Erin Dickerson’s Prayer
Lord our God,
Marcus Aurelius is credited with saying, “When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive, to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.” Lord, as we approach Thanksgiving, the beginning of Hannukah, and the start of the Advent season, help us not to become so overwhelmed or wrapped up in the busyness of this time of year that we fail to notice the multitude of blessings surrounding us. Let us give You thanks God, not only for momentous events in our lives, but let us also give You gratitude for the simple blessings in each and every day.
Amen.
Announcements
- Sue Jessee reminded participants in the Adopt-a-Family program to deliver your wrapped gifts on Thursday December 1st, 3p – 6p at Cline Elementary school.
- Craig Dring announced that the TOP Optimist Club is selling 150 Poinsettias for $15 that will be delivered at lunch on 12/6/2022. They expect to raise $1000. They have chosen to purchase a pool wheelchair for the RecPlex which is about $1000.
- Greg Griffin announced that last Saturday with a record time of 1.75 hours, 840 trees were unloaded, tagged, and stored.
- Greg Griffin announced that on Friday 11/25/2022, the Tree lot opens to the public – see your team captain for your schedule.
Social Events
Annual Holiday Party, Tuesday, December 13, 2022, 6p-9p, at Moraine Country Club, $44 person. You can register and pay here. There will not be a lunch that day at Yankee Trace.
For the Love of Children, Austin Lipuma
Debe Dockins introduced Austin Lipuma, the presentation director of For the Love of Children (FLOC). Austin is currently a personal injury attorney in Cincinnati, Ohio. He got his start with FLOC in 2016 while at the Dayton law firm of Dyer, Garofalo, Mann, & Schultz, LPA. He was inspired after walking by the FLOC headquarters housed in the same building he worked in. After seeing the magic of FLOC, he first started as a volunteer with the flagship Christmas for Kids program. Over the years Austin’s role has evolved with the organization where he now primarily devotes his time to presenting, educating, and promoting the litany of wonderful services FLOC provides.
Mission
The mission of For Love of Children, Inc. (FLOC) is to provide financial, educational, and advocacy support to youth throughout the Greater Dayton Area. We serve children from ages newborn to 18 throughout the community. FLOC began servicing area children in 1980 and has grown into an industry of volunteers who are passionate about caring for neglected and abused children, children in foster care, and children in need of community resources.
Presentation
Austin Lipuma said It is quite clear why Optimists are called Optimists. He loves the positive energy he saw and felt at today’s meeting.
FLOC has twelve amazing proactive programs that work to better the lives of the children. They are a 100% volunteer agency, with the mission to serve over 6,000 children in the greater Dayton area who are neglected, abused, in foster care or who are in need of community resources.
FLOC finds children to help through County Child Support Enforcement Agencies (CSEA) and by keeping in close contact with schools. They have identified schools that have lots of kids that could use some help.
Austin said their whole purpose is to invest in youth. He said that Optimist International and FLOC are very aligned in their missions.
FLOC’s new administrative offices opened in the fall of 2011. Located at the Talbott Tower, we have over 4500 square feet of space in which to offer our services to the children in need in the greater Dayton area.
The joy cottage is run by a woman named Sue. Sue starts shopping for the toy cottage the day after Christmas each year. The room is magical. Austin said there is nothing like changing a child’s Christmas for the better. He had a mother tell him once that this was the first Christmas her 10-year old child has received gifts.
During the pandemic, FLOC together with the Dayton Mall Nonprofit Collaborative and other initiatives, was able to feed over 193,000 people.
Read Austin’s slide deck for lots of detailed descriptions not included in this article.
Programs at For Love of Children
Floc has several unique programs all centered around enriching children’s lives across the board. From Holidays to Birthdays and everything in-between, FLOC’s goal is to provide children a safe and fulfilling space to prosper.
Read about the twelve very proactive programs in place, to better the lives of the children.
- Comfort a Child
- Birthday Club
- Anti-Bullying Program
- Anti-Bullying Rally
- Betsy Hoobler Skill Center
- Tools for School
- Grant a Wish
- The Longitudinal Study
- Blessings in a Bag
- The Educational Center
- Christmas for Kids
- The Boutique
FLOC and the Future
- FLOC has recently developed and expanded new office space
- New programs include cooking, financial management, & music
- The Betsy Hoobler Skill Center, our Educational (book resource) Center, and the board meeting room will become part of the space
- “FLOC Rocks!” Pop Culture Museum has a Pop Culture Shop, where those attending the museum will be directed after touring “FLOC Rocks!” with all purchases benefiting FLOC
Christmas/Holiday Giving
- Children’s Services gifts are going to be provided in December with caseworkers looking forward to providing joy to the children they work with
- Actively working on building the “toy cottage”
- Additionally providing for three local, underserved schools and several churches
How You can Help
- https://flocdayton.org/
- https://flocdayton.org/donate/
- https://www.facebook.com/FLOCDayton
- P: (937) 223-3562
Thank You
Thank you, Austin Lipuma, for educating us about the services of For the Love of Children (FLOC).
New Member Readings and Inductions
| Name | Sponsor | 1st 2nd 3rd Reading or Induction |
| Carol Mays | Steve Mays | 2nd Reading |
Welcome Guests!
| Guest | Guest Of |
| Austin Lipuma | Speaker |
| Betsy Westhafer | Mike Creech |
| Carol Mays | Steve Mays |
| Ian Donohoe | Jim Mogan |
| Kathy Israel | Paul Stull |
| Mindy Hoffbauer | Debe Dockins |
Happy Bucks
| Member | Reason |
| Debe Dockins | Thank you to everyone who brought soups and chili on the very cold Christmas Tree delivery day. |
| Jim Mogan | Thank you to the Centerville Track Team for being a great help for the Christmas Tree delivery day. |
| Ellie Parker | Has a piece in an art contest at the Woodbourne Library. Vote for the guy in the white hat. If she wins she gets her own show. |
| Gary Anderson | Grandson at a pre-season bowling tournament for a 3 game series scored a 709. |
| Scott Langer | Just found out the grandchild on the way is a boy. |
Sergeants at Arms
| Member | Infraction |
| Katie Calloway | Two tons of leaves were blocking the flag sleeve at her parent’s home of Gary and Nancy Hansen. Well Gary was not in attendance, so Katie gets to pay their fine. |
| Mike Bevis | Publicity picture of him at another Optimist club meeting. |
| Cameron Langer | Has never been fined and his father mentioned it to a sergeant. Well now he has! |
| Larry England | Just now picked up his thank you present from Gary Hansen. |
| Mike Creech | His guest today arrived before he did! Also the sergeant didn’t like his guest introdcution. |
| Betsy Westhafor (Guest) | It was 51 degeees when sergeant Paul Boeckman went to work and Betsy, his boss, is responsible for this! |
| Beth Duncan | Lost her name badge. |
| Ron Tinnerman | Today he is essentially re-inducted since he has not been to a meeting for a while. |
| Mike Yoder | Didn’t protect the bell and gavel from Scott Langer. |
Membership Anniversaries
| Member | Joined | Years |
| Rick Altvater | November 24, 2018 | 4 |
| Andy Dickerson | November 24, 2018 | 4 |
| Erin Dickerson | November 24, 2018 | 4 |
| Gareth Dickey | November 24, 2018 | 4 |
| Ron Kuker | November 24, 2018 | 4 |
| Mariah Vogelgesang | November 24, 2018 | 4 |
| Bill DeFries | November 23, 2004 | 18 |
Birthdays
| Brendan Cunningham | November 22 |
| Jane Henry | November 22 |
| Jayne Weikel | November 22 |
| Mike Kistler | November 23 |
| Luke Neff | November 23 |
CNO Donations – 2013 through September 2022
Click here to see a summary of donations the club has made since 2013
Thank You Notes Received
CLICK HERE to see this week’s Thank You Notes