Health, Happiness and Prosperity

"To talk health, happiness, and prosperity to every person you meet."

We speak these words each week we meet. Our goal this year is to turn these words of optimism into deeds of optimism.

You know what attracted me into the Optimist Club of Salem? We have a high-minded, generous, happy creed. That I can identify with. In addition we actually help youngsters. Helping kids is fun. It is what we are all about. I believe the best of our "best work" is helping our youth.

For we also want: "To think only the best, to work only for the best, and to expect only the best."

By joining these two precepts of our creed, we will make the philosophy of optimism real here in Salem, in our very own communities. Our objectives then are to help provide "health, happiness, and prosperity’ to our youngest citizens, to our children. We will do this by making our weekly words -- words of action. That is how we "work only for the best."

When we accomplish our goal, when we attain our objectives, we will have had a tremendously successful and fun-filled Optimist year.

Through our volunteer efforts and through our gifts of money, we will help our kids experience health, happiness, and prosperity -- just like we did last year.

• Children at the Easter Seal Clinic in West Salem learn to move and to speak through the gifts we have given.
• The push and pull scooters we bought for the clinic bear our name and carry our spirit of optimism every time a youngster squeals for joy upon making them work.
• The HORSES program assists young and old alike to gain new physical skills, sometimes just the ability to sit up straight for those with muscular dystrophy. Perhaps the most moving story we heard this year was how a youngster learned to speak, "Whoa, Go, Right, Left," where these words were an addition to his vocabulary.
• Through gifts to Helping Hands and by bell ringing for the Salvation Army we provide warm clothes and good food for families and their children.

All this leads to the health of our young and of our community. I propose continuing and expanding these, the best of good works in our new Optimist year.

• Our time as volunteers and our money have helped kids, the very youngest among them; the first and second graders learn to read. The HEART and the SMART programs have benefited from our help.
• Our volunteer efforts at the AWESOME 3000 have helped kids gain individual recognition for their athletic accomplishments. I cannot begin to share the feeling I experienced -- the feeling that emanated from the face of a wheelchair athlete who donned his first individual medal after his AWESOME race and displayed to his parents and to all who could see.
• How many of us were moved throughout the year to hear of the wonderful successes of middle and high school students when we joined their parents and teachers in individually recognizing their being "most improved" or having "outstanding accomplishments" in everything from the industrial arts, to music, to excellence in scholarship.
• Happiness can be getting to school safely each day. We will soon walk the very young to school.

These and so many other activities and gifts help our youth experience happiness in their lives. I propose continuing and expanding these, the best of our good works, in our new Optimist year.

• We help our youth experience what it means to enjoy life and feel prosperous in a variety of ways.
• We provide basic school supplies and backpacks to children in subsidized housing.
• We help the boys and girls choirs to have the resources they need to meet, compete, and sing beautifully.
• We provide musical instruments for high school bands to play.
• We assist parents to provide Drug-Free graduation parties to our kids.
• We provide tangible rewards (ribbons and the like) for the athletic competitions at the School for the Blind -- where there are so many youngsters with multiple challenges.
• We fund scholarships for Boys and Girls Club, the Scouts, and for our kids at the YMCA -- just think we are part of that week of excitement for a youngster who would not otherwise experience the outdoors. Can you remember the first time you rode a horse? Or the first time someone taught you to swim? And you could!

In these and so many other ways, we help our kids to experience prosperity. I propose we continue and expand these, the best of our good works in our new Optimist year.

We have fun in doing these good works with a spirit of optimism. Isn’t it great to turn our wonderful creed into the best work we can for our children? We volunteer. We raise money. We give in far more ways than I have the time to mention.

This upcoming Optimist year, we embark on a great new project. We will provide Cascade Gateway Park with new and expanded play equipment. We expect to raise $60,000 for this effort and to spend considerable volunteer effort in erecting the playground equipment. This is the most used park in Salem by many measures. We will make it better for our kids.

Please join me and our board of directors in making our Optimist creed real for our kids. Together we will experience a great, fun, Optimist new year. We will do our best work when we help our kids experience health, happiness, and prosperity.