WORKING THE TROPICANA
Making Pizza's at Tropicana Field (Tampa Bay Ray's Stadium) for Papa John's Pizza enables us to earn money so we can give to the kids and our community.
BIG BUCKS AUCTION FOR KIDS
We supported the Riviera Middle School with the Bucks Program. The kids would bid on the items with the Bucks they earned throughout the school year.
We donated $1,200 for the school to purchase the items.
PINEWOOD DERBY
Don Stillwagon and Arthur Bourgeois checking in a Pinewood Derby entrant.
Making sure the cars were lined up for a fair race was important. Taking that extra step was important to member, Nancy.
Kids and parents would line up at the
finish line to see if their car would
win. Excitement was plentiful.
Getting involved
Melinda Roche - Pinellas Park Police Dept was our Respect for Law honoree.
Melinda with her Captain, Mother and Sue after receiving her plaque.
Certificate of Appreciation
Received from Lealman Elementary School for our continuous support and contributions.
Respect for Law - 2011
Kentucky - K9 dog was there too!
Emma at the podium.
Emma Temarkin with her mother and Sue Lewis
Parvin Sembu with Sue Lewis
Terry with our two winners at the school Oratorical Contest.
2011 Halloween Night
Giving out the candy to all kids of all ages - it was fun!
Terry Pendleton pinning Nora with her husband Edgar who is our Secretary, Treasurer along side her to welcome our newest member and long time friend to our meetings and projects.
2012 Pinning Our Newest Member
Welcome NORA!
2012 & 2013 Sponsoring
the Northeast Lady Vikings Softball Team
GO TEAM!
April 15, 2012 - Breakfast Club Sponsored a Fish-A-Thon for the kids - our club had 3 kids come out and participate.
Somer and her 3 kids reeled in many fish and got to keep their new fishing rods and reels.
It was great!
Being honored by the Tampa Bay Rays
A party for the volunteers and to get ready for the new season.
Thanks to all our volunteers we had a great year.
Our 2012 Oratorical Contest Winners - they did it again for our club.
All of the Winners
Scott Kaplan, No FL District Governor and volunteer for us at the Tropiciana "Rays" joined us for our dinner thanking all of the volunteers.
Volunteers helping us give back to the community.
We thanked them with a dinner and an fun outting.
Mason Dixion's Christmas Wish Fund
This was our 6th year of donating to Mason Dixon's Christmas Wish Fund.
Our member Nancy Berghammer hand delivered the check and was on the air with Mason giving thanks to all of the volunteers who helped us throughout the Ray's season. Mason knows that the money is to be given to a family with kids. Remember that is what we are all about; "Friend of Youth!" and giving back to the community.
Mason Dixon accepting our donation at Q105 delivered by Nancy Berghammer, member.
Brooke and Joey participated in the Morgan Fitzgerald Oratorical Contest and went on the next level. They are both winners in our books. Both of them spoke rather well and presented themselves with much grace. We are proud of them.
Oratorical Constestants from Morgan Fitzgerald School 2013
In an all out effort to help stop bullying our chapter set up a booth. We wanted to get the word across to the parents and children that bullying hurts everyone involved. Terry was very much involved in this event and our thank you goes out to him for all his efforts.
Stop the Bullying
Mason Dixion's Christmas Wish Fund
This was our 8th year of donating to Mason Dixon's Christmas Wish Fund.
Our members Nancy Berghammer and Sue Lewis hand delivered the check and was on the air with Mason giving thanks to all of the volunteers who helped us throughout the Ray's season. The money went to a needy family with kids. Remember that is what we are all about; "Friend of Youth!" and giving back to the community.
Mason Dixon accepted our donation at Q105 .
Our Oratorical Winners 2014
We are so proud of our two 1st Place winners, Jessica Silk and Harry Potter and they are going to participate in this years too. These are two great young adults.
Hayden Crawford Graduated from College - Our Youngest Member
Our club President, Terry Pendleton and Vice President, Sue Lewis went to Hayden's graduation ceremony from St Petersburg College. Hayden is the youngest member of our club. He volunteers at the Tropiciana Ray games to help us give back to the community for kids. He is a great member and he is going to pursue further education.
Harold Der Garabedian, Photographer
Left to right, Sue Lewis, Hayden Crawford, girl friend Janate, and Terry Pendleton
ORATORICAL CONTEST
This year's participants Emma Temarkin and Parvin Sembu did a great job at only 11 years old. Emma went on to be one of the 6 finalist in the District contest.
Treating Kids at Sallie House for Christmas
The Optimist clubs got together to treat the kids at Sallie House to celebrate Christmas in a special way. All the clubs brought food, games and gifts for the kids and a great time they had. It was a Christmas for them to remember.
Buddy Addressed up for Christmas.
Buddy is a great dog and keeps our member Kathleen Prince company and protects her. He likes celebrating different events and Christmas is one of them. Now that is definitely a special dog.
Halloween Celebration 2020
With the limitations this year Pinellas Park Halloween had to be different this year. We couldn't set up a table and hand out the candy to the kids which we have been doing for more than 32 years. City of Pinellas Park had it set up that parents would drive their vehicle along a route and depending on the number of kids in the vehicle each one would receive a bucket with candy in it.
We asked them if it would be alright to put the candy in a small bag and put our name on it and supply them with the candy. They approved that. 500 labels were created and Sue, Kim, Patty, Kathleen and her daughter Kim and myself met at my house and we did just that. We put 6 mini chocolate bars in the small bags. It took us a couple of hours but we accomplished it. The Monday before Halloween Sue and I delivered the 3 boxes to the City of Pinellas Park and they were thrilled to see all that candy.
Helping Kids and Family with kids to Celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas during the Coronavirus 2021
Even though our club wasn't able to earn any money this year due to the virus it was our intent to continue to help the kids in the community no matter what during the holidays. Thanksgiving and Christmas for 20 families each received full meals to celebrate the day and additional items were given to Sallie House for them to help those kids enjoy the holidays with them. Here are some pictures of the items we supplied. We are proud to have been able to do these even without earning any money during this bad time.
Donation of boy shorts to the school.
Hayden was great too, he dressed in his Dark Vader costume and went out to assist in making the kids happy. He stated they loved his costume as they drove the path to get their bucket of candy. Pinellas Park Halloween Candy
Sally House was also taken care of. Kim Worthy was able to assist with the Downtown Club in getting the candy and putting them in bags to supply the kids their Halloween treats. Good job Kim!
Poster Contest Held in 3 Schools
We held a Poster Contest for the 3 schools on "Take Hugs Not Drugs" and we picked First and 2nd Place Posters from each school. First Place winners received $15.00 and 2nd Place winners received $10.00. It was nice to see that there are talented students and they can show them. A special showing was held at Gulfport Elementary School.
Halloween 2021 - Bigger and Better
This was a good year for us to take care kids during Halloween. We participated in the Pinellas Park Trail, PAL and Sallie House supplying candy for all the kids that came out. The Pinellas Park Trail had between 1,500 and 2,000 kids, PAL had 500 and Sallie House has 50. Not a bad undertaking. As you can see Darth Vardar was very popular and he was at Pinellas Park Trail and PAL. Even adults wanted their picture taken with him.
Sallie House
Photo Gallery - Years of Serving the Community Kids
PAL Halloween
PAL
Pinellas Park
Oratorical Contest 2022
Oratorical Contest was held and our entry did a good job and placed 3rd out of all that competed. One of the judges is Chandler who previous won the contest and was the one from our club and he also won a $2,500 scholarship from OI. He has been a big help since then in judging the contest. Thanks Chandler.
Judges - Chandler to the right
Constants - our is the fourth from the left
Kara placed third. The taller girl.
Lee Warnock from Downtown Club and the two contestants from our clubs
Honoring Kara - Oratorical 3rd Place Winner
We invited Kara, her family and teacher to our Monday meeting so we could all hear her speech and honor her with a plaque, medal and $50 gift for her efforts. She did a good job and is looking forward to competing in next years Oratorical contest.
Kara and Nancy (Secretary/Treasurer of the club)
PAL We Gave Out Pencils for Kids Going Back to School
We supplied pencils to the kids along with a sucker at the PAL August 6th event so we could received Backpacks with school supplies from PAL. We have 4 schools we sponsor that we can supply to kids that need them. PAL gave us 60 Backpacks with school supplies in them. Awesome!!
Halloween 2022
We did it again! It was great to see all of the kids that came out to celebrate Halloween with their costumes at Pinellas Trail. We have been doing this for over 34 years. Darth Vader was popular again with pictures being taken by many parents with their kids. We had a volunteer, Rob who dressed as a Pickle and his picture was taken too. He really enjoyed himself and wanted to know the next thing he could get involved with.
Thanksgiving Dinners for Families with kids
Giving out the Thanksgiving Dinners at the schools to families with kids was a great thing. All of the families were very happy to receive the entire full dinner. We were lucky to be able to get all of the items we needed to make this a special meal.
Donation Received from a Caring Lady
A Caring Lady wanted to donate toys for kids and thought of us. We are doing the Sallie House and with about 35 kids there now we wanted to make sure it would help to make them happy for Christmas. Thank you Caring Lady
Mason Dixon Christmas Wish Fund
This was our 18th year of supporting with a donation to Mason Dixon Christmas Wish Fund to help 2 needy families with kids. Mason was very happy to see me and to receive our check.
Breanna Morrow - The Student that we are sponsoring through Pinellas County Scholarship Fund (Donating since 2007) came to our meeting January 23rd along with her mother to talk about how we are helping her and what she is going for. Our student is doing a great job in getting a good education and we are proud of her.
January 23rd Meeting - Guest Speaker - Breanna Morrow - Student
Breanna, Nancy &
Breanna's Mother
Sue, Breanna & Nancy
Students sponsored by Pinellas County Scholarship Fund
Speaker Yara Lugo for Florida Holocaust Museum
Speaker Yara L presented that the Museum is the only one of its kind in FL and FL is one of only 13 states mandated to teach students about the holocaust in history, mainly via 5th grade field trips. However, they refrain from anything political. She was hoping to bring a Holocaust survivor but all are over 75 yrs now and there are less than 14 presenters left. In order to preserve their testimony, they are videoing them. The Museum has on display a cattle car that was used to transport Jews to the concentration camps.
Yara Lugo
Sallie House Easter Celebration
Our club did an egg hunt and other fun games for the kids at the Sallie House. We even asked the Easter Bunny to join us. It was great for the kids, they had a fun time.
Easter Eggs we hid with items inside Easter Bunny helping kids Cookie Decorating
Youth Appreciation Winner
We had the honor of presenting our Youth Appreciation winner with a plague and an reward for her assistance in helping during the year at our various events. Taityn and her parents were able to attend our meeting for President Christine Williams to present her with the listed items.
Giving Bears to Camp Boggy Creek
We got a very nice letter from Katie of the Camp Boggy Creek regarding our yearly donation and mentioned if we had any other donations like stuffed bears to let her know. Just so happened we had 2 bears and she advised that she could find a great home for them.
