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OPTIMISM: Making a Difference!

THE OPTIMIST CLUB OF SAN ANTONIO has a proud tradition of community service. Its first service project was working with boys from the "Bexar County Juvenile Home" - improving the facilities, buying a mule so they could plow a garden and raise their own food, taking the boys camping and for home visits, outfitting a workshop and greenhouse during the Depression.

   In 1944, we were co-founders of Boysville,Inc., a residential home for non-delinquent boys. It is now a home for boys and girls, ages 5 through 18, including an emergency shelter, located on a 78-acre rural campus in Converse,Texas.

   In 1957, we were asked to co-sponsor "Aganier Hall" for the Girls' Council, which became "Girlsville." However, a need was seen for short-term emergency care for boys and girls both, and Youth Alternatives,Inc. grew from that base. Youth Alternatives now includes a family counseling center in San Antonio and a rural residence near Boerne,Texas, which provides a home for children requiring either long-term or short-term care.

   The Optimist Club of San Antonio still maintains close ties with both Boysville and Youth Alternatives,and our club has dedicated seats on the Board of Directors of both homes.

   Our service projects are varied and many offer opportunities for direct involvement with young people. We join the staffs to take the children from Boysville and Youth Alternatives shopping for new school clothes in August; we give weekly recognition to an outstanding high school student during the school year; we send an underprivileged elementary school child to summer camp; we co-sponsor a North-South All Star Basketball Tournament; we finance 2 scholarship programs. We support Optimist International programs such as an essay contest, Respect for Law Week, Youth Appreciation Week and Safety on Wheels.

   The Optimist Club of San Antonio celebrated its 70th Anniversary by installing 70 basketball goals for the children in our city's housing projects. We've done health screening for an inner-city high school. We had a back-to-school picnic and field day for all the children's homes in the city. We joined with Metropolitan Hospital employees to build a playground in Crockett Park. We sponsored an outreach program for the new San Antonio Children's Museum. We underwrote part of the relocation cost for the Downtown Youth Center. Through the years this Optimist Club has given financial support to other organizations such as the YMCA, Boy Scouts, Boys & Girls Clubs and Little League.

CLUB HISTORY

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