Living The Creed Wi l son Go lden C i r c l e Opt imis t C lub

Upcoming Events

Oct 6 - Installation Banquet

Something Different Rest. 6 pm

Oct 8 - Kisses for Childhood

Cancer - Food Lions at Brent-

wood and Peppermill

Oct 14 & 15 - Yard Sale at the

home of Janice Lamm

Oct 20 - Zone Three Meeting at

Parker’s Barbecue 6:30 pm

Oct 27 - First Responders Appre-

ciation - Brenda Farmer’s Home

Oct 28-Health Fair Volunteers at

The Spot (9 am - 3 pm)

Oct 28-29 - NC East Quarterly

District Meeting at the Boys &

Girls Home - Lake Waccamaw

Nov 3 - Program Meeting at

Stoneybrook Christian Church -

6 pm

Nov 5 - Belk Charity Days

Volume 3, Issue 4 September 30, 2016

Golden Circle members attended the

official dedication ceremony at Maynard

Children’s Hospital in Greenville on July

21st. The dedication was for the first of

two Lighthouse End-of-Treatment Bells.

There were five children ranging in ages

from one year old to teenagers partici-

pating in the dedication who rang the

bell for the first time to celebrate the

end of their cancer treatments. There

were three local television stations cover-

ing this very beautiful event.

The club also donated a second Light-

house Bell that was delivered to the in-

patient treatment center in August. The

second bell was funded from an Optimist

International grant.

GOLDEN CIRCLE DONATES TWO END-OF-TREATMENT

BELLS TO MAYNARD CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL

“Bringing Out The Best In Youth, Ourselves, and our Communities”

A Wilson County youth rings the

Lighthouse Bell during the dedica-

tion ceremonies.

Golden Circle members at the dedication ceremonies. Left to right, Ann Cook, Kathy Sandifer,

Linda Watson, Angela Iwaniuk, Celia Wise, Joy Belle Finch, Linda Shepherd, Janice Lamm, Linda

Mizelle, Brenda Carter, Norma Duell, Diane Johnson and Jeanette Ferrell.

Six New FOO Members 2

District Meeting Pictures 3

New Optimists Welcome 4

Walker Mabry Thank You 5

Member Prayer Requests 6

Shrimparoo Fun 6

Word Puzzle Fun 7

VA Hospital Visit 8

Fourth Quarter Giving 8

Words From Our Presi-

dent

9

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

Living The Creed Page 2

WELCOME TO OUR SIX NEW FOO MEMBERS!

Golden Circle recognized six

community members for their

exemplary community service

and generous volunteer ser-

vice at the Sept. 1st dinner

meeting. These six very spe-

cial people were nominated

by our own club members.

After a wonderful dinner,

each was introduced with a

summary of their individual

accomplishments within the

community.

Each of the recipients re-

ceived a one-year paid mem-

bership as a “Friend of Opti-

mist” as well as a small

plaque.

We are so proud to honor

these six awesome folks for

all the wonderful things they

do for our community! They

are each truly a friend of Opti-

mists!

We make a living by

what we get, we

make a life by what

we give.

Winston Churchill

New Friend of Optimist Members

Left to Right: Dot Windham, receiving award for her nephew, Ca-

sey Boyette - Henry Skinner - Woody Harrison - Christy Proctor -

Patsy Ferrell and Dick Gurkin.

Annual Yard Sale set for Oct 14-15th

Start cleaning out those closets for our annual Yard

Sale to take place on Friday afternoon (10/14) and

Saturday morning (10/15) at the home of Janice

Lamm on Edinburgh Drive in Wilson.

We will need lots of volunteers to help and lots of

items to sell - let’s make this our biggest yard sale

event EVER!

Janice says that we can start bringing items to her

house on Monday, October 10th.

We are also planning a table for a small bake sale.

So also bring your special baked items, ham bis-

cuits, or anything else our customers may like to

buy.

Living The Creed

Our own Linda Watson won the top prize in the

Duck Race! Linda Watson and Trish Verne. All dressed for the 50’s contest. L to R - Wayne Sidelinger,

Deanna Morrow, Linda Shepherd, and Sandy Cyphers.

Pictures From the 4th Quarter District Meeting in Myrtle Beach

Page 3

Carol Collier installed as District Treasurer and Linda

Shepherd installed as Lt. Governor. L to R: Dallas Prid-

gen, Carol Collier, John Shepherd & Linda Shepherd.

Angela Iwaniuk with one of the Elvis impersonators.

L to R: Linda Watson, Janice Lamm, Norma Duell, Linda Shepherd,

Carol Collier, Sara Robbins, Brenda Farmer, Kathy Sandifer and

Angela Iwaniuk. We had Nine Members at the Convention!

Jimmy & Janice Lamm

Living The Creed Page 4

WELCOME TO OUR NEW MEMBERS

Welcome to our three new members,

Mary Clay, Linda Hawley Isbell, and

Sandra D. Newton. Our club is so ex-

cited to have these wonderful ladies to

join our fellowship.

Sandra and Linda were inducted and

“pinned” at our meeting on September

1st and Mary was inducted and

“pinned” at our Sept 15th meeting.

Left to Right: Pam Holmes, new member Sandra D.

Newton, new member Linda Hawley Isbell, Brenda

Carter and Linda Shepherd.

Mary Clay being inducted by Vice President Kathy Sandifer.

Page 5 Living The Creed

Thank You to a long-time Friend

The Golden Circle Optimist Club wants to say thank-you to a special person who has helped our club

from the very beginning of its birth. This person is Walker Mabry and he was a long-time member of

the Wilson Evening Club who helped to form our Golden Circle Club way back in 1987.

Walker has always been dedicated to helping the Golden Girls especially during wreath making

times. For many years he delivered the greenery (which was cut off the bottom of the Christmas

trees that the Evening club was selling) to the Antique Barn, where our members gathered to make

the fresh green Christmas wreaths. He was definitely a dedicated Christmas tree man!

We had hoped to honor Walker at one of our recent meetings, but due to health problems, he hasn’t

been able to attend, so some of our members visited Walker in his home in September to present him

with a Certificate of Appreciation and a small gift card. It is our way of saying Thank You to some-

one who has always been there for our club!

Carol Collier, Barbara Hester and Angela

Iwaniuk with Walker Mabry

CLUB MEMBER PRAYER LIST

Page 6

Across

Living The Creed

It’s always good to remember each other in prayer. The following members are facing

current challenges, so let’s all say a special prayer for them and send cards their way:

Dot Windham - Recent Knee Replacement surgery and PT

Patsy Nobles - Healing from melanoma surgery and treatments.

Ann Cook - MS and other health issues for Ann and her husband Robert.

The Zone meeting on August 4th was also the annual shrimparoo, which was held at Wedgewood Golf Club. Not only did we enjoy very good food including lots of shrimp and homemade desserts, we also enjoyed the fellowship of Optimists from all over Zone Three. Zone Three includes all 4 clubs in Wilson, the Goldsboro club and Carteret club.

Lt Governor Brenda Farmer led the meeting which was hosted by the Wilson Evening Op-timist club.

As a special treat, the men’s choir from First Baptist Church sang for the group after the meal was finished. It was a most enjoyable evening!

FUN AT THE ZONE SHRIMPAROO

First Baptist Men’s Choir

Words Found in the Optimist Creed

Page 7

Living The Creed

Insert the following 14 words into the puzzle so that they will all fit properly - No clues, just brain power!

Cheerful Enthusiastic Prosperity

Countenance Improvement Smile

Happiness Noble Strong

Happy Optimistic Success

Health Peace The first person to turn in the correct answers to

Angela Iwaniuk will win a PRIZE! Email answers

to ncangel49@aol.com

Appreciating Our Veterans

Page 8

Living The Creed

The Golden Circle visited the VA Hospital in

Durham during July to deliver 183 Get Well/

Thinking of You cards for the veterans in the

hospital.

We hope the veterans will enjoy reading them

and understand how thankful we are for them

and for their service to our country.

These are our American heroes!

4th Quarter Donations and Funds Raised Donations

Boys & Girls Home $400

Wilson County Meals on Wheels $100

NC School for the Deaf Scholarship $200

OI Childhood Cancer $200

Scholarships $2,000

Funds Raised

Belk Charity Days Coupons $ 55.50

Raffle $150.00

Left to Right: Celia Wise, Joy Belle Finch, Angela

Iwaniuk, the VA Director, Linda Shepherd, and

Norma Duell.

Page 9 Living The Creed

Wrapping Up The Past Year

As we come to the end of the 2015-2016 Optimist International year, I am reflecting on our activities during

the past year. We hit the ground running in October by assisting with registration at the local health fair and

by providing snacks for presenters at the Wilson County Schools’ Eighth Grade Career Days. As if two big

activities were not enough for us, we had a big two-day yard sale and a Kisses for Cancer campaign, all on

the same weekend! But it was not all work with no play! In addition to providing a Halloween party at the

Longleaf Neuromedical Center, our own members showed up to a surprise Halloween party at our second

meeting of the month in October. Who knew we’d be cupcake walking and pumpkin bowling?

Throughout the year we continued our fundraising with activities such as selling Belk Charity Day tickets and

Autobell Car Wash tickets. Our annual golf tournament netted the most profit we have ever had from a single

fundraiser!

We made numerous charitable donations to community groups and felt like we had new children and grandchil-

dren to love when we sponsored a Little League team. Occasionally we celebrated along the way—giving one

another fun socks for Christmas, providing a Valentine party to the Middlesex Children’s Home (Hard to say

who had the most fun—the Middlesex Children or the Golden Girls!), and another surprise at a meeting when

we had our Jeudi Gras celebration (That’s Mardi Gras on a Thursday!) complete with a King Cake, pa-

rade music, beads, feather boas, and masks!

We welcomed several new members and said good-bye to a couple who moved away. Our hearts were filled

with sadness at the passing of our two sweet ladies named Eloise.

In the spring we focused on the youth in many ways such as conducting our essay and oratorical contests, giving

scholarships, and presenting Helping Hands awards. We also managed to build the Blackbird Optimist Club of

Rocky Mount and submitted a video to Optimist International for competition. Efforts continued throughout the

year to build a JOI Club in the area.

One of our most thrilling projects came in the summer when, assisted by a grant awarded by Optimist Interna-

tional, we presented not one but two End of Treatment Lighthouse Bells to the Maynard Children’s Hospital in

Greenville. These bells will serve to provide hope and encouragement to many children in Eastern North Caro-

lina as they undergo treatment to win their battle against cancer.

Our projects during the past year are too numerous to name, but all of our members know that while we have

been busy helping others, we have built wonderful relationships and had all kinds of fun together. Bringing out

the best in our youth and our community has certainly helped us to bring out the best in ourselves.

It has been my pleasure to serve as your President. Thank you, one and all, for responding with your abundant

help whenever you were asked to give it. I am eagerly looking forward to see what 2016-2017 will bring to

the best club in Optimist International—The Golden Circle Optimist Club! I love you all! ~ Linda

GOLDEN CIRCLE MAKES PLANS FOR NEW YEAR

President -

Linda Shepherd

7290 Jordan Road

Elm City, NC 27822

Linda Shepherd 252-567-5673

Angela Iwaniuk 252-289-5050

Email: ncangel49@aol.com

A FRIEND OF YOUTH

Wi l son Go l den C i r c l e Opt imi st C lub

We’re on Facebook!

The Wilson Golden Circle Optimist

Editor -

Angela Iwaniuk

10861 McKenzie Rd.

Bailey, NC 27807

Our club was formed in 1987 and is an “all ladies” club. We strive to

live by the tenets of the Optimist Creed and promote optimism as a

way of life, inspire a respect for law, inspire an interest in good

government, and aid and encourage the development of youth, in

the belief that the giving of one’s self in service to others will ad-

vance the well-being of man, our community and even the world.

While performing community service projects and raising funds, we

also manage to have a good time and enjoy the fellowship of other

like-minded women. We invite other women to come join us!

Haven’t we had a great year? Wow!

We increased our number of members

and also the number of projects we per-

formed in our community.

Planning for our new Optimist year is well under-

way and our members have decided to focus even

more this year on youth projects and to increase the

number of scholarships we award at the end of the

school year.

Let’s get excited about the opportunities and chal-

lenges we will face in the new year. While our club

has been a shining example of a vibrant and

healthy Optimist club, there is never time to “rest on

our laurels”. We will need to continue to work hard

to make our club better, to help more youth and in

turn to help make ourselves better.

While many of us don’t like selling tickets and ask-

ing for donations, our fundraisers remain the

lifeblood of our funding for all the community pro-

jects that we perform. Without our fundraising

success we wouldn’t be able to do our wonderful

community service. So please keep that in mind

and if each of us will do the best we can, we will

have another successful year!

There are many volunteer opportunities for each

of us this year. We are still making birthday cup-

cakes for the clients of Diversified Opportunities

each month and they really appreciate them! We

need a few more volunteers for this project. In

October we will also be raising money for child-

hood cancer through our kisses for cancer cam-

paign. We will soon be having our Yard Sale

and also selling Belk Charity Day coupons. In No-

vember we will be selling Auto Bell coupons just in

time for Christmas gift-giving. We are also con-

sidering hosting a Holiday Shopping Spree in

early December. So get yourself psyched up to

help our club raise some money to fund our pro-

jects. Ready? Set - Go!