Pillar of the Community....

At Saturday's meeting, the club had to submit our chosen person for the Pillar of the Community to Jan Reding. Those in attendance made their vote and this years representative for the Optimist Club of Grain Valley is Christy Davis. Close behind her was Sheila Arnold and John Davis. The Banquet will be on January 26th, 2008. More information to be provided at a later date.

A note from Christy Davis:
I feel very honored to be selected for this position and will represent the Club proudly. Thank you for your thoughts and recognition.

Haunted Hayride event...

Right now it looks like the date for the Haunted Hayride is set for October 30th which is a Tuesday. Some members felt like this was something they wanted addressed for a possible Saturday day. Jan Reding will be speaking on behalf of the Optimist to have them review the date and possibly change to a Saturday. Optimist are still planning on having the "Witches Corner" event and any members who would like to dress up, please do, not mandatory. Just a night of fun and Polaroid pictures will be done again for $2.00. More information to come.

End of the Year Banquet .... October 6th

At today's meeting, September 15th, it was announce that we would have our annual end of the year banquet on October 6th at 6:00 PM. It will be pot luck but will be tailgate and the Chiefs as the theme. Feel free to wear Chief attire. Meat will be provided and we all need to bring a dish as well. This is also John Davis' birthday so I would like to bring a cake. I don't have to worry about him seeing this as he never gets on to the computer. Please check with Annette and Sheila if you want to see what is being brought.

Save the date....

The Grain Valley Assistance Council will have the Live/Silent Auction and Chili Supper on October 13th. &:00 PM at the Grain Valley High School. If you have anything you would like to donate, please see Mary Strack.

Bingo.....Bingo.... Bingo...

B-14......
Friday night was the official start of the BINGO in the community center. Dale started the night off by calling BINGO which started at 6:00 that night. On the first night, we had a nice crowd and we started off with a small group and eventually had almost all of the tables covered. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and waited anxiously to be able to call Bingo. There was one sole person at around 9:30 who was a BINGO die hard and some of members played in effort to keep from this person from being the only one. So we knew it was her or us that would win. Finally after closing for the night, we waited until Saturday at 2:00. Christy Davis started off by calling the numbers and the crowd again started to come in steadily. We took at break at 5:00 to 6:00 and there was one couple who stayed until the end. During the break, she mentioned that her and her husband were enjoying the BINGO and the people and the food was great, they loved it and wanted to play more. And play more they did as they proceeded to win some blackouts and the pots were good on those. Saturday night was busy and we had a good turn out on all three sessions of BINGO, so it B-1, I-24, N-43, G-52 and O-60 and so on.

Jim ready to call numbers

Bingo players

Bingo players

Jan taking the little time out from a busy schedule from out in the fair grounds.

Mary telling John he will behave himself and work hard or else.

John helping in the concession stand.

Bull Frog Jump at the fair....

Optimist club members hosted the Bull Frog Jumping contest at the fair again this year. It was unknown whether there would be any frogs jumped this year as we had a big dry summer. There was about 8 contestants in which one frog was injured and unable to jump. There were some really lively frogs and owners had to run and catch them as they took off the minute they were out of the containers. Sharon, Bob and John along with Lori, Bob and Sharon's daughter, set up the area without knowing if any frogs would be jumping. But they did start to come in almost at 1:00 and turned out to be an enjoyable event. Everyone likes to watch the frogs jump and this year they did not fail to make the crowd of people squeal as some of them got away the minute they were out of their containers. Once they did get to hopping, then they just took off. Awards were given to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place and as you can see by some of the pictures, everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.

Bob getting the Optimist sign up for the jump.

John setting up fencing to keep the frogs from jumping away.

Sharon, entering the contestants and their frogs.

mothers with kids coming to register for frog jump

some of our frog entries and their owners.

Sharon passing out trophies to winners

Trophy winner

Trophy winner

Winners from the frog jumping contest, trophies and ribbons.

Carson Aaron Ambrose

One of the good things about the fair, is you can always get to see those who sometime you do not get a change to see. I got a picture of Kathy and Aaron Ambrose' beautiful son. I have been trying to get a picture of him to share with others and here he is. Kathy and Aaron, is one handsome boy.

Optimist Club Float....

The Grain Valley Optimist Club had a float again in the parade. The theme this year was Lighting the Way and the committee got together and agreed on a design. The objective was to keep it tied in with our reason for our club with the kids of Grain Valley. There were four hand made lamppost using clear coke bottles for the hanging lights with gold curled ribbon for the illumination. These poles had unique names like Easter, Bike Safety, Dictionary and Scholarship, followed by either, Lane, Street or Blvd. All yellow with green letters. Each Pole had a logo of the Optimist and in the front of the float, a large lamp as seen above with lights made out of balloons line with paper and then plaster to keep their form. The objective was to show the different paths of life of a child from Easter to Bike safety to Dictionary and finally Scholarship. The final is becoming an Optimist member of Grain Valley. I was not able to get a full picture of the kids on the float so if someone took a picture of this, please e-mail to me and I can insert it. I also heard from people who were on the side lines that the float did look great. The kids we used for the float were, Avery and Jackson Brady (Shaun's kids) Elizabeth Caley (Christi's daughter) and Kathy Doty's son, Nick. We thank those kids as I know it can be boring waiting for the parade to start. Thank you Lori (Bob and Sharon's daughter) who helped by pulling the trailer with her jeep. Again, if anyone has more pictures, I would like to still post more.
Thanks to all.

Group working to secure the pole.

Christi going over some details with daughter Elizabeth, one of the four kids on float.

John Bob and Jim making sure base of pole secured.

Dale showing his new ride in the parade... nice

Valley Fair Daze 2007 Grand Marshall.....

The Grand Marshall for the 2007 Valley Fair Daze parade was Erma Doty. I read the article in the Pointe and believe me, this wonderful lady has done a number of different things in Grain Valley. I am proud to write this article but will only pick out some of the items as it was a very long article.

Erma has been part of Grain Valley for 86 years. She was born July 30th, 1921 at home on Ryan Road. She was the first child born to Byrl and Ona Baumgardner and big sister to Dale her sibling born 8 years later.

Erma attended the Stony Point rural school, walking with neighbor kids about three miles each way. She was always a member of a 4-H club, learning how to cook, sew and raise cattle and sheep. In 1934, Erma graduated from the one room schoolhouse along with two friends who has been classmates during the entire grade school years. She only had two different teachers during those grade school years.

She then went into town for the next 4 years to attend and graduate from Grain Valley High School. All 4 rural schools in the district were closed after her last year in Stony Point. The parents took turns transporting the country kids to and from the school in Grain Valley. The school buses were started in her second year in High School.

School was great, they had about 100 student in 12 grades, all attending in the one building. It was a great four years with lots of fun classes, but before she realized it, it was the spring of 1938 and they were graduating. There were parties, picnics and lots of celebrating.

Erma worked at the Bank of Grain Valley the summer she graduated at the request of Mr. Warren, the President. She then enrolled in college at Central Missouri State Teacher's College in Warrensburg. There were no dorms so Erma and a friend shared a tiny little apartment.

Her three years plus prepared her for graduation in 1941 and her first application turned out good, she was accepted to teach business classes at Knob Noster, Missouri. Even today, Erma has a close relationship with the senior students of that year and she joins them every June for a class reunion.

In 1942, the Grain Valley Schools asked if she would teach at Grain Valley. This involved a pay increase to what she was currently earning and she knew she would love to teach in her home town where she was a Business teacher for 5 years. To become a better teacher, she went to Kansas City to teach and learned a lot in the next 5 years.

Erma married Bob Doty in 1946 went on to have 4 children. During the time away from teaching she went to work at the Bank of Grain Valley again and also at Harmon Electronics. When she went back to teaching it was in the elementary level for 4 years before moving back to teach business classes again.

Erma retired and her and Bob enjoyed their friends, children and grandchildren, traveling spending summer at their lake home. Erma had a still had a passion to teach and began teaching piano at Meyer Music in Blue Springs. She still gives lessons from home today.

Erma continued to be involved in the Grain Valley community through the GV Historical Society, Optimist Club of Grain Valley serving in various different positions in both organizations. She has volunteered at St. Mary's Hospital since it opened 26 years ago and can be found every Wednesday at the information desk and has received the President's Service award for over 8,000 logged in hours. Erma is also active as a member of the Blue Springs Christian Church and highlighted for her contributions and volunteerism.

Erma's mother graduated from Grain Valley, as well as her own 4 children and two daughter-in-laws. Two of her seven grandchildren graduated from GVHS with one more due to graduate in 2011.

What a life she had. Congratulations, selecting you for the Grand Marshall was such an honor and I personally have learned a lot about Erma Doty.

September month....

I cannot believe how fast the year has gone. We will be changing our officers at the end of this month and start another year. We will be passing out dictionaries, participating in the Valley Fair Daze with our Bingo events, Float, Frog Jump (hopefully there will be some frogs) and more Bingo. So keep your calendar open as Annette has indicated the social banquet will be this next coming week. More information will follow.
John and I will be going on vacation again but this time heading for Virginia to see his family. During this time , if there are any articles for the blog, please forward to my e-mail and I will post when I get back.
Thank you for all of your support with articles, pictures, announcements and anything else that has made this blog worth reading. I have enjoyed working on it. I know we will be getting into some busy times so there will be more to add to it.