Nearly 30 Gettysburg Optimists and their family members shared a great evening of food, fun and fellowship on Wednesday, July11.  The event was held at the home of Wayne and Sue Hill in Gettysburg where Wayne demonstrated his considerable skills on the barbecue grill.

Traditionally the annual Family Night is the only meeting of the Gettysburg Optimist Club in the month of July and is dedicated to bringing the families of members together for a festive evening of casual conversation and fine food.  But dedicated Optimist members are never able to miss an opportunity to lend their financial support to a deserving charity, and this years event was no exception.

After a fine dinner the group gathered around the pool for a late evening Trivia Contest.  The trivia master for the evening, Tom Barako, divided the group into four teams and challenged them with questions on American history and World literature (taking some descriptive liberties here).  The winning team of Bill Pyron, Katie Barako, Mark and Beverly Grazulewicz and Don and Ginny Davis demonstrated their remarkable knowledge of the subject matter and earned the opportunity to select a deserving charitable organization for a $1000.00 contribution from the Optimist Club.  They will be announcing the recipient of the donation at the regular membership meeting on Wednesday, August 1, at the Lake Heritage Pavilion.

Our sincere appreciation to Wayne and Sue Hill for opening their home and hosting the Optimist of Gettysburg Family Night Fellowship.

On June 11, 1776, the Second Continental Congress at a meeting in Philadelphia selected a committee which included Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Roger Sherman and Robert R. Livingston.  They were charged with drafting a document that would formally sever ties between the colonies and Great Britain.  The final draft, written by the hand of Thomas Jefferson and known as The Declaration of Independence, was officially adopted by the Continental Congress by a unanimous vote on July 4th. After its passage, Ben Franklin was asked, “Well Dr. Franklin.  What have you given us?” He replied, “You have a republic, Madame.  If you can keep it”.  And so, the great experiment in American Democracy was born.

In 1870, Congress established July, 4^th (Independence Day) as an official holiday and ever since we Americans celebrate the birth of our nation with parades, barbecues, festivals and fireworks.  Too often, lost in the celebrations is the meanings of the words that many of us were taught to recite in grade school  “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Few at the time gave much prediction that this fledgling group of 13 colonies, through their Continental Congress, had much hope for even a brief period of success with their new republic.  But the constitutional government that followed with its individual liberty, elected representatives and limited powers survived the challenges of time, opposition and war.  On June 24, 1826, Thomas Jefferson sent his last letter to Congress in celebration of the 50^th anniversary of The Declaration of Independence. In it he wrote,

“May it be to the world, what I believe it will be … the signal of arousing men to burst the chains … and to assume the blessings and security of self-government. That form, which we have substituted, restores the free right to the unbounded exercise of reason and freedom of opinion. All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. … For ourselves, let the annual return of this day forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them.”

In celebrating this July 4^th holiday let us rededicate ourselves to the basic fundamentals of our great society and work together in unity to resolve the many challenges facing our nation in these modern times.

As Optimist Club members let us remind our youth of the truly unique gift that has been granted to us in The Declaration of Independence; the rights of individual freedom, liberty, justice and the pursuit of happiness.

May you all have a wonderfully memorable and safe Independence Day celebration.

Yours in Optimism,

Mark Cropp, President

Our Optimist Club meets outdoors in the Summer beneath a Pavilion that seems at times to capture the heat and harbor more than its share of Summer bugs.  So it was on Wednesday, June 20 when 18 of us gathered by the lake to wolf down Daryl’s grilled “dogs and burgs”, a cold brew, and fresh watermelon.  We said congrats to our newlyweds – Kris Accardi and Mindy Dicken – and greeted Holly Fox and Lynne Aurand, our guests for the evening.

Now we did conduct our business: the Soccer Parking receipts, which went well, the golf tournament update, preliminary plans for 2013, the $450 donation for the Kindergarten Book project , and the Rec Park Optimist Amphitheater painting done by the USS Eisenhower visiting sailors. But we could have done this by email.

We have some goodies coming up – the Family picnic at Wayne Hill’s home on July 11^th ( more to come on this), the Gettysburg “Meals and More” Summer project for kids presentation at the August 1^st meeting, and the Zone meeting on August 15^th (y’all come!).  But we could have shared this news on the website, or even a real snail mail letter!

But we gather.  We gather by choice.  We swap stories.  We eat sitting on creaky wooden tables.  We have handshakes all around and we give every living creature a smile (except the bugs).

The treasure in gathering for meetings, even in the Summer heat, is fellowship – the unsaid part of our creed.

Please join us July 11^th for our annual Summer Family Picnic. We’ll pick up right where we left off.

Joe MacDowell, secty.

As we enter the fourth and final quarter of this Optimist year we still have much to accomplish as “Friends of Youth” in Gettysburg. Although the list of things to do is getting shorter, each remaining challenge is certainly no less important to our club, our members and the community.

Since 1958, The Optimist Club of Gettysburg has served the needs of our youth with energy, generosity and commitment to the principles of Optimism. We have made a difference in thousands of young lives throughout the years and we have been successful in instilling the principles of optimism, personal growth and community service in the hearts and minds of the youth we have served and mentored.

Today our organization and other service organizations are confronted with the realities of a challenging economy, social change and increased personal demands on volunteer’s time. As we all struggle to balance the many changes and challenges in our personal lives, the needs of our community and its youth go unabated. Each week another request from someone or some organization wanting to know if the Optimist of Gettysburg can help out with their worthy project presents itself. Surely it can be said that successfully filling a need, produces more needs to be filled.

The Optimist Club of Gettysburg has always achieved it objectives because of the dedication and efforts of an active and interested general membership and member leaders. As we move forward into a new Optimist year we ask you to consider your level of commitment to serving the needs of our community through Optimism.  Opportunities include, club officer and board positions as well as project chair positions and co-chair positions. Please consider reserving a prominent place in your busy life this coming year to help continue the proud tradition of the Optimist Club of Gettysburg.

You are invited to contact Mark Cropp, [email protected], or Craig Sweet, [email protected], to volunteer your desire to “step up” and set an example for others to follow through your leadership.