A new Optimist Club is now in place in St. Clements.
Lacking a club since the Optimist Club of St. Clements-Heidelberg disbanded a few years ago due to declining membership numbers, a group of St. Clements residents have formed a new club called the Optimist Club of St. Clements and area.
“This does happen from time to time when we have members that get too old or move away we do see a drop in membership and clubs have petered out,” said Ken Hayward, governor of Optimist International. “But we are excited to have the new club up and running.”
On September 29 the new club was formed, chartered with 16 new members, including president Terry Koudys and secretary treasurer Kevin Shultz.
“We are very glad that we were able to get enough people within our community here to lets us establish a new Optimist Club and we look forward to serving the community and the kids here as well,” said Koudys.
Optimist International is a worldwide organization with more than 3,100 operating clubs in North America and the Caribbean. The mandate of the club is to improve the self-esteem of youth while encouraging them to get involved within their own community.
“We want the youth to help improve things in the community and at the same time their personal lives,” said Hayward.
The club will be meeting monthly at the St. Clements arena to plan local activities and help youth in the surrounding area.
“We look to see the club grow,” said Hayward. “At one time we could not charter a club with less than 25 members but Optimist International changed their rules and we can do it with a minimum of 15. The ideology behind that is if a club gets together and meets up doing things the members will follow. I am hoping this club climbs form 16 members to the 30s.”
One of the current projects the club is organizing is a charter party to be held in the spring of 2013. The party will be open to members of the public who wish to attend.
“The club is young and like an infant you have to crawl before you can walk and once this club gets organized and into gear we are looking to help with bigger and better things within the community,” said Hayward.
The St. Clements Optimist Club is co-ed.
“Because of the challenge of volunteerism these days it is hard to get volunteers in the first place and in most cases where the men’s club was involved the women were quite active in the background so it makes sense that they should be members. Having separate clubs for men or women are going by the way side and it is more efficient financially to have everyone under one club.”
The next club meeting will be held on Nov. 15 at 7 p.m. upstairs in the St. Clements arena. Anyone interested in participating is welcome to attend.
