About the Charlotte Optimist Club
Optimist International was officially founded June 19, 1919.
The Charlotte Optimist Club was founded May 6, 1939. For details about our significant history, see the “HISTORY” Category.
Thank you for your interest in learning how our Optimist Club helps our community and the youth of our community. Our Optimist Club was originally created by a group of thoughtful, hardworking men who wanted to help troubled youth by engaging them in positive activities and sports. The original motto, in 1919, was “Friend of the Delinquent boy. The motto was changed later to “Friend of the Boy” and changed again to “Friend of Youth”. Today, many Optimist Clubs conduct significant sports programs. Throughout the years, members included women who shared these important values and initiatives. These men and women, and their successors have met regularly for the betterment of their communities and the support and encouragement of the youth through a wide range of programs and charitable work.
Current projects include the following:
Annual Oratorical Contest
We have partnered with Alexander Graham Middle School since 1966 to conduct an annual oratorical Contest for the entire eighth grade of more than 400 students. All students are assigned the official topic to write a 4-5 minute speech. The speech is a graded paper. The Language Arts teachers identify the best 32 speakers to compete in the school qualifier to determine the top six, three boys and three girls. During the following month, members of our Optimist Club coach the six contestants leading up to the Club Contest. Over the years, many of our contestants advance to the international world competition. Communication Contest for the Deaf and hard of Hearing For the past thirty years, our club has conducted this Oratorical Contest for the students at the North Carolina School for the Deaf. The entire high school and eighth grade participate. The school determines the top three contestants for the final contest for the 1st place $2,500 scholarship at the District Oratorical Contest.
Salvation Army Center of Hope Dinner
Our Club purchases, prepares and serves approximately 200 battered women and children several time a year.
Respect for Law program
The Optimist International “Respect for law” program was started in July of 1965. It was created following a discussion between past International President Carl Bowen and former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, in an effort to combat apathy toward crime and inspire youth to respect the law and law enforcement. Carl Bowen was a member of the Albemarle Optimist Club which was founded by our Club. Carl was a dear friend of the Charlotte Optimist club. Each year we invite three officers who have made a positive impact on the youth or our community. We invite their families to hear how much their father or mother is appreciated for the work they do.
Youth Appreciation
This international program was started by our member, T. Earl yarborough, in 1956, and is now conducted by Optimist Clubs everywhere. Annually, our Club identifies outstanding youth who are invited to our luncheon, with their families, to recognize them for a variety of reasons, including their achievements at school, dedication to community service, improvement in their grades and doing their best in sports or the arts. This activity allows Optimists to build the self-esteem of the youth in their community and show them that their efforts and hard work really do make a difference.
Boys and Girls Homes of North Carolina
In 1966 Optimist in North Carolina built a home for boys on the campus of Boys and girls Homes of North Carolina. Since 1966 more than 1000 boys have live in our home, The Optimist Cottage”. Some of the boys are Orphans but most are wards of the state. Our Club provides financial support for our home.
South Mountain Children and Family Services
Southmountain Children and Family Services has become known as an innovator of quality programs and has led the way for new techniques in residential settings, collaborative efforts, and changes in service provision. One incredible result of these efforts has been the creation of North Carolina’s first and only “Foster Community.” The Foster Community exists to improve the quality of life for children in care by providing the positive aspects of group care in a traditional family foster care setting. This hybrid approach allows our foster children to benefit from the positive aspects of both a traditional model and a group home model.
Junior World Golf….. “The Optimist”
In 1968, member of the Charlotte Optimist Club and Executive Director of Optimist International, Hugh Cranford, started the “Optimist International Junior golf championships which today is known as “The Optimist” one of the largest Junior Golf tournaments in the world. Our Club sponsors several golfers in the North Carolina qualifier.
Coats for Kids
Four years ago, we raised $18,000 and provided 900 new coats to the children at Huntingtowne Farms Elementary School. The “coat party” was an amazing event.
Optimist International Foundation
Our club provides financial support of the Optimist International foundation. The foundation raises and manages funds to support Optimist international’s youth and community programs. It provides funding of scholarships that clubs are unable to. It provides grants to clubs to support new service projects. It raises money to back outreach programs that improve the physical and mental well being of youth. It partners with Johns Hopkins to fund an endowed fellowship dedicated to pediatric hematology and oncology. (Childhood Cancer). It is essential that Clubs provide this important financial support.
Other programs conducted in the recent past include
Conducted Optimist Bingo at the Levine Children’s hospital from the Ryan Secrest studio; for several years conducted the “Youth Empowerment Service” known as the YES program utilizing the book “Success for Teens, distributing more than 2 million copies. The program was designed to stem the tide of high school dropouts.; provided financial support to Parkview Community Foundation, Jackson Park Ministries, Charlottee Rescue Mission, Beds for kids, Alzheimer’s Assn. and the American Diabetes Association.
Foreign Exchange Student Program
The Charlotte Optimist Club was involved with the Foreign Exchange Student Program from its inception in Charlotte. For many years, Elsie Byrum, the wife of Optimist Club member and attorney Porter Byrum, brought all exchange students and their student sponsors to a club meeting each year so we could meet and talk to all of them.
Our club has sponsored many exchange students both to and from the United States. One young lady we brought from Arequipa, Peru, attended Myers Park High School. She told us the most surprising question she faced in school was: "Since you are from Peru, can you get us some drugs?" She was offended by the question and stated emphatically that she had never encountered any drugs in Peru.
One memorable, but fateful, club sponsorship was of a young lady from Charlotte to the Faroe Islands. She had been told that she would be attending high school in Denmark, but when she arrived in Denmark, she was assigned to a family in the Faroe Islands. Although she had learned a little Danish, the islanders spoke Faroe, which she found intimidating. They even spoke Faroe at school. She asked American Field Service to reassign her to Denmark, as originally promised, but they refused, telling her that she had to stay the full school year in the Faroes, or they would not pay for her return to the United States. She wrote a letter to the Charlotte Optimist Club about her situation and her unhappiness. We immediately provided the funds for a return ticket, for which she was immensely grateful. After her return, she shared her experiences with the exchange program at a Club meeting.
A student that The Charlotte Optimist Club had sponsored in the early years, Klaus Bieg, from Germany, returned to visit with the club 30 years later, to let us know how much the exchange had meant to his life.
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