A Social and Farewell gathering for the Davis'

John and Chris Davis

Where do I start when it comes to saying so long. John and I are definitely sorry to leave such good friends behind but the time has come for us to move back home with the family. We came out here in the year 2000 with the intentions of just staying for a few years and we were going to continue east where his brothers, sisters and mom were. Well, once here we stayed. I for one like it here and even when it snows. Poor John was starting to have a problem with that part of the year. He needed sunshine. When we came in 2000 I had already met Gary Hanson when he came out to do some training in the California branch. When he heard I was coming to Grain Valley he immediately started to tell me about this club that would help me get familiar with Grain Valley and make friends. Well he was right. I jumped right in and dragged John with me. John being hesitant didn't want to do community work at first but once I signed him up as a member (without telling him) he was hooked. Both John and I have enjoyed the club, the people and most of all the activity. I will have to see how I survive because I am a person who needs to be busy and stay busy to survive. I will definitely take some of what I learned and apply it to some of our family activities. I will look to see if there is an Optimist Club out there we can get involved with.
Ann Ronchetto was so wonderful to open her house and gave us a very very nice gathering to say our goodbyes to those we would not see again as we will not be here to make another Saturday meeting. On April 10th, I will be doing my exit interview at work and then spend the next 4 days making sure all of the house is packed. We will pick up the Budget truck on Wednesday and the kids (son, cousin and nephew) will arrive by 3:00 pm. We will spend the evening with them and then Thursday morning it is loading time. A friend of mine will come and help me clean the house as they empty rooms and our intentions are to leave around 8:00am on Friday. Time has moved so fast and will move even faster yet. We will drive three vehicles, rented truck pulling a car hauler, the Ranger and of course the Explorer. We will probably take the three days to get there as we have limited speed with the rental. I will take pictures and send them of the different areas especially Arizona. If you have never been there, it is dry but beautiful in the daylight.
We want to say thank you for welcoming us with such friendship, support when we were new to the area and all of your kindness. We will definitely miss all of you, you do not know how much. Ann, thank you for always being there for us, Carol my soul birthday mate, we will miss you very much. Kathy and Erma, take care of Nick. Sharon and Bob, what we say, we will definitely miss our dear friends. The Arnold's, Sheila and Dale, how could we have survived with your support. Danni we will miss you. Dr Chris Small, the Harper's and of course Jan, how can anyone not like this woman, she is my Idol, I used her as my measuring cup when it came to giving to the community. She is your corner stone to the club, may she live forever. To all of the others, many many thank, Jim Brown, the Vaughan's, Roam's, especially Debbie who came and gave John and I prayer when we needed it last summer, the Caley's, Jeanette, Annette, and many many more. Thank you for all you have done. Enjoy the pictures that I have posted.

Here John is with Jim, Norm and Bob.... these 4 get together on Wednesday and have a Jam session.

Easter Egg Hunt at Armstrong Park success..

EASTER EGG HUNT has come and gone for the year of 2009.

Again we had a very successful year with the Easter Egg Hunt. The Optimist Club stuffed over 9,000 eggs and gave away 6 baskets full of goodies. There was a gold and silver egg in each year group in which the winners were given a basket that contained donations from the club, Christy Davis, Kathy Doty, Lunar Bowl, Sonic and GV Community Center. Thank you all for your kind donations and thank you to all of those who helped stuff the eggs the week before and came out to help spread them out. While the kids were waiting for the count down, many came and paid a visit to our bunny and had their picture taken. WE had over 40 pictures taken which is more than last year and is growing every year. Many managed to get the picture before the hunt and we had a great many that took them after the hunt was over. This gives the club a better idea as to how they will plan for next year as we will be going digital and printing pictures.
Again thanks for all of your help and see you next year. Please enjoy some of the pictures below. I got pictures of the winners but no names to go with them this year, sorry, I was kind of in a rush. But as John and I move on, we want to say that the Easter Egg Hunt we enjoyed doing. We are passing this project to Kathy Doty and Jennifer Bailey. Thanks all.

Here is Mattie Ronchetto who has been coming to the hunt since she was a small baby. I always love to take a picture of her. Mattie is President Ann Ronchetto's grandchild.

Grandma Ann and Mattie

Group spreading out Easter eggs.

The bunny has arrive, thank you Bob for helping the bunny around.

Chris takes time to take a picture with the bunny. The last one in Missouri.

Small child who covered his face when he came to see the Bunny. I think this may be Cheryl K. grandson Garrett.

Parents watching as the kids scramble for eggs.

The kids opening their eggs and recycling.

More recycling

Basket winners above and below

Officer John Davidson takes a picture with the Rabbit...

One of Christy's co-workers brings his daughter Emma to the hunt....

Not sure if Bob was happy to see the rabbit or if he was wanting to keep him from leaving.

Visitors

Club stuffs eggs for annual hunt on 4-4...

In the picture, Jennifer Beal, Christy Davis and Kathy Doty. Christy spent time with the girls and getting them familiar with the project. They will do a great job.

Saturday, March 28th the club and friends got together at the School Administration building to stuff the eggs for the Annual Hunt to be held on April 4th. We had a wonderful group of almost 50+ people. As this is the last year that Chris Davis will be chairing this and the last year John will play the Easter Bunny, the Davis' enjoyed seeing so many of the members with their families come in to help. We had the most if not all of the Jr Optimist members, we had the school principals who came and helped, and Stephanie from the Post Office, her son has come for about the 3rd year to help out. We had a few kids who came to get hours done and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. We stuffed eggs until we ran out of candy. We stuffed over 9,000 eggs which is a little down from last year but will be plenty for what we need. Naturally we keep some left for those who come in just a few minutes late. We have 6 baskets to give out with the gold and silver egg winners. The donations are from the club, Kathy Doty, Christy Davis, Sonic, Grain Valley Community Center and Lunar Bowl. The winners will enjoy their basket. Next year Kathy Doty and Jennifer Beal will work as a team to take the event and continue to do the service to the community. John and I have enjoyed this event and this year will be sporting a new outfit, the bunny has been upgraded. When asked if he would like to pass it to some one else this year, his answer was, let me finish my last task in Grain Valley before we leave. I do enjoy this event and will be sorry to leave but I will continue to do the blog from California and only need the data and pictures until I pass the baton to someone else. A great thanks to all of those who came and helped and hope to see you Saturday.

Kathy and Jennifer keeping track of the eggs stuffed.

Dr. Chris Small, Big boss to the Grain Valley schools, smart man, never met anyone like him but he seemed a little puzzled by this stuffing of an egg? I think he was studying it before he decided to stuff it.

Group picture of club members Jim Brown and John Davis at the table with the Jr Optimist. One of them was even on crutches and came to enjoy the morning.

Mary Harper, Jan Reding and Rusty Brown on the left with Principle of Sni-A-Bar on the right with his wife and kids. We welcomed the new faces to the event.

Another picture of the group.

More pictures

John really into his work.

Another group, Shawn Brady, Shelia Arnold, Chris Small, Bryan McDonald and kids with Jerry Vaughan standing in the background.

Jerry conversing with some of the kids earning house of service.

more pictures of the group

another picture of group

another picture in which you can see the number of people who came to help.

Jan gives us a two day presentation of trip to Egypt

On February 28th and March 7th, Jan gave the club a presentation on her trip to Egypt. For those of us who attended, it was one interesting presentation. Jan is a wonderful speaker and this was no different. She came prepared with an overhead projector to show pictures and brochure books to go along with the slides. I felt like I was in school in a history class. Job well done Jan. This was by far the best presentation we have had. As she had done this at other places (one of the local churches) some had heard it before but came to listen again. The amount of information this woman retained and shared with us was unbelievable. Congratulations on your trip to Egypt and glad you came back with this wealth of knowledge. If you missed this, you may want to ask Jan when she may be doing this presentation again. Good job done. Sorry it took me so long to get this done.