Significant Dates

Significant Dates and Items In NFdL Optimist History!

November 6,1971

Our first pancake day was held at Presentation gym. The hours at that time were 9am–7pm! Over the years we have added the popular string cheese to the menu. In recent years started selling raffle tickets with prizes donated by local business’s and some great items made by our own members. In 2008 we started the super raffle. Several adjustments to the hours were made through the years to the current 7am-2pm, while managing to serve as many as 1700 customers!

June 6, 1971

Our first community project began. We moved the playground equipment from Presentation playground to LeMieux Park. Since then we have continued in LeMieux Park by building a shelter, installing 2 basketball courts, horseshoe courts, and a volleyball court. We have also added picnic tables, grills, rec kits, and put in a granite walking path.

February, 1972

Our first Tri-Star Basketball contest was held at Horace Mann High School and it continues to date. Since then we have also helped support other youth sports organizations in the community such as Boys Baseball, Girls Softball, Youth Football, Wrestling, and Soccer.

August 1973

We sponsored the first Bloodmobile held at Presentation gym. Other community service projects we have undertaken over the years were a Bicycle Safety program, and the Bicycle Rodeo. In 1980 we held a Mr. Yuk contest, working with the Fire Department, Police Department and the Scouts. We also started the sandbox fill project during this time which we still continue to date. We started sponsoring the Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts in the 1970's. We held a Youth Appreciation Night for a number of years and in the 1980's we started the annual Easter Egg Hunt.

March 1987

Our first annual Brat Fry at PDQ to support our John Reszka Memorial Scholarship and it continues now supporting our current scholarships. It is now a tradition as the first Brat Fry of the year in North Fond du Lac. Since then we have added our annual Scholarship Raffle to improve the funding.

1999

Development started on Optimist Park. Since the start there has been over 4000 man hours to bring the park to where it is today. To get started, trees and brush had to be cleared from the previous woods. Now there is a shelter with restrooms, picnic tables, horseshoe courts, gazebos, a large playground center, and a granite walkway. The park was dedicated in 2008, but improvement and maintenance work continues on both parks.

In 1999 & 2000 we brought in 21 new members, raising membership to a peak of 67.

Over the years we have also helped out our own members in need. We helped paint a garage for Carl Beer, painted Phil Padrutt's home, finished a project for Jeff Volz, and recently helped Russ Schwalbe build a pier. We have also had a lot of fun playing basketball against the Green Bay Packers, the Texas Redheads, and the Evening Optimists while raising money for the Village. We even had a musical night to raise money for the Bornemann Scholarship during which we sang, under the direction of Marian Chitwood, a number of songs including the Big Ten School Songs.