Wednesday, February 19, 2014
Future Dates
2/26 Wed. Warsaw Police Chief Scott Whitaker
2/26 Wed. Student of the Week
3/5 Wed. WCHS Poetry Contest Winners
3/5 Wed. Student of the Week
3/7 Fri. Oratorical Contest
3/12 Wed. Warsaw Schools Band
3/12 Wed. Student of the Week
3/14 Fri. BYC Madness
3/18 Tues. Warsaw Education Foundation Quiz Bowl
3/19 Wed. Oratorical Contest Winners
3/19 Wed. Boys Basketball / Doug Ogle
3/22 Sat. Bowling for Kids / Big Brothers Big Sisters @ The Bowling Alley
3/26 Wed. Warsaw Community Schools Chief Academic Officer David Hoffert
4/2 Wed. English Learner Tutoring – Phil Call
4/9 Wed. Big Brother Big Sister – Trina Hoy
4/16 Wed. WPD DARE / Corporal Doug Light & Ptl Officer Jeff Tickner
4/30 Wed. Josh Wildman CEO of Wildman Business Group
5/7 Wed. Splash Pad / Erin Porter
5/14 Wed. Sheriff’s Office / Aaron Rovenstine
5/18 Sun. City of Lakes Cruise-In
5/21 Wed. Optimist Singers / Memorial Day
5/28 Wed. Warsaw Community Schools / Dr. Craig Hintz
6/4 Wed. FWA Airport Authority – Jessica Miller
6/16 Mon. Boomerang Backpack Golf Outing
6/19 Thur. Optimist Golf Outing
6/25 Wed. Registration Packets for Triathlon
6/28 Sat. Triathlon
7/2 Wed. no meeting
7/9 Wed.no meeting
7/23 Wed. Warsaw Area Career Center / Ronna Kawsky
7/23 Wed. Cheerleaders
8/6 Wed. Boys Soccer
8/8 & 9 Fri. & Sat. Indiana North District Convention at Warsaw
9/10 Wed. WCHS Athletics / Dave Anson
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
President Everett Nifong led our meeting.
>>>>OPENING
81 Optimists & 10 guests attended our meeting. Mickey Smethers was the guest of Don Kenipe, Adam Heckaman was the guest of Art Gakstatter & Lyle Enyeart, Ricardo Scarlett was the guest of Greg Binkerd, Brenda Hiner was the guest of Jim Bricker, Ted Westerhof was the guest of Jason Zaugg, Ryan Goon, Camille Kerlin, & Chad Goon were our guests from Octagon, Sonia Degaetano & Bob Sanders were our program this morning.
Door Greeters: Noel Hoke & Bill Katip.
Prayer: Dr. Jenny Lucht led us in prayer.
Pledge was given to the American flag.
Promise yourself was said in unison.
Martin Becker led us in singing Hail to Optimism.
Birthday Honoree: John Kirkpatrick. Martin Becker led us in the birthday song with our usual results.
>>>> INFORMATION
Prayer Requests:
John Crum’s family at the passing of his wife, Beatrice.
Membership: Past Lt. Gov. Jerry Titus inducted Dr. Mitch Reinholt. Membership Chairman Kellie Malcolm read Ted Westerhof’s, David Cates,’ Brenda Hiner’s, & Adam Heckaman’s applications. Mitch,Ted, David, Brenda & Adam are sponsored by Mayor Dr. Joe Thallemer, Jason Zaugg, Jim Layne, Jim Bricker, & Art Gakstatter &Lyle Enyeart.
Past Lt. Gov. Ot Schroeder introduced our Octagon officers: Ryan Goon, Camille Kerlin, & Chad Goon who collected money and food for their Souper Bowl for Caring project for Our Father’s House food pantry.
Past President Jeff Owens reported our Oratorical Contest will beMarch 7th at Zimmer’s Headquarters, just north of the library, at 7 p.m., doors open at 6 p.m. Deadline to enter is March 5, 2014.
Students under age of 19, as of December 31, 2013, who have not yet graduated from high school are eligible.
Students submit a speech about “How My Passions Impact the World” to our club. For more information go towww.warsawoptimist.org or see Jeff Owens.
The three top scorers, at the Club level receive medallions and their choice of an iPad Mini, Nexus 7, or Nook. Prize sponsors are Esther Pfleiderer Charitable Trust at 1st Source Bank and Lake City Bank. Other sponsors are needed.
The top male and female finishers will go to the Zone level where winners receive a plaque.
Districts have the opportunity to provide two $2,500 scholarships or a first place scholarship of $2,500, a second place scholarship of $1,500, and a third place scholarship od $1,000.
The Optimist Oratorical Contest gives youngsters the chance to speak to the world. More than $150,000 in college scholarships funded by the Optimist International Foundation is awarded annually from this program.
Jeff made an effective invite to our Students of the Week to participate.
Past Gov. Ron Donkers & Lt. Gov. John Sullivan reminded us ofOptimist International Foundation’s Dime-A-Day fundraising program. Some of the overhead for things like the Oratorical and Essay contests at the district and higher levels are in need of funding. The higher level Oratorical Contest winner receives $2,500 and the higher level Essay Contest winner receives $500. As a larger club, we need to cover a large part of these costs. The Dime-A Day program is a great way to do this. Please send your $36.50 to Optimist International Foundation, Dime-A-Day Campaign, P.O. Box 952126, St. Louis, MO 63195. Make sure you put “club # 04555” in the memo section of your check. An even better way to do this is to use a form Ron has to have your card charged $3.05 per month on an ongoing basis. The forms are by the badge box.
In-coming Car Show Co-Chair Alan Lucht handed out our action plan packets for our City of Lakes Cruise-In to Downtown Warsaw. In-coming Co-Chair Dr. Jenny Lucht reminded us our event will beSunday, May 18, 2014. The Duesenberg Cord Auburn Museum will feature one or two cars. Special invitations have been extended to the Michiana PT Cruiser Car Club, the Fort Wayne Corvette Club and the Hoosier A Ford Club to host their car clubs at our Cruise In. Working with Owens Supermarket, we’ve also invited the Oscar Meyer “Hot-Dog” Mobile to our show. Purdue President Mitch Daniels has been personally invited to ride his motorcycle and be the Grand Marshall of our escorted Cruise to the Village of Winona Lake.
Our goal is to host 250 cars, trucks, and motorcycles; have some fun; and make $15,000 to support the youth activities of our Club.
As a Club member, we are asking you to commit to three things to help make this event successful:
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Clear May 18 on your schedule so you can help with the event
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Be a $25 Trophy Sponsor or upgrade to the Bronze, Silver or Gold level.
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Secure one additional sponsor of the event at the $500 … $200 … $100 level.
Enclosed in the action packets are a yellow Trophy Sponsor or higher form for members of our club. The white Sponsor form is for others who we are asking to support at the $100, $200, or $500 levels. John Teevan will be monitoring our support. Please turn your sponsorship forms along with your check to “the guy with the money tie.”
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We are looking for someone to call on businesses to ask them to sponsor our Cruise In at the $100, $200, or $500 level. Please see John Elliott, Art Gakstatter, Alan Lucht, or Dr. Jenny Lucht.
Past President George Brennan is looking for 2 Warsaw Education Foundation Quiz Bowl teams. As he says you need to know a lot about nothing. It is Tuesday, March 18.
President Everett Nifong reported our Golf Outing fundraiser will beThursday, June 19 at 1 p.m. at Stonehenge. Please consider golfing, becoming a Tee Sponsor, donating a door prize or goody bag items.
Past Gov. and Triathlon Chairman Ron Donkers reported ourTriathlon is open. We already have customers. Save Saturday, June 28 on your calendar.
Past Lt. Gov. Dr. David Haines provided our first post to our Year in Review series. It is featured on the front page of our website. Here is a direct link https://warsawoptimist.org/
President Everett Nifong reported we need to be more proactive when it comes to paying our dues.
Lt. Gov. John Sullivan reported our Indiana North District Convention will be in Warsaw August 8th and 9th.
Past President Tracy Furnivall invited us to Baker Youth Club’s 2ndannual BYC Madness on Friday, March 14 at 5:30pm at the Wagon Wheel.
Big Brothers Big Sisters Community Development Director for Kosciusko County Trina Hoy challenged us to provide at least 4 teams of 5 bowlers for BBBS’s Bowl for Kids’ Sake at The Bowling Alley, by Tokens N Tickets N. Detroit Street, Saturday, March 22. There are openings at 11 a.m., 1:30 p.m., and 4 p.m. Each bowler is asked to secure pledges of $100 or more. All of the money raised goes to support matches of Bigs and kids. You can register online atwww.bbbsnei.org or with the registration forms Trina has by our badge box.
Student of the Week Chairman Tracy Horrell introduced us to our own Lakeview Middle School Principal Dr. Jon Lippe & Assistant Principal Matt Deeds who introduced us to: Tage Allen, Josh Bradford, Jeremy Campbell, Courtney Chookie, Daniel Koshy,Alejandra Lozano, Chase Madsen, Tommy Meier, Emily Oler, Anna Ousley, Ali Pierce, & Sam Yeager.
Sergeants-at-Arms: Trace Hansen & Luke Becknell entertained us.
Video Editor Jim Hayes was in the paper for working on our Student of the Week program 10 years ago. We are glad he has continued on to the present day, with EVERYTHING he does for our club.
Dr. Steve “Rade” Hollar welcomed fellow Thespian Dr. Mitch Reinholtto our club. Acting must help students prepare for Doctor school.
Also Steve’s picture was with Jennifer’s and Meredith’s in a nice article about Jennifer.
Trace Hansen is celebrating his new daughter.
Kellie Malcolm received the Chamber of Commerce’s Young Adult Professional of the Year Award. She gave credit to Al Grossnickle for helping her get over her bashfulness.
Past President Ron Henry is proud of his granddaughter, Kendall Wayne who won the Elementary Division of our County Spelling Bee.
John Teevan is celebrating his son, Matt’s upcoming wedding, this Saturday.
John also reminded us this is the birth month of Tadeusz Kosciuszko aka Thaddeus Kosciusko.
President Everett Nifong was named the 2013 James B. Swackhamer Indiana Outstanding Agri-Banker.
Program:
Bob Sanders and Sonia DeGaetano brought us up to date on ourCancer Care Fund of Kosciusko County f/k/a Kosciusko County Cancer Care Fund.
The fund started as a Golf Outing Fundraiser for the American Cancer Society. In time it was matched to a Gala Ball. Seven percent of the ACS’s funds went to patients.
It was decided to change to a local focus. Now 100% of the funds raised go to local people in need who are cancer patients. Many times living expenses are hard to come by as someone is off work because of their treatments. Our K21 Health Foundation administers the funds at no cost, so 100% of the funds are available for patients.
The CCF helps with rent, mortgage payments, gas and food certificates, etc. They served 80 clients in 2013.
In order to increase the money available, the funding sources are expanding, beyond the original Golf Outing and Gala. Donations are being accepted from the general public. Donations can be made in honor of friends for birthdays, or other occasions. Cancer Hope Bracelets are available for $20. The bracelets were donated, so all $20 goes to the patients.
Upcoming fundraisers are:
May 3 the Battle of the Bands
June 28 a Mixer
September 6 Dinner Gala
September 8 Golf Outing.
