Huron Valley Optimist to Sponsor Essay Contest for Students

The following is a press release from the Huron Valley Optimist Club.

The Huron Valley Optimist Club is encouraging Huron Valley students to contemplate the phrase “How My Positive Outlook Benefits My Community” as part of the Optimist International Essay Contest for 2011.

The Optimist Club will judge the local students’ essays, based on the theme of “How My Positive Outlook Benefits My Community” and determine the top winners. Local winners will receive awards of $500 for first place, $300 for second place, and $200 for third place, and the winning essay writer will be sent to the district level, and judged, where additional scholarships can be won, and each district will send top entries to the international level. College scholarships are available for top winners at the local and district level. In 2011 our local winner, Raechel Moore, from Lakeland High School, also won $2,500 at the district level and currently attends Ohio Northern University. District winners are entered into the international-level judging, and one first-place winner will be awarded an engraved plaque and recognition in The Optimist magazine.

As Optimists, it is our goal to encourage students and do what we can to bring out the best in each of them. This gives them a wonderful opportunity to tap into their creativity and pursue possible scholarships at the same time.

The Optimist Club of Huron Valley has been participating in the Optimist Essay Contest for eight years and has been active in the community since 2004. Other programs and service projects that the Club is involved in include the Great Pumpkin Hunt, Fishing Derby, Magic Hug Square Project, Family Safety programs and others. 

Students wishing to participate in the essay contest can find out more about the contest by contacting the club at 248-887-8633, or emailing Pam Barckholtz at pbarckholtz@comcast.net.

Optimist International is one of the world’s largest service club organizations with 100,000 adult and youth members in 3,400 clubs in the United States, Canada, the Caribbean and Mexido and throughout the world.  Carrying the motto “Bringing Out the Best in Kids,” Optimists conduct positive service projects that reach more than six million young people each year.  To learn more about the local club, please visit the website at www.huronvalleyoptimist.com.  To learn more about Optimist International, please call (314) 371-6000 or visit the organization’s website at www.optimist.org.