This week the Port Colborne Optimist club visited five local schools to make donations to their breakfast programs, which aim to ensure children in need receive nourishing breakfasts. Donations were presented by club Treasurer and all round nice person Clarisse (Claire) Beauregard. I just tagged along to take photographs.
From Clarisse: “The Port Colborne Optimist Club supports a Breakfast Club/Nourishment Program for local elementary schools to satisfy hungry tummies and promote good eating habits and a healthy lifestyle. We are pleased that we can partner with schools. Our mandate is to serve the youth of our community enabling them to grow and succeed into good citizens and members of society”. Nicely said, I think.
The Optimist Club donates $500 to each of the five schools, each year. We choose different schools each year, aiming to cover as much of the community as we can. We would visit every school every year, if we could. Kids must eat, regardless of which school they attend. The five schools selected this year are, in alphabetical order:
- Mckay
- Oakwood
- St. Josephs
- St. John Bosco
- St. Patricks
Fundraising
Our funds for this and other programs are raised through our ongoing community work and events. The Optimist Club is already plannning for the year ahead. The biggest event immediately on the horizon is the annual Kids Fishing Derby on Father’s Day. Any child of thirteen and under can have a fun day out by the water for free, with chances to win some excellent prizes courtesy of our many generous sponsors (thank you all) from the local business community.
We make no money at this one, it’s all volunteer and sponsor driven. But we do use some of our available funds for essentials like burgers and buckets and rods. And worms. Oh my!
Canada Day is a big fundraising event for us. We organize everything in the park including vendors and music and games and animal rides and bouncy castles and penny sales and sno-cone machines and… well. Everything. Except the cupcakes. And the cleanup. The City does those. Thank you!
As a side note I would like to say that as a group the Optimist Club really does look forward to the day after Canada Day. Canada Day for us starts around 6am. We’re at H.H. Knoll park by 7 to set up, and many stay to the end. There are some sore backs. And many happy smiles as we remember the fun everyone had, the smiles on the faces of those that came out, and even the things that went wrong that we had to fix on the run. Because events never run exactly to plan. It’s all part of the fun.
Join In
The Optimist Club is always looking for volunteers and members. Those stalls don’t magically set themselves up. We always need committee members and people to sell tickets. Because the more money we raise, the more funds become available for programs like school breakfast clubs. There are other programs, other events. If you are the kind of person interested in becoming involved, we would love to hear from you. Click HERE to visit the Optimist club web site. I made it, hope you like it.
The photos below show club Treasurer Clarisse Beauregard presenting donations to each of the five school principles and colleagues, accompanied by some of the students involved in managing breakfast club activities. It is worth saying that these students do not have to do that extra work. They choose to. That kind of community spirit and willingness to help is a wonderful thing to see in people so young. Gives us hope for the future. If that’s not too optimistic a thing to say. 🙂
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