May 19, still need door prizes

*Triathlon is Saturday, June 22.

*Optimist Board Meeting is Monday, May 13, 5:30 pm

*Past Presidents are need to cover President Rob Bishop’s absence and conduct club meetings on May 22, 29, June 5 & 26, contact Rob if you can help out.

Fifty-fifty – Jeff Owens won $41.50

Sergeants – Several “happy dollars” were given for college graduations and other celebratory events.

Program – Optimist member Vickie Lootens introduced Randy Hall, CEO for Cardinal Services. Randy shared with the club that this is the sixty-fifth year of services to Kosciusko County for Cardinal. Cardinal Services origins go back to serving an original thirty clients because the family members did not what their loved ones to be institutionalized in a State facility. Cardinal has grown over the past sixty-five years to now serve over 4000 people.

The Mission Statement for Cardinal: To assist and advocate for people with disabilities and challenges to live lives full of dignity, growth and opportunity.

One of the newest programs at Cardinal is “Red Bird”. This program encourages clients to create art and see themselves as artists. The artwork from Red Bird has been placed in various locations in the community.

Cardinal will soon be moving into a new location and hopes to provide opportunities for new services to both Cardinal Clients and to other members of the community. This new center will be dubbed a Community Ability Center.