FOLEY – The Foley Optimist Club has a long history of helping out with the local school system and community, something they still do regularly today.
“The Optimist Club was instrumental in …
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FOLEY – The Foley Optimist Club has a long history of helping out with the local school system and community, something they still do regularly today.
“The Optimist Club was instrumental in getting the Scholarship Club in Baldwin County started,” said President Elect Clark Cathey. Being active in the education community, the Optimist Club is always looking for ways to help support local students in various ways, and so far they have not been disappointed in their mission. “It’s really a good feeling to talk to these students and realize we’ve got such great young people out there that are up and coming,” said Cathey. “I think that they’re really going places.”
On Wed., April 18, the Optimist Club invited the three winners from the Foley High School essay contest, along with Principal Russ Moore and Foley High School English Teacher Diana Feely, to join them during a weekly meeting at the Gift Horse Restaurant in Foley. The winners from the contest were Giovanna Vazquez, 3rd place; Destiny Hammac, 2nd place, and Shelley Moore, 1st place. The topic for this year was “Can Society Function Without Respect?” All three winners delivered essays filled with quotes and reasoning based on famous philosophers, world leaders, and facts based off major world events such as World War I and World War II to support their ideas.
“We had 26 students participate in the essay contest this year,” said Erin Maulden, the Optimist Club’s chairperson for the contest. “All of the essays were very well-written. There were three judges and we were all very surprised at the knowledge that the students put into the essays and how they wrote them, but overall these are our top winners.”
Each judge was able to award a total of 100 points, so a total of 300 points could be awarded to each essay. There was only a six-point difference between first place and third place, with each of the top three scoring extremely high.
With first place, Shelley Moore’s essay was submitted to the district competition this past February, a competition she also won. She will be competing in the next stage of the essay competition with the possibility of progressing even further and will be awarded a scholarship through the district. The runners up were urged to enter the contest again next year when they will have another opportunity to progress to the district competition and win future scholarships.
“Even as early as 9th grade, we’re starting to push students that they need to apply for these different contests,” said Diana Feely. “You need to go ahead and start working towards scholarship money, enter everything that you possibly can, get your name out in the community. The community involvement, the Optimist Club as well as others, offers so much to our kids, you afford them so many opportunities. And once they get started with that, they realize how fun it is.”
As well as supporting the essay contest and its winners, the Optimist Club also made a recent donation to the Foley High School ROTC program, as well as many other donations towards education.
“I think the staff at Foley High School does a remarkable job, and I think part of that is the leadership that’s there,” said Cathey. “We appreciate what you do for our students and our community.”
The Foley Optimist Club meets every Wednesday at noon at the Gift Horse Restaurant (209 W Laurel Ave) in Foley.
