Getting Santa House underway.....

MEETING OF THE MINDS IS WHAT I CALL THIS.

At the Saturday meeting, John mentioned to Jerry that after testing the electrical box he still could not get power to work. Here the four of them. David Eames, John Davis, Dale Arnold (for safety) and Jerry Vaughan, are working as a team to get it powered up. After some work, they did get the power on and we are set for the Santa House.
The Santa House hours will be 1:00 to 5:00 PM. Our first day will be Sunday December 2nd and then every Saturday and Sunday up to the 23rd. We expect to have a good crowd again on the last weekend as it will follow the Holiday Train visit to Grain Valley on the 21st of December. This year John will have a team of rotating Santa's and each will have a least one turn on the chair. I like this idea of more participation. Thanks John Davis, Chuck Johnston, Ed Caley and Jim Brown. Should be fun. Naturally if there are any reasons for changes on schedules, get with John or Chris Davis at 816-443-2461. I have a work schedule going around and if you want to help out and missed the sign up sheet, give me a call and I can tell you what is open. This year we are asking for helpers with setting up. It is hard to set up a tent with only two people and the wind on some days. We will be selling popcorn, nuts & candies on these days as well. I want to thank Carl Condra with the helping of the Santa House. John and Carl worked as a team and got it moved during the week. Thanks to those who came out to help set up the house with lights and the inside decorations. We have given a task to Annette to get a bigger wreath and put the Optimist Club on it for over the Mantel. Thank you again Annette for your help on this, you are so creative I know it will come out great. So with lights, windows washed, tree and decorations and clean curtains, we will be ready for the kids on December 2nd.
See you there.
Christy Davis

With all the months of sitting, naturally the house needed cleaning. Here Sarah is helping with cleaning the windows on the outside.

Carl putting up another good idea of his, for those of us who work the Santa house during the windy days know that the door will get away from you if you don't have two hands on it. This year Carl installed a latch on top with a spring to help us out. Thanks Carl.

Jim Brown, Carol and Annette worked on decorating the Christmas Tree.

Carl and John putting up lights on the Santa House.

Jim Brown, Annette Barker and Carol Barnes.

Guest speaker November 17th meeting....

NO TAX RATE INCREASE BOND ISSUE....

Dr. Chris Small was our guest speaker on November 17th meeting and spoke on the Bond Election coming up on February 5, 2008.

Grain Valley R-5 School District Bond Election February 5, 2008

Passage of the $6,000,000 No Tax Increase Bond Issue in February 8, 2008 will:

Four additional classrooms and Library expansions at Sni-A-Bar Elementary School.
Eight Additional classrooms and Activity Field Improvements at High School.
Four additional classrooms at Prairie Branch Elementary School.
which will:

• Provide Classroom Space to Implement Full Day Kindergarten ---August 2009.
• Provide Much Needed Classroom Space at the High School to relieve Overcrowding.
• Update and Expand Sni-A-Bar Library Similar to other Elementary Schools.
• Upgrade High School Activity Field with Artificial Turf and Rubberized Track.

The meeting was very interesting and fielded a few questions from the members. Thank you Dr. Chris Small, we enjoyed your presentation.

Healthy Club Checklist

At our Board meeting on November 10th, President Dale Arnold shared with us some of the things he got at the Conference meeting the week previous. One was the Healthy Club Checklist.
Healthy Optimist Clubs are needed to Bring Out the Best in Kids in your community! Dale looked at the check list and of the 17 listed items, we can say yes to the most of them and a couple could either way. I don't think there is a no but possibly a few maybes. We can say that we are a pretty active club and this gives us a few things to work on to change those maybe to yes. Here are the questions.

• Does your club conduct or sponsor at least one youth activity or project per quarter?
• Is your Club visible within your community?
• Are your Club's Committees active?
• Is your Board of Directors meetings regularly?
• Are your Club leaders carrying out their responsibilities?
• Does your Club provide personal growth and leadership opportunities for your new members?
• Does your Club have guest speakers?
• Are your Club meeting well attended?
• Is your Club meetings well attended?
• Does your Club have good meeting facilities, meals and service?
• Does your Club's meeting time and location work for your members?
• Is your Club retaining your existing members?
• Does your club have at least 20 members?
• Has your Club added at least 1 member in the past 12 months?
• Do your Club Officers and Members attend your Zone and District meetings?
• Does your Club keep finances current and submit your reports on time?
• Does your Club stay in contact with all of your members so they can be involved in Club activities that fit their schedules?
• Does your Club actively use the Optimist websites as well as the District's websites?

If you marked yes to all of the above questions, congratulations and thank you for your commitment to the children in your community.

If you marked no to any of the questions, your Club may not be at full capacity to serve the most kids possible.

Board & Regular meeting along with guest speaker..

Board Meeting and regular meeting held at Administrative School building along with guest speaker.

Saturday November 10th, we had the board meeting and then our regular meeting with a guest speaker. Our Guest speaker was Troy Spadley who shared with us about the Choral group, his excitement shows when he speaks about his position and how the kids participate in competition. Those of us that were there could share the enthusiasm he had when he gave us a quick detail of all he is involved with. Very good guest speaker. Thanks Troy, we enjoyed your visit.

Mary Harper, Kathy Doty and Jeanette C. listening to the guest speaker like good students do.

HAUNTED HAYRIDE.. WITCHES CORNER...

HAPPY HALLOWEEN TO ALL.

Witches Corner a big hit.

On Tuesday October 30th in the afternoon, a group of members got together and put up the tenting that was used as two rooms on one of the Pavilion stages. We decorated and got ready for the evening in which the Witch and lucky for us, Spiderman were making an appearance. Last year we had asked Batman to come and help out and this year instead of his costume of Batman, he decided to come as Spiderman. Good choice as we had many little ones who came as miniature Spidermen. We had a good turn out, took over 90 pictures and sorry to say, we did run out of film at one time for about 10 minutes until we were able to get back up and going. We had a group of kids who just came in to visit and most parents were clicking their cameras along with ours. We had all kinds of characters both large and small. Ones that stand out in my memory were: the Tin Man, we had two visitors as Tin Men, we had one little one who came as Chuckie and was as cute as could be. A lot of fairies and princesses, Snow White who would not come near the witch at all. Pirates, Spidermen, Incredibles and many more. We had some who took their pictures with the witch, others with Spiderman and many of them with both. But we also had some who would not get near Spiderman and others that would not get near the Witch. We had members who were standing outside and letting people know about our WHALE program and then there were the scenes. I understand a lot of kids enjoyed the Castle. I have gotten more pictures this year to share with you so scroll down and view them. There are quite a few.

Annette and Carol, taking money and giving out goodies.

Witch and spiderman

Witch

Annette and Carol were signing in kids for pictures

Camera man and his helper getting kids attention.
Witch and Dale?
Witch and Kevin
My favorite, the little Tin Man

Loving Arnold's
Arnold girls
Bob Morse
Cody Spiderman and Jim

Group with Witch
Display
Castle
Chuckie with Witch

Kevin at the castle
Kathy with WITCH
John and Witch

Kathy with WITCH & SPIDERMAN
Sheila
Sharon

4 Mile Trophy won by Grain Valley

4 MILE TROPHY IN GRAIN VALLEY

I recieved this picture from President Dale Arnold for me to post. There was not explanation or article with it but it is obvious that Grain Valley won the game with Oak Grove. Hooray!!!!!! I am sure the POINTE or paper will have all of the information but in the meantime, enjoy the picture.