Dinner Meeting – Optimist Club of Waterloo North

2020 Club Contest Medalists

At our February club meeting this week, we wrapped up our 2019-2020 Essay and Oratorical contests. Essay contestants wrote on the topic “Is Optimism the Key to Achieving the Dreams you iMagine?” while the Oratorical contestants spoke for five minutes on the topic “Just iMagine a World without Boundaries.”

We applaud all competing students for their creativity and hard work. The winning Essay moves on to compete at the Midwestern Ontario District. The first and second place finishers in the Oratorical Contest participate in the Zone 7 (Waterloo, Kitchener, Cambridge) contest where two speakers will be chosen to compete at the District contest in May. (Scholarships are awarded at the District level and Oratorical Contest winners can move on to compete for additional scholarships regionally and internationally.)

Thank you to the principals, teachers, judges and parents for supporting these talented youth.

One Youth on the Street is One Too Many

See the person first – then their circumstance.

See a young person. See a fellow human being. See someone who would like a smile.

This powerful perspective was given to us by Bonnie Kropf, Fund Developer of oneROOF Youth Services at our January dinner meeting. oneROOF Youth Services helps youth, ages 12-25, in the K-W community who find themselves living on the street. Youth can become part of the “street culture” for a variety of reasons – escaping a dysfunctional home situation (which may involve abuse – mental, physical, sexual); financial (e.g. a parent’s job loss); mental health issues; or as a result of a poor personal decision that they have made (remember – they are just kids who have not had positive role models, guidance, support, rules and consistency from early childhood on).

oneROOF Youth Services provides support for the youth’s essential needs (food, clothing, shelter) and what can be even more important, their emotional needs – interacting without judgement, accepting the youth for who they are as a person not their situation and letting the youth know that they are not worthless – that they matter. Support is also provided through prevention and diversion by assisting with housing and job searches. The oneROOF Youth Services staff meet the youth where they are at in their journey, whether it is on the street, current living arrangements or at OneROOF Youth Services.

Our club is happy to provide financial help for oneROOF and our members will strive to see the person first when we encounter a young person living on the street.

For more information about oneROOF Youth Services and how you can help support their work (financial or other items), click here.

Sending Them Off Smiling!

September can set the tone for the entire school year, often including new clothes, new backpacks and new school supplies. Unfortunately, not every family is so fortunate as to be able to provide these for their children.

Twenty-five years ago, a small group of women decided to make a difference. They provided a backpack filled with new clothes and school supplies to 27 students at one school. Send ‘em Off Smiling (100% volunteer run) has since grown to helping 1,000 kids per year at schools throughout Waterloo Region.

During the year, volunteers shop the sales to assemble a warehouse of clothes, backpacks and school supplies. In the spring, teachers identify students who may benefit from receiving a filled backpack, and with the parent’s approval and input (such as sizes and colour preferences) volunteers prepare a personalized backpack. Other volunteers deliver the backpacks in late August. And the receiving students and their families — their smile says it all!

As a testament to the impact of this program, Send’em Off Smiling tells of former backpack recipients giving volunteer time and financial support to pay it forward to the next generations. What a great community we live in!

How you can help

If you would like to help Send’em Off Smiling, you can volunteer your time, donate money, or participate in their “Shop and Drop” program. Check out their website for more details.

A Story of Courage

We don’t develop courage by being happy every day. We develop it by surviving difficult times and challenging adversity.
Barbara De Angelis

Matthew and family with Optimist Club President Ross

Matthew is undeniably a very courageous teen and our Optimist Club was blessed to have him share his story with us at our September dinner meeting. He is a Childhood Cancer patient in the maintenance phase of his treatment. To demonstrate the steps of his journey over the past 2 ½ years, he pulled string after string of bravery beads out of a specially made wooden bowl. The strings just kept coming! Over 30 feet! Each bead represents some activity in his journey – every blood test, every treatment. The bowl is big and Matthew commented that “bowls are meant to be filled.”

September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, and Matthew and his parents gave us a glimpse into what it means to live the Childhood Cancer journey. Two 6 week stays in a hospital an hour away from home. Away from school. Away from work for parents. Not only is there the physical impact on the patient, there are emotional and financial impacts on the entire family. Fortunately, medical staff and hospitals around the globe share information and ongoing research which is improving outcomes.

Locally, there are supports to help families and patients cope, including:

Ronald McDonald House (London) gives parents a place to sleep and meals prepared by volunteers.
ChildCan helps cover other expenses such as hospital parking and meals in the hospital cafeteria.
The Children’s Health Foundation (London) funds many extras at the hospital, including Music and Art Therapy, which provides life-changing support to young patients.
Pediatric Oncology Group of Ontario (POGO) coordinates care in satellite hospitals such as Grand River Hospital in Kitchener.

Please consider supporting one of the organizations helping Childhood Cancer patients in our community. In honor of Matthew’s courage, our Optimist Club has made a donation to the Children’s Health Foundation to support the Music and Art Therapy programs.