Club members get Santa House ready for opening..

Santa House 2008

On Saturday November 22, 2008 a group of club members got together to start decorating the house for our annual Talk To Santa weekends. We have three weekends in which we will be open Saturday and Sunday. Starting December 6 & 7, the 13 & 14 and finishing with 20 & 21. We will have 4 Santa's this year, one of them being a new Santa for us and hopefully we can get him to join up for future events.
Jim Brown will open with Chuck Johnston following the next day. The next week it will be Jim Brown again and John Davis following on Sunday. The last weekend we will have Kevin Edwards and then John Davis closing for the year. It may vary if there should be some issues in which we need to change the Santa's around. We want the kids to enjoy their visits. We will be selling nuts, candies and popcorn on site and if you want to order any, you need to get your orders to Jan Reding by no later than 12-13 as that is the last day she will take orders for the year.
Look at the pictures below as we started to clean and set up.

Our North Pole sign on the outside of the house needed to be updated as it was weather cracked and needed a paint job. We had a person who was going to work on it but ran out of time and John took back the sign and the wooden letters that were to be used and painted and mounted them. These came out very good, nice job John.

Another picture of the sign John worked on.
Finished he proudly held it up for a picture.

Here is where we will get power from this year, so naturally members has to check it out.

Jim working on setting up lights and in the back ground, Dave E. and John are plugging cable to see if lights work.

Jim and John working on the outside.

Meanwhile, the ladies are working in the inside. They cleaned the windows on the outside and now setting up wreath and tree.

Here Ann and Annette are working on the tree.

Standing back waiting to see if the lights are going to work are Annette and Danni.

A finished tree with the new little fireplace that was given to us from Sam Packham to use.

ladies take a picture after they are done. Left to right (standing) Annette, Ann and Sheila, (in front) Carol and Danni.

Guys, left to right, John, Jim and Dave.

Thanks for all of your help. We look forward to those who will be helping during opened hours, please get with Chris Davis if you have not signed up.

Speaker for Optimist Club meeting.... 11-22-08

Darren Hawkins

Our speaker for the 11-22-08 meeting changed at the last minute. Darren Hawkins from Edward Jones came and spoke to the group about the firms Investment perspective. We thank Darren for coming and sharing with us and he also provided breakfast. Thanks again Darren and feel free to come and visit again.

If you want more information you can call him him or visit him in Grain Valley.

Old Towne Marketplace

203 B SW Eagle Pkwy (AA Hwy)

Grain Valley, MO 64029

darren.hawkins@edwardjones.com

816-847-1950

New member Guest speaker at meeting

Jennifer Bailey

The Optimist Club officially has a new member and her name is Jennifer Bailey. Jennifer is an Independent Jewelry Consultant as well as a full time Student. Living here in Grain Valley, she heard about the club from member Jim Meyer and Jim sponsored her to into the club. We are glad to have her on board.

On November 8th, she was the club's speaker and went on to tell about herself and her job as a consultant. She left flyer's for members to attend an open house on that same day. Her Jewelry line is "Cookie Lee Jewelry" and if anyone wants to know more about this, then give her a call at 816-847-2504. Celebrate the season with Holiday Jewelry. Sorry I didn't attend the meeting and just following up with an article for her. Please join us and welcoming Jennifer into the club.

Santa House is our next project....

Hello, can you believe it is almost here again? Yes, the Talk to Santa project is coming up soon. Both John and I are looking forward to the helpers who come out and weather the weather with us. We have our Santa's in place and at the last meeting John sent around a sheet for sign ups to help set up and work the 4 hours we are open. This will probably be our last year with the Polaroid pictures and then it will give us 12 months to figure out how we will approach this next year. Jan is currently taking orders for Popcorn, nuts and candies so if you did not get a form, give her a call.
We are almost all set for the first day of opening. We have plenty of Candy Canes, we will have popcorn ordered as well as nuts and candies for us to sell on sight. We are hoping for good weather but more likely will be faced with some challenges. The Jr Optimist's will be coming out to help us and that is great. We can always use some of the helpers. Carl Condra will be moving the house and once moved then we will start to clean and set up the inside. More information to follow on the date for this. John has finished the sign for the house and has been put back upon the house. He did a nice job with it and when you pass by, take a look at it. So bundle up, it looks like another year of cold weather.