Club President Monte Akers asked members to contribute new ideas for projects for the upcoming year at this month's Evening Social at the Meriwether Golf Course. At the meeting, several members voiced different ideas and plans for the next year that members could volunteer with.
When each project has been approved by the Board of Directors, the Optimist Club may move forward with planning and implementation.
- Tandem Bike Ride - Members Tony Montes and Ananda Vardhana are planning a bike ride for blind youth. Each youth will be paired with a seeing-bike-rider as they cycle along a route to be determined later.
- New Member Project - Club Secretary Tammi Hilp has received approval on a project to increase membership. When club members bring a guest to the morning meetings, the club will pay for their breakfast, and the breakfast of the member.
- Shut-In Holiday Help - Members JV Torgensen and Bill French offered the idea to find a youth that is 'shut-in' for the holidays due to illness or other complications, to provide care packages/meals/cards to help celebrate the season and lessen the negative impact of not being able to leave.
- Library Card Sign-Up Drive - Students leaving school for holiday and summer breaks will no longer have access to school libraries. A library card sign-up drive before the breaks begin will allow students access to a great educational resource. Library cards do not cost money, but the application has to be done in person at the library, or with the use of a computer which many children may not have.
- Recreation Center Scholarships - With Christmas and summer breaks, students lose a safe place to exercise and stay healthy. P.E. teachers could be contacted at schools to choose candidates for a SHARC scholarship from the club.
- Back to School Hair Cuts - Many families have only enough money to cover the basic back-to-school needs; books, clothes, etc. A day where retired hairdressers or volunteering hairdressers donate haircuts to children could be a great confidence booster for local children before they go back to school.
- Day at the Theater - Students entering high school are often timid of joining new clubs that will benefit them greatly in the long run, especially clubs in the arts. Sponsoring a day for select students (a list from teachers could be obtained) to attend a HART production in Hillsboro could help inspire and reward select students.
- Healthy Summer, Healthy Snacks - During the first week of free lunches at Shute Park this summer, almost 2,000 free lunches were served to hungry children. The need is great, but when children get home from a free lunch, they have little until the next day. Partnering with local farms that have too much produce, different 'healthy snack' sites could be setup throughout the summer to distribute bags of produce that are overflow for farms.
