Optimist Club of Lincoln makes first donation to help youth

Lincoln's newest service club, the Blackfoot Valley Optimists Club, made its first contribution back to the community with a $400 donation to the Lewis and Clark County Heroes & Helpers, program.

Heroes and Helpers is a nationwide program that pairs needy kids with law enforcement officers to help kids buy gifts for their families during the holidays.

"We take 120 kids shopping every year," said Deputy James Turpin, the Sheriff's office D.A.R.E Coordinator. who accepted the donation."We take 10 kids from Lincoln, 10 from Augusta. The rest come from in town. This will go toward purchasing gift cards and shoes for the kids."

Turpin said in a typical year they spend about $18,000 in the program. A third of that is covered by a $6000 grant from Home Depot, which can only be spent in Home Depot. Turpin said the $400 from the Optimists will go toward the money spent at Target, Famous Footwear and Safeway.

"We raise money to give back to youth in our community, wherever the needs are," said Shayne Lindsay, the president of the Blackfoot Valley Optimist Club.

The last six months the clubhas been focused on raising enough funds to have a sustainable balance to use for donations such as this.

Lindsay, who is the branch manager at Lincoln's Citizen's alliance bank was involved with the Optimist Club in Great Falls and said he saw a need for the organization in Lincoln. He began talking to a friend of his in Great Falls about it and found there was a connection between the club and Glen and Marge Kolve Sam's Hope Foundation.

The club got started with an exploratory meeting in April, and by June they had 16 people who had committed to forming a club, enough to charter a club here.

"We're under the banner of Optimists International, which provides us some structure, insurance things like that," he said.

Lindsay said member's dues go to Optimists International, but its up to the local chapter's board to decide how to use any other money raised by the club.

"We have a five member board. We have people come and present projects like this. The board votes on whether we will support it and at what level. Whatever funds we have, its for youth-focused projects."

Lindsay is the president of the club, with Julie Zarr serving as secretary/treasurer. The active board members include Deane Foley, Marge Kolve, Joanne Nicolai, Donna Forkan and Chad Sutej.

He said people are welcome to reach out to him and other board members to get on the agenda to discuss anything youth-related that might need monetary support.

The club meets at 6:30 p.m. on the last Friday of every month in the back room of Lambkins.

Since the club is only about six months old, Lindsay said they are still focused on fundraising to build up their funds so they have a sustainable balance they can use for projects.

Lindsay said they've had great support from the community. "The need is here and every meeting we have, somebody else brings up a topic maybe we hadn't thought about," he said. "Everybody in this club, to a T, is in it for the right reason; they want to support the youth in the community."

Lindsay said one concern he's heard from people is that the club won't last in the long run.

"I don't know that there's a silver bullet for keeping it going," he admitted. "I'm very well aware some people out there think this will be a flash in the pan. As long as I'm here, I'll do what I can. I 100 percent believe in this organization."

The chapter will have a booth at the Lincoln Christmas bazaar at the Lincoln Community Hall, Dec. 7, where Lindsay said they will be selling raffle tickets for a fundraiser and will have literature about the club on hand.

"Its going to be kind of a member drive,"he said. We'll have the booth staffed with people who can answer questions about what the organization does, what the costs are and where they see it going. We would be interested in having as many members as we could," he said.