Founding of the Niles Optimist Club

In the summer of 1970 Lee Baker and Max VanDenBerg of the Kalamazoo Optimist Club began visiting Niles with the intention of forming a new Optimist Club here. They called on local businessmen (at this time Optimist Clubs were for men only) and convinced enough of them that an Optimist Club would be good for the youth of Niles. The Niles Optimist Club was officially organized on September 1, 1970 and its charter was delivered November 7, 1970.