CNOtes

CNOtes are blog articles about weekly Tuesday noon lunch meetings and monthly CNO 2.0 evening meetings.

Mark Metzger – Washington Township Rec Center

A motto of WTRC is “Discover your potential.” Mark has been the director for 1.5 years. The rec center is now 30 years old and was created when the township purchased the building from the YMCA. Rec West was created 3 years ago when the township purchased the former Centerville Theater building directly to the west of the rec center.

Gary Minyard – Victoria Theatre Association

The Victoria Theatre Association (VTA) has many kid-focused programs. The Discovery Series, started in 1991, has had over 1 million participants so far. Around 27,000 kids experience the series annually. VTA is currently building an Art Annex with 250 seats to allow even more opportunities for children.

Girls Oratorical Contest

This year’s topics is “Where Are My Roots of Optimism?” We have names our contest the “Margaret Barclay Memorial Oratorical Contest.” Margaret was the committee chair of the contest for many years and a past president of our club. Margaret was a longtime teacher and the principal of Magsig Middle School. Her husband, Roy Barclay, still generously sponsors the financial awards for our contestants. He spoke to us for a few minutes and it was great to hear about his wife and her service to kids, Centerville, and CNO.

Boys Oratorical Contest

The contest was started in 1928, which means this year, 2018, is the 90th anniversary. We have named our contest the Margaret Barclay Memorial Oratorical Contest. Margaret was the committee chair of the contest for many years and a past president of our club. She was a longtime teacher and the principal of Magisg Middle School. her husband, Roy Barclay, still generously sponsors the financial awards for our contestants.

Jeff Sorrell – Dayton Life Enrichment Center

The Life Enrichment Center (LEC) serves lots of people – from the homeless to those with fixed incomes and everything in between. There are 5 paid staff members and a group of 60 volunteers that keep it running. Their goal for incoming clients is to help them navigate through LEC and until eventually they no longer need the facility. The homeless can receive showers, mailboxes, clothing, and access to a salon.

Dr. Greg Ramey – Dayton Children’s and Major Gifts Presented to The Library and Park District

One in three kids has a major mental health problem at some point in their childhood. We need to do more earlier for mental health to help raise kids into adults that are caring and moral. Over the past 25 years there has been a 33% increase in issues caused by the need for perfection as a child. This shows up as anxiety, depression, or suicide attempts. There has been an additional noticeable rise in issues related to social media. Children’s hospital now will have 3 psychologists and 13 psychiatrists to help kids. In a year Children’s will open up a new 24 bed crisis center.

Brent Ullery – CHS Football Coach

Coach Ullery thanks the Optimist Club for their support of CHS and specifically that recent large donation the club made to fund the purchase of football helmets for the CHS football players that have impact sensors. The state-of-the-art helmets help protect the health of our kids by alerting coaches when a hit occurs that may require that concussion protocol be followed to protect the student.

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