October 2018 – Imperial Beach Optimist Club

Carlsbad Optimsts – October 28,2018

Posted on October 29, 2018 by D41 Admin Posted in Optimists District 41 Leave a comment

Sunday, October 28, 2018 Our Bowl-a-Thon was a huge success and YOU made it happen! Thanks to all our bowlers and volunteers that volunteered to make this event fun for all.
Start making your plans to attend our next Bowl-a-Thon on February 3. More FUN to come! Left Photo: 2018 Bowl-a-Thon Costume Winners!
Right Photo: $200.00 Money Tree Winners congratulated by Karen Radzinski! Special Thanks to Skip Griffin!
He does it again…another successful Bowl-a-Thon! Thanks Skip, for your continued dedication to our club and the youth we serve! Carlsbad Street Faire is here! This Sunday, November 4th from 8am-4pm, our Club will have a booth at the Faire. If you can volunteer some time, contact Kevin at: kevlinrad@gmail.com. More hands make less work for all! See you at the Faire! Our next Optimist Meeting is on Saturday, November 3rd. At this meeting, Ervin and Martha Frazier will be inducted into our club! Come cheer on our newest members! We celebrated Joe Tosto’s birthday at our last meeting! You never know what will happen at a meeting….attend and join the fun!

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Carlsbad Optimists – October 21, 2018

Posted on October 23, 2018 by D41 Admin Posted in Optimists District 41 Leave a comment

Sunday, October 21, 2018

Hello All and greetings from your new Optimist President,
I want to thank everyone for the opportunity and privilege to work with you. I am especially excited that we have some new members on the Board of Directors and look forward to some new ideas to explore.

We are meeting on October 27^th at St. Michaels. I will be traveling back from the Midwest, and since the Bowl-a-thon is October 28^th it makes sense for Skip to run that meeting. Please make an effort to attend.

Going forward our meeting schedule will be the first and third Saturdays of each month. That means November 3^rd and 17^th , December 1^st and 15^th and January 5^th and 19^th. So mark your calendars!

Finally, we need more prizes for the Bowl-a-thon. Do you have an old gift card you haven’t used? Consider donating it. Ask a business owner you know or do business with if they can help. Make a basket yourself that we can use. While it looks like we are doing pretty well with bowlers, we want them to have fun and come back next time. Prizes do that and provide substantial extra income for the groups we help. Please spend a few minutes and think is there something I can do to help.

Ok that’s my drive by guilting. Lets have a great week!

Kevin Radcliffe
kevlinrad@gmail.com

And the Club Optimist of the Year Award goes to…………Skip Griffin!

For his hard work and dedication to the club!

Skip has put in countless hours chairing our past couple of fundraising events. If you really would like to congratulate him, let him know you have a gift card donation for the Bowl-a-Thon!

Club Anniversary!

Skip Griffin – October 27, 2014

Saturday, October 27
Club Meeting – 9am, St. Michael’s by-the-Sea, 2775 Carlsbad Blvd., Carlsbad 92008

Sunday, October 28
Halloween Bowl-A-Thon, 10am – 1:30pm, Surf Bowl, 1401 S. Coast Highway, Oceanside 92054

Saturday, November 3
Club Meeting – 9am, St. Michael’s by-the-Sea, 2775 Carlsbad Blvd., Carlsbad 92008

Saturday, November 3
Got Your Back San Diego will be hosting a fundraiser from 5:30 – 9pm in Vista for $45 per person. Please email Sue McLead (760-583-9072) at events@gotyourbacksandiego.com for more information.

Sunday, November 4
Carlsbad Street Fair, Contact Kevin with your availability to work our booth.

Wednesday, November 7
StandUp for Kids, Thanks to Greg and Karen for the food donation this month

Saturday, November 17
Club Meeting – 9am, St. Michael’s by-the-Sea, 2775 Carlsbad Blvd., Carlsbad 92008

Saturday, December 1
Club Meeting – 9am, St. Michael’s by-the-Sea, 2775 Carlsbad Blvd., Carlsbad 92008

Saturday, December 15
Club Meeting – St. Michael’s by-the-Sea, 2775 Carlsbad Blvd., Carlsbad 92008

Saturday, January 5, 2019
Club Meeting -9am, St. Michael’s by-the-Sea, 2775 Carlsbad Blvd., Carlsbad 92008

Saturday, January 19, 2019
Club Meeting – 9am, St. Michael’s by-the-Sea, 2775 Carlsbad Blvd., Carlsbad 92008

Sunday, February 3, 2019
Super Bowl-A-Thon, Oceanside Surf Bowl – More info to come

Words to live by from Charlie Brown

Allied Gardens – October 8, 2018

Posted on October 12, 2018 by D41 Admin Posted in Optimists District 41 Leave a comment

AlliedGardenDave 01 Oct 8, 2018

Coronado Club – October 11

Posted on October 12, 2018 by D41 Admin Posted in Optimists District 41 Leave a comment

October 11, 2018

President Carla Fargo started us off sans bell ringing just a little bit late, but who’s keeping track. Robert Kracht shared a prayer and John Watson led us in the pledge.

We had guests: CHS Football team and coach, Cynthia, Dick Owens and Chris Cervantes had their guests…sadly your editor did not get a few of the names. URGH! Chris brought in Joe and he shared his Eagle Scout project of a cart for a campground in east county. We are a giving crowd and dug deep into our lint filled pockets and gave him our extra dollars to get him on the right track.

A few club announcements: JOI Kids garage sale on November 17th at Erin’s house 2nd and D Ave. Clean out your garages. The CHS Octagon club has 10 new members and anxious to get busy volunteering around town. The kids are running Father Joe’s 5k on Thanksgiving…they needed some help with entry fees and John Watson stepped up and paid for the kids.

Lawn Bowling against those other people(ROTARY) is set for October 20th at 1300 hours. The team has been named, but apparently Coach Carinder said wrangling us here Optimists will be an adventure.

Our distinguished Mayor announced there will be an proclamation for Stan Searfusat the council meeting on October 16th…Jan and the twins will be there…show up yellow shirts and show our support.

Mon Oct 15th a 1100 at Sacred Heart Church, services for our dear Fritz Gaylordwith a reception following at the Golf Course.

Halloween Happening with the recreation on Friday October 26th…Charlie Ahren is taking the helm to assign job tasks. Help serve Frito nachos, hot dogs and cupcakes!

The BOD had a meeting and we 60k in the kitty to help support the kids of Coronado.

Carla is looking for a Song Master as Jim Rodgers our crooning song master has moved to be with family. Can you carry a tune? Then you will need to teach the club how to sing HBTY!

School Board candidates will be having a panel on Oct 22nd for Q & A from the public….If you need a Lee Pontes sign…swing by 9th and I Ave to pick up a sign…YES LEE is running for his seat again.. VOTE VOTE VOTE!!!

DINGS and BRAGS: Cavanaugh is expecting grand-baby #4….Howland is expecting grandchild #6, The Mayor is one of the TOP SD Leaders under 40 years of age….Bailey was on TV and in Discovery Magazine…NEVER SAID HE WAS AN OPTIMIST….. no pins for Waczek, Downey, Cervantes, Pontes, or Mueller.

The Ding Master found some random writings of Roy Mantz’s in the Flying Midshipman…not sure if it was current or an older writing or who got dinged!

Union-Tribune – Bonita Optimist volunteer is queen of the book sales

Posted on October 1, 2018 by D41 Admin Posted in Optimists District 41 Leave a comment

Right about this time every year, anonymously placed stacks of books start showing up on the front porch of Ann Stevens’ home in Bonita.

It’s also around now that she’s regularly seen around town hand-collecting bags and boxes of books from local residents, a hobby that led her sons to jokingly call Stevens “the bag lady.”

Stevens, 68, is the founder and organizer of the Bonita Optimist Club’s semiannual used book sale. The next one takes place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Nov. 3 and 4 at the Bonita Museum, where as many as 13,000 books will be sold with all proceeds benefiting the club’s charitable programs for children.

Stevens can’t calculate the hours she dedicates to the book sales, but she admits it’s quite a few, because she doesn’t delegate well. She also says the sales could not happen without the countless volunteer hours put in by her book sale team of Jim Alkire, Al Zimmer, Ric Rice, Christina Fruechte and Jean Vaccaro.

Collecting, scanning, storing and preparing the books for sale is a year-round preoccupation that can be exhausting. But Stevens said it’s all worth it when customers come up to her at the sales and ask for her advice on a good book or author.

“I love getting people connected with books. It’s so fun,” she said.

The feeling is mutual.

Eastlake resident Esther Pearson is a member of the book sale fan club, a group of about 300 local residents who show up at every sale and often donate back what they’ve read.

Pearson said the Bonita Optimist Club book sale is the best of its kind in the region because of the quality of the books it sells and its well-categorized organization.

“Ann is energetic, family-focused and very interested in people and books. She works extremely hard and she’s always fun,” Pearson said. “This is an important cause for the community. It draws people together and provides a lot of money for important children’s causes.”

Stevens was raised in Manhattan Beach and moved to the county in 1969 to attend San Diego State University, where she studied speech communication and English.

After earning a teaching credential and master’s degree, she went to work for the Sweetwater Union High School District, where she spent more than 36 years, working as a teacher, counselor and assistant principal before retiring in 2007.

Meanwhile, she and her husband of 45 years, Del, a financial planner, raised two sons, Mark, a project engineer in San Diego, and Eric, who owns a security barrier company in Salt Lake City.

During the many years she worked with high school-age children, Stevens said one of the biggest problems teens struggled with was low self-esteem.

“They need to recognize they have value and they can make goals,” she said. “So many don’t feel the future is theirs to make.”

After she retired, Stevens began looking for ways to volunteer. First she began helping out at the Chula Vista library, which later led to a part-time job. Then a friend recruited her to join the Bonita Optimist Club.

Founded 45 years ago, the 90-member organization’s motto is “Bringing out the best in kids,” which deeply resonated with Stevens.

Among its many outreach efforts are a recognition program for sixth-graders; small grants for children’s programs; support of children’s libraries; help with youth sports and music programs; a college scholarship program; and assistance for children at New Alternatives, a residential center for children in the foster-care system.

The club’s biggest annual fundraiser is a golf tournament held each June. For many years it also held an annual craft sale. In 2009, Stevens suggested adding a table of used books at the craft sale to make some extra money.

That first year, she collected and sold nearly 300 books. The sale was considered such a success, that eventually it supplanted the craft sale and expanded to twice a year. These days, each sale offers 12,000 to 13,000 books, and they collectively raise from $6,000 to $7,000 a year.

Stevens said the secret to the sales’ success is organization. She and her team collect books year-round and store them in the basement of the county-owned Provence House on Sweetwater Road.

The books come from a number of sources. Some come from retiring teachers cleaning out their classrooms and some from teachers who have received grants for new books. Some are from couples who are downsizing. The Jr. Optimist Club occasionally hosts book drives for the sale, and one club member visits estate sales and asks for donations of any unsold books.

Stevens is so strongly associated with the sale that as soon as word gets out in the community that a sale is approaching, neighbors start stacking books on her porch.

Every book is checked for water or page damage. Then, its ISBN number is scanned into a database created by Ric Rice, which allows the team to categorize each title by genre and author.

Any books that don’t meet the quality standard or are over-represented in the inventory are donated to library book shops or Goodwill.

After the books are brought into the museum for sale, fan club members get an email for a pre-show preview. Fans can also pre-order titles in the database. The books are priced from 25 cents for children’s books to $1 for paperbacks and $1.50 for hardbound books.

Virginia Synadinos of Eastlake has been coming to the book sales for five years. She’s a fan of memoirs and military history books and said she’s always amazed at the diversity of books she finds at the sales.

“So many library book sales are the same old novels they print millions of. I just find the most fabulous interesting books at Ann’s sales,” Synadinos said. “They have everything so well laid out I can go right to the table I want and Ann is always so charming and helpful.”

Stevens said she sees the book sales as a win-win for both the Bonita Optimist Club’s charitable programs and for the community at large.

“It’s a good fundraiser and I like that it’s a community-centered event,” she said. “We have a wonderful relationship with the museum’s directors and I like that it takes place right in the heart of town.”

For information on the Bonita Optimist Club and its book sales, visit bonitaoptimist.org.

For information about other clubs in San Diego, visit calso41.us