Celebrating 100 years of optimism

By Mike Renzella

The Haldimand Press

HALDIMAND—One of the most rewarding things in life is the simple act of doing something nice for someone else, and for the past 100 years the Optimist Club has been doing just that. Locally, the Optimist club has a chapter in Dunnville and a Haldimand-wide club. The Haldimand organization is relatively new, having registered with Optimist International three years ago. The Dunnville chapter however has been in operation since 1954.

“The Optimist Club of Dunnville is a dedicated group of men and women whose mission is to provide hope and a positive vision to the youth in our community,” says Don Zynomirski, President of the Dunnville organization. “It is estimated that each Optimist member positively impacts 35 children and youth annually.”

Paul Gross of Fisherville, President-elect of the Haldimand organization, agrees: “Our mission is very simple. Bring out the best in every child/youth, one child at a time, one endeavour at a time, one opportunity at a time.”

“We believe every opportunity brought to us, by way of a funding proposal/presentation, must be received with a heart-filled welcome and then vetted through an internal process to ensure the proposal is both legitimate and serves our mission and our values,” explains Gross. Some recent examples of this statement in practice include sponsoring a local 10th grade student to attend a leadership program at the University of Toronto and providing funding to help a track and field team cover travel expenses for their cross-country trip to the nationals in Manitoba.

The Haldimand Optimist Club