Boys and Girls Oratorical Contest

Phather Phil’s Prayer

Heavenly Father each piece of a quilt has its own color, pattern,
texture and design. But when they are put together, they become a
work of art. Just like the people in our Optimist club who have unique
personalities, talents and skills. Our presence blesses one another in
countless ways and helps touch the kids in a reflection of Your love.
We pray that You will hold all the members in Your thoughts and
continue to bless our work. The young people are a very important
part of the fabric of our lives. Help us to continue to make it a
tapestry of love.  Amen!

Today’s Guests

All Photos from the Meeting are Here

Flippin’ Awesome Awards Presentation

Donna Huss presented “Flippin’ Awesome” awards to Evelyn Griffin and Tom Novak for their support of the January 17th 2019 NOW event. Evelyn produced a mailing from every individual that had a tree delivered during our tree lot sale. Tom completed a mailing to all of the current AOF (Avenue of Flags) subscribers. Both of these individuals went “Above and Beyond” to assist in making the NOW event the success it was. Thank you, again, to both of you!!

NOW is an acronym for “New Optimists Welcome”. Read more about it here. We will be having more NOW events this year.

Committee Announcements

Golf Committee: Next committee meeting will be Wednesday, February 20th, 2019 at 6:00 pm at Buckeye Home Care located on Paragon Road.

PGI/PDP:  Myron will again be available before and after next week’s lunch meeting to sign-up or update member passports. Please make an effort to see Myron.

Childhood Cancer: Next committee meeting will be Thursday, February 7th, 2019 at the Centerville Panera at 6:30pm. Their next meeting is March 14th, 2019 (same time and location).

Social Committee: there will be a Wine and Beer tasting event on Saturday, February 23rd, 2019 at Diane and Patrick Arehart’s residence. You can try both wine and beer, or just one (or neither, there will be lots of food). More details will follow.

Oratorical Contest was today.

Liz Fultz, the chair of the Oratorical contest, introduced the participating students and described this annual event. This is the third year for Liz to chair this event. She would like to thank the content and timing judges for assisting with the event.

From Liz Fultz:

February 5th 2019 is the first day of the Margaret Barclay Memorial 2019 Optimist Oratorical Contest.  Since it was established in 1928, the Oratorical Contest has become the longest-running program sponsored by Optimists International.  This contest is named in honor of former Optimist member Margaret Barclay who passed away in 2010.   Margaret chaired this committee for many years.  She cared deeply about bringing out the best in kids and in living the Optimist Creed.  She was a most beloved member of our club, a past president and lived a life dedicated to helping others. Margaret Barclay’s accomplishments were vast including 40 years in public education, the last 27 in the Centerville Schools. She retired in 2000 as Principal at Magsig Middle School. It is a pleasure to see her memory continually being recognized in this way.

The Oratorical Contest is done in collaboration with Centerville Evening and South Metro Optimists, who also sponsor contests.  Mr. Roy Barclay, husband of Margaret, supports the contest by making an annual donation.  Thank you, Roy, for your ongoing contributions and support of this contest.

https://centervillenoonoptimist.com/oratorical-contest/

Contestants deliver a four to five minute speech.  One winner from each contest advances to the zone competition and then can advance to the finals at the district level.  Districts have the opportunity to provide a first place scholarship of $2,500, a second place scholarship of $1,500, and a third place scholarship of $1,000.

The 2019 topic “Is There a Fine Line Between Optimism and Reality?”.

To keep the judging fair, the names of the contestants were kept secret and we were not allowed to applaud the participants until all had presented.

This contest will be held at our lunch this week and next. This week all four students are from Incarnation School. Next week there will be 3 from Centerville middle schools and another from Incarnation School.

Today, the first three participants were female and the final a male.

Speaker A went first. She argued that there is a fine line between optimism and reality. She reflected on fictional characters to demonstrate this line. The daily news has been very negative and she has had many deaths in her family recently. Keeping optimistic helps to get through life’s challenges. “Through the darkness is how we find the light.”

Speaker B was next. Thomas Jefferson said, “Nothing can stop a positive man from doing anything he wants to do.” Navy Seals use active optimism. She said the optimist in her is helping her recover from a recent concussion. The Navy Seals are not successful from luck, but from preparation and a positive optimism. Ghandi, Jefferson and Ben Carson all used a positive mental attitude to reach their goals.

Speaker C was next. She quoted Mary Lou Retton, “Optimism is a happiness magnet. If you stay positive, good things and good people will be drawn to you.” Being optimistic is a magnet for success. The fine line lies between the meaning of the two terms optimism and reality. The appearance of reality is affected by whether you choose an optimistic or pessimistic outlook. Hope and optimism improves reality. She shared a story of how her sports team stayed optimistic on a very hot day to come back and win a match.

Speaker D was our final speaker. Steve Jobs quoted, “You cannot connect the dots moving forward, only by looking back.” Optimism allows you to work on the future dots with the plan that they will connect. Optimists expect good from reality and live a life being positive. You want your reality to be the best it can be. Optimism is a mindset to make tasks in life easier. There is a fine line and hopefully your dots will be connected in a positive way.

All four students did a fantastic job in both content and presentation. Only one moves forward and that is speaker C. You are welcome to go see her at the next round of the Oratorical contest at the library in a couple of weeks.

Birthdays

Member Birthday
Greg Crabtree February 05
Shelby DiPasquale February 06
Don Kelley February 08
Mariah Vogelgesang February 08
Ron Tinnerman February 11

Membership Anniversaries

Member Month Day Joined # Years
Renee Glenn February 5 2/5/2014 5
Ellie Parker February 8 2/8/2011 8
Patricia Kuhlman February 8 2/8/2011 8

New Member Readings and Inductions

Due to the time needed for Boys and Girls Oratorical Contests, we did not do any new reading nor inductions this week.

Sergeants at Arms

No time for sergeants this week.

 Happy Bucks! 

No time for Happy Bucks this week.

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