Anaya family sends message...

As I mentioned in one of the meetings, my youngest sister was the person who got me going on the blog and she sent a message for me to share.

The Anaya family BLOG Editor says:

Chris and Optimist Club members:
I just wanted to say that all of you do a fantastic job with your community accomplishments. I think starting your own BLOG is an awesome way for you to inform your members and community of all of the outstanding work you do.
Although I am not a member of your community, I read all of your information that is past to me for our family blog and now being posted in yours. You do outstanding thing such as the Haunted Hayride (Witches Corner), Easter Egg Hunts, Frog Jumps and Bicycle safety to name some of them. Keep up the great work, you really are appreciated.

Toni Burke (Chris Davis' sister)
Washington State

Grain Valley Middle School looking for helpers

I received a e-mail from Jan Reding about the Science Fair and I decided to post some information for others to read and consider helping out. If you do volunteer, please send me some pictures and a little write up about it.

Grain Valley Middle school will have their Third Annual Middle School 7th Grade Science Fair on Thursday February 1st, Friday the 2nd and Monday on the 5th. They have openings for judges and Science Fair classroom volunteers. If you would like to help judge a student project, (No Science background required) to be a classroom volunteer or provide snacks, please get with the 7th grade Science teacher. I am sure they could still use some help. Sorry for the short notice as I just received this today. Jan Reding included the letter in her e-mail she sent out and if anyone needs more information on times and dates, get with Jan.
Thank you Jan for sharing this and it gives us a chance to help out the schools and show how supportive we are with their projects.

Optimist Club Treasurer:..

Sheila Arnold:

Married to Dale Arnold and they have two daughters.

Sheila says:

she has been a member of the Optimist since August of 1999. Shelia and husband Dale, moved to Grain Valley in November of 1986. Some of her traits are that she is happy go lucky and full of energy person and tries to answer any questions, She says that she will try to be more prompt with the responses. We are fortunate to have members like Shelia. Thank you Sheila for the fabulous work you are doing in keeping us on track.

Zone Meeting... January 27th

On January 27th, there was a Zone meeting after the regular meeting at the Historical Society. I understand the food was great. Thank you Kathy Doty for your work with this. There were 21 members in attendance. 7 from Grain Valley, Blue Ridge had 5 members ( including Yvonne), Lotawana had 9 members. Barbara McCormick of the Warrensburg Optimist gave information on the Oratorical Contest. Odessa sent information to Yvonne but wasn't able to attend due to conflicting schedules. We will be having a Zone meeting in March and more information will be given out later. As Grain Valley, we updated them on our events and also mentioned that we had started a club Blog but because I did not attended, no one could remember the address for it. I named it Optimist club of Grain Valley to make it easy to remember but at times you can forget the actual full address. It is http://optimistclubofgrainvalley.blogspot.com/ Please share it with those who would like to see what is happening within our club. I understand that there were some pictures taken and I will share those once I get them.
Thanks to those members who were in attendance for the Zone meeting.

Coming up events

Here is quick Calendar of the events coming up.

• February 10th: Pairing with Optimist -Shoes, 10:00 AM.
• February 10th: Essay Contest due. "I want to make a difference because....".
• Feb 16 & 17th: District Conference at Clarion Hotel Sports Complex 9103 E. 39th St., Kansas City.
• February 24th: Oratorical Contest due " My biggest challenge"
• March 17th: Substance Abuse posters due.
• March 24th: General meeting and egg stuffing@ School Admin office.
• March 31st: Easter Egg Hunt, Armstrong Park.

Stork News... new arrival

New Arrival....

At the Optimist meeting on January 20th, Sharon Morse mentioned that her and Bob have a new Great-Grandson that was born on January 11th. Congratulations to the Morse's with the arrival with their new member to the family, Aiven Christopher.

Optimist meeting January 13th

Saturday's meeting was a small goup of attendees and Chris Small and Sam Packham gave a presentation of the February Bond to those who did attend.

Grain Valley Optimist Club President
Annette Barker
Says: I have been with the Grain Valley community since 1990. I am a charter member of the Optimist Club and have three children who graduated from the GV schools. I agreed to be president because I wanted to make sure that the children of this community have access to programs that make living in a small town memorable.



Purpose of Optimism

To develope optimism as a philosophy of life utilizing the tenets of the Optimist Creed.
To promoste an active interest in good government and civic affairs.
To inspire respect for law.
To promote patriotism and work for the international accord and friendship among all people.
To aid and encourage the development of youth, in the belief that the giving of one's self in service to others will advance the well-being of mankind, community life and the world.

Optimist Travelers

For those who are traveling, please take great care when doing so.
John Davis received a call from Bob Morse and they are in Florida. This was on Friday January 12th. The Morse' were due to come back home on Sunday, however due to the weather, they have had to delay their travels back until Tuesday January 16th. How sad, they have to stay another two days in the Florida weather as we enjoy this white stuff here in Grain Valley. Bob and Sharon, may you have a safe return when you do come back. We don't want to be selfish with this weather and will gladly share when you return. Hope your vacation was a lot more fun than some of us here have had.

Pillar of the Community

Carol Barnes
Representing the Optimist Club will be our very own Carol Barnes. The event will be on January 27th and anyone needing more information on this can call Jerry Vaughn at the Chamber. We will have a spot on her after the event to see all of the nice things said about her that maybe we didn't and for those of us who will not be attending. Congratulations Carol.

Pairing with Optimist event

There has not been a date set for this event yet but was one of the topics in the meeting on Saturday January 6th. It was mentioned that we will probably set it for sometime in February. More discussion in the next meetings to come and we are still getting donations and if you have anyone who wants to donate or interested in donating, you can get with any officer or Sam Packham.

Keep Optimist members in our Hearts

As Optimist members we want to keep those member's traveling and those who may need the extra prayers in our hearts.

Jan Reding with her travels back home when returning from Texas. She should be back before the end of the month.
The Morse' and their travel on vacation to Florida, they leave on January 7th.

In our Prayers:
The Condra's, Shirley for better health days and Carl for support.
The Harper's for Lon's mothers failing health and Mary for support.

EASTER EGG HUNT

We have set a date for the annual EASTER EGG HUNT that will be held at Armstrong Park again this year. I have asked Jim Meyer to reserve the park. We always have it one week prior to Easter weekend and this year it will be on March 31st. We will plan to stuff eggs on March 24th and will see if we can meet at the Administrative office again. I will get with Dr. Chris Small and see if this will be possible. More information will be given out as we closer to that date. Mark your calendars.