First of all, our Jr. Blind Olympics was a huge success, considering the weather the day before and the day after, the sky’s reeked of rain, wind and more bad weather. But being the optimists that we are, the weather turned out to be just great. On Friday, April 20th, our club’s guests arrived from Frenso.
There were several students that were either blind or legally blind along with chaperons and seeing-eye dogs. Dinner that evening was a great pizza party held for them at the La Quinta Inn where they were staying. On Saturday they were driving down to the Jr. Blind of America where they participated in a day of track and field events with more than 200 students. When the event ended they were driven to Venice beach where they swam, walked on the beach and just had one heck of a day. Evening found them along with several other members of the club dining out at the local Hometown Buffet.
Sunday, their day of departure, they were treated to a wonderful Latin-style breakfast at La Rumba Latina, formally known La Rumba, by the new owner. The highlight of the day was being taken on a tour of Heads-Up, our local therapeutic horse riding facility, and given the opportunity to ride the horses and make and meet some new friends. This was a wonderful finish to an already outstanding weekend. We look forward to seeing them next year. Locally, our club essay winner, Brianna Brown, a senior at Hart High School was declared the winner on the district level contest. She will be awarded with a $650 scholarship and her award-winning essay is on route to Optimist International where she will be competing against winners from all over the United States and several other locations outside the U.S.
We have had some very successful kid printing in the past few weeks including, the Preparedness Expo and if your school or group is interested in having us come out and do a kid print, all you have to do is ask. This is a free service provided by our club.
Results of the recent election of Officers and Board of Directors for the upcoming 2007-2008 year are in and I am honored to announce that once again I will be filling the Presidential seat. I look forward to many wonderful happenings with our club and our community (more about that in the oncoming months).
Remember when you volunteer whether it be with us or some other worthwhile charity or organization, you are giving back something that is so precious, a little bit of yourself.