For the Love of Children (FLOC), Austin Lipuma

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

Thank You

Thank you, Austin Lipuma, for educating us about the services of For the Love of Children (FLOC).

New Member Readings and Inductions

NameSponsor1st 2nd 3rd Reading or Induction
Carol MaysSteve Mays2nd Reading

Welcome Guests!

GuestGuest Of
Austin LipumaSpeaker
Betsy WesthaferMike Creech
Carol MaysSteve Mays
Ian DonohoeJim Mogan
Kathy IsraelPaul Stull
Mindy HoffbauerDebe Dockins

Happy Bucks

MemberReason
Debe DockinsThank you to everyone who brought soups and chili on the very cold Christmas Tree delivery day.
Jim MoganThank you to the Centerville Track Team for being a great help for the Christmas Tree delivery day.
Ellie ParkerHas 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 AndersonGrandson at a pre-season bowling tournament for a 3 game series scored a 709.
Scott LangerJust found out the grandchild on the way is a boy.

Sergeants at Arms

MemberInfraction
Katie CallowayTwo 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 BevisPublicity picture of him at another Optimist club meeting.
Cameron LangerHas never been fined and his father mentioned it to a sergeant. Well now he has!
Larry EnglandJust now picked up his thank you present from Gary Hansen.
Mike CreechHis 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 DuncanLost her name badge.
Ron TinnermanToday he is essentially re-inducted since he has not been to a meeting for a while.
Mike YoderDidn’t protect the bell and gavel from Scott Langer.

Membership Anniversaries

MemberJoinedYears
Rick AltvaterNovember 24, 20184
Andy DickersonNovember 24, 20184
Erin DickersonNovember 24, 20184
Gareth DickeyNovember 24, 20184
Ron KukerNovember 24, 20184
Mariah VogelgesangNovember 24, 20184
Bill DeFriesNovember 23, 200418

Birthdays

Brendan CunninghamNovember 22
Jane HenryNovember 22
Jayne WeikelNovember 22
Mike KistlerNovember 23
Luke NeffNovember 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

A Copy of this Week’s Meeting PowerPoint Slide Deck is here

All Photos taken at this Week’s Meeting are here

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