Optimist Club helps Battle Creek celebrate 150 years

Battle Creek, MI - the cereal city, home to Kellogg Company and their famous breakfast cereals celebrated Fun Before Breakfast last week with the help of the Optimist Club of Battle Creek.

The event kicked off with a parade with the noisy Snap, Crackle and Pop threesome. Clowns, Shriners, motorcycles and classic cars traveled down Michigan Avenue for this family event. The big attraction though happened as promoted - before breakfast - when the community laid out the world's longest breakfast table and everyone enjoyed a meal together from 8:00 to 10:00 am on Saturday, June 14, 2009. The fun continued into the afternoon when other cereal celebrities made an appearance. This was the 150th celebration of the city of Battle Creek.

Photo courtesy of The Battle Creek Enquirer.

Junior Optimist Club pays it forward in Farmington Hills, MI

“A small group of people coming together can make a big difference,” said Abhinav Reddy , a kindergarten student at the Highmeadow Elementary School in Farmington Hills, MI.

Idealistic thoughts for such a little person? Maybe so, but that is what being a part of a Junior Optimist Club is all about. The Highmeadow Elementary School recently added the Junior Optimist Club program to their list of extracurricular activities and just last week, the group completed their first community service project, a walkathon to benefit another youth serving organization: the Farmington Area Goodfellows.

Junior Optimist Clubs are student driven. With minor support from the sponsoring adult Optimist Club, the students develop, plan and execute their own projects. There are 18 students in the Highmeadow Elementary School Junior Optimist Club. For this program they recruited students from neighboring schools and enlisted parents as chaperones for the five mile hike. The Optimist Club of Farmington-Farmington Hills manned the snack stations around the course. It was a great activity, raising more than $2,000 in a pay-it-forward fashion, from one group to the next so that all can do more for others.

“I wanted to do something good. I wanted to make a difference,” said Nadia Morman-Williams, another kindergarten student. Well you did Nadia; you and your classmates all did so good! Thank you!

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