It was our first dinner meeting at our new location, Tiffany’s, and it went quite well, so we will continue to have our dinner meetings there.
Battle of Alberta – We still have to finalize our numbers, but we are looking at a net of over $20,000 for this year’s event, which will end up being our second-highest total out of the four years. A big thanks to everyone on the committee for their hard work, and everyone who came to the event and helped sell tickets.
Sales were still down compared to the first two years, but we still came out close to 300, thanks to the salesmanship of many of our members, namely Ryan Lund (26), Dustin Moore (23), and Ryan Wachter (22). For accomplishing the impossible (out-selling Dustin), Lund gets to take his next bingo off, and I will be working it for him. Thanks again to these three, and everyone else who took the time to sell tickets and attend the event – it was a bit of a grind this year again, but another huge success.
Superbowl Squares – As Jorge mentioned in his email this morning, Dustin Moore has been an absolute Superstar with this. While Jeremy with Tiffany’s asked us to try and sell 20-30, and he would try and do the rest, Dustin took the time to contact everyone in the club (and many outside the club) and has sold over 40 on his own. This fundraiser is going to raise $5,000 for kid’s charities, so thank you to Dustin, and all the club members who purchased a square. Whether you purchased a square or not, please feel free to join us at Tiffany’s on Sunday for the Superbowl.
Secret 3K Run – One of our members, Matt Cassidy, has taken on the role of Race Director for the Secret 3K Run in Red Deer on March 4. More info on it can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1821001561365735/
If you are not interested/able to run in it, I know Matt will also need volunteers, so this is a great opportunity for some club involvement, especially in support of a fellow member. Proceeds from this event will go to Girl Guides Canada, and will also go towards funding the screening of the film (mentioned on the Facebook page) in local schools. We are also looking into sponsoring this event as a club.
Service Awards – The Board has agreed to begin recognizing club members for their years of service (5, 10, 20, etc) each year, along with a small gift. This year, obviously, we will be recognizing quite a few members. We are hoping to present as many members as possible during our last meeting in June, which will be a round of golf and drinks. I will try and confirm that date as soon as possible, so we can try and get as many people out as we can.
Scholarships – We are in the preliminary stages of looking into creating a trust fund/scholarship for Central Alberta teens headed to post-secondary. Louis, Oliver and I are going to be doing some research to see what it takes to create a scholarship and if it’s feasible for the club. Our original thought is maybe 10 scholarships of $500 each for high school students who give back to their community, in hopes of not only recognizing youth who give back but also to promote it more. Again, this is still a very raw idea, and we welcome any and all feedback, both positive and negative.
That’s all for now.
Ted Emmett
President
Piper Creek Optimist Club