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Here are some pictures from the Baysox Game on June 14th ...
Hereford Optimist Club holds a Bike Swap ! The bike swap was held on Saturday May 24th and over 90 bikes were swapped. It is a great event and helps out a lot of families !
Dear Tom and All,
Please find the pictures taken. I have a lot to report on since I came last,
but things have been going on very well. The building have been rented and the
children are been taken care of. We were able to rent a building for a school.
The members are very much happy and appreciate very much for the efforts and
donations towards the payment for rent to house the children in Kenema .
Your donations have done a lot and helped provide a good decent sleeping place
for the children. We are very much proud of your generosity.
Their caretakers are all very happy and are sending you their heart-felt
greetings.
Tom, I read the communication you had with Clarence Deyoung of SCAW Canada. Do
you recall that I talked about SCAW in our last meeting at the restaurant in
Greenbelt, MD ? Thank you for the response to SCAW.
Please let me know how you think about the pictures as I am planning to send
more when its available to me.
In Optimism,
Shed
NOTE: This pictures above are small and should load very fast !
These pictures were taken at The Chestertown Tea
Party. This is one of the major fund raisers of the Chestertown Optimist Club
and these are some of their members. I really enjoyed this first time at
this event and you can see the crowd enjoyed it too. Gov. Tom
Here are some pictures from Fort Smallwood's Respect for Law program from May 8th, 2008 ... Thanks to the Bowmans for the Pictures ...
The Woodlawn Optimist club dedicated their Optimist road sign on Saturday April 12, 2008 at Woodlawn Drive and Gwynn Oak ave. Also picture of President Ed with contestants of the Woodlawn/Gwynn Oak Optimist Oratorical contest. Joan Livezey is chairperson.
Pictures from the Optimist Club of Kenema
I am sharing these pictures with you from the Optimist Club members in Kenema.
These are some of the children to be housed in the proposed Sonny Neal
Memorial Orphanage/Home in the Town of Kenema, Sierra Leone.
We the members are working hard to make this dream a success. We are now
working with the Department of Lands, Housing and the Environment to provide
for us the necessary documentations, including the services of a surveyor, and
the building permit. We are also working with an experienced and qualified
local architect/consultant for construction of the building.
At present, some of the children are taking their classroom lessons from the
structures you will be seeing in the two pictures attached. By the beginning
of the rainy season (May) this year, we expect some of these children to be
placed in a separate rented building in the township of Kenema. Otherwise, the
present home where they are sleeping now will be not be conducive for them to
stay, because, it leaks from the rain, there is cold and not good to stay and
sleep.
At present, we provide food, clothing, give basic education and medical
assistance, baby sitting, books, shoes, pens and pencils, shoes, etc. We also
provide scholarships to pay for their school fees and other related expenses.
I will be sending you all a more detailed plan of action soon to you.
Regards,
Shed
Dear Friends,
Please find the attachments with pictures of the children and me (Shed Jah) in
blue T- shirt and short pants with black hat and bag, for those of you who
have not met me before.
Let me give you a situational analysis, particularly to Cindy who asked me
last to pass on any information I have for people who may want to donate and
sponsor our efforts in Sierra Leone.
A popular African saying, "it takes a village to raise a child, very quaint
and practical when the village is still standing". But what happens when the
village, which is the symbol of solidarity, which stands for everything we
know and hold dear; culture, wisdom, ethics, knowledge, custom and morals, is
no more due to war, disease and poverty?
What replaces this? You know what is left behind?
Babies, often sick, sometimes not, Toddlers, with thumbs in their mouth and
snooty noses; Little children with extended bellies and skinny limbs, lice in
their coffee hair and round staring eyes; Young teens strutting around in
towns and villages wearing oversized clothes with tears scrounging for food in
garbage side. Young Teens having no guidance, rude to elders, run away to seek
a better life for themselves. Young Teens getting babies and sometimes
abandoning them.
The boys may or may not pimp; they may or may not steal. BUT they must do
something to survive. The girls may or may not prostitute themselves, they may
or may not steal BUT they must do something to survive. And the babies? They
eventually die as we all must. However, is it not too soon for them? Can we
just sit back and do nothing about this?
Work on helping some orphan children has begun in earnest. We have charged
ourselves the task of creating awareness of the plight of the orphans in
Kenema, Eastern Sierra Leone, the homeless street children, the battered and
many of those who lost their parents during the war.
Kenema has orphaned children spread out in different parts of the district and
chiefdoms due to the long protracted war, disease and poverty. In addition,
the breakdown of the family unit i.e. the extended family system due to
economic reasons, has also contributed to the increase in homelessness/runaway
and orphaned children.
As a result, in some places, we find a community with very young children. We
have bigger families in some places as they have to expand to take care of the
orphaned children. With the per capita income of a lot of Sierra Leonean
people still below the world poverty line, improvement in health in some
places is still very slow or lacking because of poor hygiene standards,
inadequate diet and lack of money for medicines. It is a heart rending
situation because one wonders who is looking after who.
There are many organizations, local and international trying to do something
about the situation. While a lot is being done to solve the situation,
unfortunately because of the factors mentioned above, there are still many
orphans.
The Optimist Club of Kenema, Sierra Leone is currently engaged in supporting
the efforts of nine small different homes, managed by home-mothers and
experienced care-givers in and around Kenema, looking after a total of 80
children. We are providing clothing, medicines, money, and food to these
children living under our auspices. Using family homes, partly as residence
(as a stay over until homes are found for the children) and common room,
there are 2 temporary makeshift shelters outside that is used as classroom.
The children who attend the makeshift school also include children from around
other communities whose parents are peasants and cannot afford to offer the
basic needs. We however concentrate on those children who really lack no one
to look after them. Other orphans are staying with other families who have
agreed to have them. We would like to rent a house/apartment, and make it more
habitable, until we raise the funds and have the means in place to develop the
donated land.
We aim to create a proper system for these orphans - providing funds to go to
school, providing all kinds of school materials, providing medicines,
providing proper feeding feeding, providing a proper school and thus educate
them in various fields. The project will be extended to include young
Teens where they will be given manual skills trainings. We will expand this
project to include a modern school for those Teenagers with good equipment.
Our aim is to provide the basic requirements: food, shelter, clothing,
medication, education; to keep them off the streets; to create opportunities
for them to earn a rightful living; to keep them from being abused; to keep
them from prostituting themselves; to keep them from following a life of
crime; to instill family values; to upgrade their social environment and to
give them love.
URGENT SUPPORT
-We need donors to help with rent for apartment more urgently so that these
children ca be provided with a better habitable home that is warm, clean, and
hygienic, before the rainy season starts in the month of May, 2008;
-We need donors with help to buy clothing shoes, toys, etc. We will need money
to buy medicines, food books uniforms and other school materials;
-Donations in kind: hygiene products computers bicycles sport equipments,
stationeries;
-Family support
-sponsorship opportunities
Please contact me for more information about where to direct your donated
items and funds and how it will be coordinated.
Warmest Regards,
Shed Jah
President
Optimist Club of Kenema, Sierra Leone
Talbot Optimist Club - Monthly Newsletter from Tracey Munson Click on the link above for a very informative and interesting newsletter! YAW in Woodlawn - 2007
Shop with a COP in Woodlawn - Dec 2007
Shop with a COP - 12/08/2007 in Calvert
Tyler Hall Receives 7th District Optimist Club's 2007 "Optimist Youth of the Year" Award Tyler Hall, of Clements, is the recipient of the Seventh District Optimist Club's 2007 "Youth of the Year" Award. The award is intended to appropriately recognize the dynamic youth within our community and fosters a better understanding of the Club's goals in support of youth programs. Tyler is presently a sophomore student at Chopticon High School. Tyler has been involved with various Optimist functions including: The Halloween Party (setup/cleanup and running games), Seniors Christmas Party (handing out oysters, and cleanup), The Blessing of the Fleet (helping at the gate stamping hands and handing out programs), and getting the Optimist ball park fields ready to play on. He also helped out at the Sacred Heart Church dinner (straining oysters). This summer he helped coach his younger cousin’s baseball team. He ran the pitching machine and umpired some of their games. He went to practices and helped train the team and he also helped his cousins at home during the week or on weekends. Tyler has been a member of the Chopticon High School golf team the past two years. This year, his sophomore year, he was selected Co-Captain of the team and he qualified for the State High School tournament that was held at the University of Maryland. He received the Sportsmanship award for the 2006/2007 season with the golf team last November. He made first team all county for golf this year. This past summer he participated in the Junior Optimist golf tournaments and tied for first in the Twin Shields tournament which qualified him for the Optimist State Tournament as well. Tyler is a quiet, yet very friendly person. He will greet everyone with a smile. In his coaching roles he is a positive role model and provides encouragement and is never negative. He has worked very hard at all the events he has participated in. Besides golf and baseball Tyler enjoys hunting, fishing and crabbing. "We are justifiably proud of the achievements of this outstanding young person and are honored to recognize his dedication within the community," said club president Bubby Norris. 7TH DISTRICT OPTIMIST CLUB 2007 YOUTH OF THE YEAR AWARD Tyler Hall receives the 7th District Optimist Club's 2007 Youth of the Year Award as part of the club's Youth Appreciation Week Program. Bubby Norris, 7th District Optimist Club President, presents the award to Tyler.
Left to right Karen Hall (Mom), Tyler, Kevin Hall (Dad), and 7th District Optimist Club President Bubby Norris, presenting the award. Submitted by Mike Barbour 7th District Optimist Club YoY Program Chairman HP (301) 769-4569; WP (301) 863-6684 Ext. 1052; mikeinabell@peoplepc.com ******************************************************************************************************* Hereford Optimist Club - Awarded 6 Youth on November 20th, 2007
Names of people in the picture from left to right .Ken Bollinger YAW Chair, Erin Smith, Casey Klekner, Jonathan Barkley, Julia Schmidt, Jedediah Kahl, Scott Novak, Janet McGovern club President. Each year Optimist clubs all over the world the third week of November recognize the outstanding Youth in their communities for their talents in the arts, athletics, academics, and for contributions to community. Each honoree received a Saving Bond, a citation from the club , a citation from the Maryland State Assembly and dinner with the club for them and there parents. The following is a list of this years honorees Erin Marie Smith Senior Hereford High school, nominated by Tiffany Bilaud a teacher at HHS Casey Klekner 11th grade Hereford high school, member of Hereford Vol. Fire Co. nominated by Chief of Fire Co Chuck Bollinger Jonathan Barkley Senior Hereford High school, member of Boy scout Troop 92, nominated by Michele Der Julia Schmidt 10th Grade Hereford High School, Member of Girl Scout Troop 4251, nominated by Scout Master Rita Schmidt Jedediah Kahl Senior Hereford High School, Member of Boy Scout Troop 451, Nominated by Scout Master Dan Licht Ronald Scott Novak 8th Grade Our Lady of Grace School, Nominated by Jo Marie Tolj teacher at Our Lady of Grace Thanks |
