Junior Optimists, Optimists, and Friends,
On November 21st, the California South (CALSO) Junior Optimist International (JOI) District, consisting of Junior Optimist Clubs in the Greater San Diego Area, held its first Districtwide Meeting of the 2021-2022 Optimist Year. During the meeting discussions it was decided that there would be a Districtwide Community Service Project. The project decided upon is to make “We Care” Packages for Meals on Wheels of San Diego County to be given to elderly and disabled meal recipients on special occasions and during the holidays. CALSO JOI District Governor, Sydney Mafong, contacted Meals on Wheels and obtained information regarding our District JOI Clubs participating in making “We Care” packages. Governor Sydney has provided the below information and general instructions on how our JOI Clubs can proceed with this project.
Information from CALSO JOI District Governor Sydney Mafong:
Meals on Wheels serves thousands of elderly and disabled clients in San Diego County by delivering meals daily. During holidays or special occasions, they also deliver “We Care” packages as a special treat to their clients. There is always a great need for these packages.
Each “We Care” package will typically contain 5-7 items from the suggested list (see attached). The items should not be gender specific. In addition to the items in the bag/package, we will also include a homemade card with an inspiring message. The handwritten card should not contain any political, religious, or specific holiday messages.
There are 4 locations throughout San Diego County to drop off the bags. It would be easiest if each club could drop off their own packages to the location that is closest to them. Here are the 4 service centers (see attached) in the county, with their locations and contact information. The person making arrangements for dropping off the packages just has to call the specific service center ahead of time to make sure they are open and can arrange to receive the drop off of your JOI Club’s “We Care” packages.
JOI Club members can get together outdoors at a park, or another location, and assemble the packages working together like an assembly line. Another possibility is for JOI Club members to make individual packages at home and then the club could collect them and deliver them to the designated service center. Smaller clubs, clubs with fewer resources or less members can make less packages. Our goal is for as many JOI Clubs in the district as possible to participate. Each JOI Club should only provide the number of packages they are able to make given available resources. JOI Clubs may ask their Sponsoring adult Optimist Club for assistance in obtaining resources for the project.
The CALSO JOI District Lt. Governors will be in contact with each of their assigned JOI Clubs to determine how many “We Care” packages each JOI Club will be making and to which service center they will be donating. A goal would be that we can distribute “We Care” packages to each of the Meals on Wheels Service Centers in the county. The Lt. Governors will assist their assigned JOI Clubs with the project and answer questions that may arise in planning and executing the project. A list of the Lt. Governor JOI Club Assignments is attached. The list provides contact information to reach the Lt. Governors for assistance.
The goal is for all of the CALSO JOI District JOI Clubs to complete and deliver their “We Care” packages before the next JOI District meeting scheduled for January 29, 2022.
Please contact Governor Sydney Mafong, somafong@gmail.com or your assigned Lt. Governor if you have any questions regarding the project.
Optimistically,
Sydney Mafong
Governor, CALSO JOI District
