DATELINE: Tuesday, December 3, 2002. Vice President Renae Harrison opened the meeting and asked Michael Listenberger to give the invocation and lead us in the pledge of allegiance.

INTRODUCTION OF GUESTS: Michel Listenberger introduced his guests Elaine Curtis who will be completing an application soon for membership in the Optimist Club. Marsh Pedzinski introduced her guest and daughter Rebecca Pedzinski. Please visit us again soon Elaine and Rebecca.

FIRST READING: Mike Listenberger conducted a First Reading for Ray Curtis. Ray is married to Elaine Curtis and has two grown children, Christine and Scott. Ray is a former City Club member and is currently retired. Welcome Ray. We are looking forward to you becoming a member of the Niles Noon Optimist Club.

BRAGS: Elaine Curtis bragged on hubby Ray who invested in a solar collector. She says she’s very happy about that now because they have lots of heat in this cold weather. Bob Rhynard bragged that yesterday was the first day of the rest of his life, since he officially no longer had an insurance business and his phones weren’t ringing all day long. John Willis bragged on a former co worker and his wife who visited from Pennsylvania. Seems they bought 12 friends and all of them went to a private mass in a private home. He said it was the home of Daniel Fitzpatrick owner of Chili’s Restaurants. He said they had a wonderful time and that 60 family and friends sat down to a great meal. Lloyd Phillips bragged on his grandson Matt who will be receiving an Eagle Scout Award. He also bragged that WalMart is selling his book over the internet.

FOR ALL THE MARBLES: Dana Trowbridge conducted the 50/50 raffle. Vice President Harrison won a chance at the $140 pot. L L L L L L L She did not pull the Joker. She pulled the Seven of ª . Try your luck again the next time Renae, there’s bound to be a winner soon. Don’t Forget that at the last meeting before the Christmas holiday we will draw until someone wins the pot. That way one Optimist will have some extra shopping money. That meeting will be December 17^th. Everyone should show up that day and buy a ticket.

ANNOUNCEMENTS: Robert Rhynard announced that the next race is the "Jingle Bell Run", which will be held this Saturday, December 7 at the Hall of Fame in downtown South Bend. Race starts at 9:30. Members should be there no later than 9:15 a.m. John Willis announced that the great benefit of this race is that afterwards everyone goes to the South Bend Chocolate Factory for hot chocolate and the like. Sgt At Arms Andy Plym announced that everyone is to wear Green and White on December 17^th in honor of the Christmas Holiday. Failure to wear the required colors will result in double fines. Robert Todd announced that our Student of the Month program will take place next week. He said that we still need guest speakers for January. Please contact him. Michel Listenberger announced that the Niles JOOI Club would be assisting the downtown merchants in manning the Santa Store on Thursday December 5^th, 12^th and 19^th. Past President Majerek announced the next Board Meeting would be held this Monday, December 9^th at 6:00 p.m. at the regular location. All Optimists are invited to attend Board meetings. He also announced that THERE WILL BE NO NOON OPTIMIST MEETINGS ON TUESDAY DECEMBER 24^TH OR TUESDAY DECEMBER 31^ST. Past President Majerek also said that the next District Meeting will be held February 22^nd in Clinton Township. In Addition he and Dana Trowbridge will not be available to help in the Jingle Bell Run as they will be running the 5K instead. Dana Trowbridge announced that he and Sgt At Arms Plym watched this past week’s Notre Dame game and Past President Majerek was no where to be found – so they are fining him $1.

GUEST SPEAKER: Diane Bass introduced today’s guest as Silvia Orian, Fund Development and Marketing Director for the Berrien/Cass County Junior Achievement. Silvia said that Sue Cipares had sent her regards and that she would be back with the group after the first of the year. She told us about the people who help run the program and what their specialties are. She also talked about the group’s board of director’s and their accredited awards. Silvia told the group about what Junior Achievement is all about. She passed out a lot of information including a sheet listing all of the schools in the two counties that JA was involved with. She asked if anyone out of the group knew people from the schools or attended any of the schools. Many in the group did so Silvia said that in that respect most of us were impacted by JA in some way. She said the goal is to inspire young people to value free enterprise and business in order to improve the quality of their lives. JA is for kids from K-12 and is operating in over 400 classrooms in Berrien and Cass counties. Silvia said that more than 9,000 children are impacted by JA. She said there are 46 JA classes in Niles and 29 classes in Brandywine alone. JA use to be an after-school program. However, they found that children had so many choices for after school activities that JA could be more effective during the school day and would impact many more kids. JA encompasses hands on activities that help promote career awareness and the importance of staying in school. The goal is to make all kids wise consumers and give them an idea of what business is all about. JA is so successful because of ordinary people who donate their time as consultants to teach kids how to learn by doing specific activities. These people are all professionals in the business world and they bring their professionalism to the students. They mold our children into the professionals that they will become and teach them how to participate in cooperative and competitive business avenues by giving them the business experience they need. Silvia said there are over 380 consultants helping our kids. Teachers and schools requests that JA be brought into classrooms to help the students. JA is not supported by any government agencies or United Way. All of their donations come from individuals, businesses, grants, foundations and service clubs. JA’s goal is to raise over $70,000 this year. The money is used to provide teaching kits to the consultants and to bring the programs to classrooms. JA could impact upon more schools if they had the money. Many times schools and teachers want the program, but JA may not have the funding to bring it to them. That’s why our donations are so important. The Niles Noon Optimists would like to thank Silvia Orian for bringing us so much good information about the Berrien/Cass Counties Junior Achievement program.

If you’d like to see previous issues of the Optizette visit our site at www.nilesoptimist.org or visit the international site at www.optimist.org.

CLOSING CREED: Marsh Pedzinski led the group in reciting the Closing Creed at the end of the meeting.

TODAY IN HISTORY: December 3rd

1818: Illinois enters the Union as the 21st state.

1833: Oberlin Collegiate Institute, the first college to enroll men and women on equal terms, opened in Oberlin, Ohio, with an enrollment of twenty-nine men and fifteen women.

1935: Eleanor Roosevelt dedicates the first low-income housing project in New York City.

1967: South African surgeon Christiaan Barnard performs the first heart transplant operation. The patient, Louis Washkansky, survives for 18 days.

The motion pictures of French director Jean-Luc Godard, a member of the nouvelle vague (new wave) movement, marked a radical departure from established cinematic conventions. In films such as À bout de souffle (1959; Breathless, 1961) he displayed such inventive techniques as jump cuts (cutting the film midscene rather than between scenes), intentionally shaky camera work, alluding to other movies, blurring the distinction between fiction and reality, and improvising story lines and dialogue