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Our annual Breakfast With Santa was a great success! Click on the image to see more:  Charter members Jim and Janet Waite have made a Christmas tradition of decorating their house on Prince Philip in Walden South with an amazing light display each year, which includes animated features and lots of photo opportunities. This year, after many have suggested this, they will welcome cash or non-perishable food donations for the Food Bank. This is well worth the drive with your family! Off hwy 21 turn on Walden to get to Prince Philip. Off of hwy 79 turn on Willsie Line. Thanks so much Jim and Janet!!  We are the very fortunate recipients of a generous grant from the Sunset Community Foundation. Janet Williams, SCF GGBA Advisory Committee Member presented the 2024 Greater Grand Bend Area Community Fund Grant for $2,000 to Lou-Anne MacDonald, President of the Ausable Port Franks Optimist Club (partnered with the Municipality of Lambton Shores) in support of our “Technology Improvements to Better Serve the Community and Youth" Program. Thank you to our fantastic secretary Linda Attard for compiling and submitting a successful proposal! She then personally purchased technology upgrades taking advantage of Black Friday sales to give us the biggest bang for our buck!   What a fabulous December meeting! We had delicious food prepared by chefs Jill and Betty, great fellowship, and a little singalong courtesy of Rick Thomas. Sure we work hard to make our community a better place for all, but we know how to have fun too! Thanks to all who contributed to preparations, serving, decorations, and clean up. For the third time we have won first place in the non-commercial float category at the Forest Santa Claus Parade! Click on the image below to see more photos:  Our November meeting was very well attended, of course when Betty and Jill make dinner and dessert how could anyone miss it? We were also so happy to induct new members Denise and John McKenna this evening. Welcome to the club we are honoured that you have chosen to join us! New members are always welcomed. Our 5050 has ended and today we had the pleasure of presenting Heather Trevithick of London Ontario with her winnings of $6,275.00. Heather cottages in the area and says she was so happy to support us because her daughter has enjoyed our numerous annual events and art camps over many years while growing up. We certainly appreciate her support, and everyone who purchased tickets has helped us out! Our proceeds from this 5050 have supported our Fire, Water & Ice Safety Program, our community Cornfest event, Caring Quilters of Lambton Shores, Forest Ringette Association, Taxandria Soccer Club, Bravery Beads program, Bosanquet School Breakfast and Snack Program, SWONT Conductive Education, and the Contact House Food Bank. Congratulations Heather!  We enjoyed our first general membership meeting of the 24-25 Optimist year, presided over by our new president Lou-Anne MacDonald. As always, a time of fellowship was enjoyed and then we all appreciated a delicious meal prepared by VP Jill St-Amour and board member Betty Urbanski. How fortunate we are to have these two talented culinary masters in our membership! Our newest members Denise and John were welcomed to their first meeting. VP Ray Horban was honoured. We were updated on our next upcoming event, Pumpkins After Dark, which is happening Oct. 26th from 5-8pm. Kids come first for Optimists, but we also have a lot of fun together doing all sorts of things for our community. We'd love to have you join us. If you're interested in membership we'd be happy to hear from you! Click on the images to expand: We are very proud to support this initiative through our Fire, Water and Ice Safety program!
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