History of the Optimist Club of Southgate Kentucky

What follows is a collection of letters, memories and other information in an effort to capture the history of the Optimist Club of Southgate Kentucky. I am looking to add to this so if anyone has any input, I would greatly appreciate it.

The following is a undated letter which gives a brief history of the club from when it was first founded to the date the letter was written. It is unsure who wrote the letter or when this letter was written but it appears to be from the late ’70’s (1976?). I have included notes in bold and italic which is NOT part of the original letter.

Southgate Optimist Club

During the month of March 1946, a committee of members of the Newport Optimist Club began contacting residents of the city of Southgate with the idea in mind of forming an Optimist Club in our city. In April of that year, a formal meeting was arranged wit the Newport Club and the contacted men of Southgate and a dinner meeting was held at Bertke’s, now known as El Greco’s Restaurant on Pike 27 (Editor’s Note: This is the parking area at St. Therese School now). The next meeting was held on May 2, 1946 at the Southgate Methodist Church for the purpose of organizing the Southgate Optimist Club. Membership applications on that night were completed by eighteen men. An election was held and officers, as follows, were elected:

President William Ziegler

Vice President Hendon Blades

Vice President, Membership Carl Groeschen

Secretary Oscar Landberg

Charter Night was held on May 21, 1946 at the Cincinnati Club and the Southgate Optimist Club was formed, with twenty-five charter members (Editor’s Note: Based on the roster sheet from Optimist International, 32 members signed up on this date).

As the slogan of all Optimist Clubs was “Friend of the Boy”, one of our first projects was to make a playground for the youth of Southgate . We purchased property adjacent to the Public School playground, extending down Electric Ave. to Willow St . As this property was just a big hollow, our first concern was some way to fill it and to construct a storm sewer to carry off the surface water. We were fortunate in having a good friend of the club in the person of John Brown, formerly of Ft. Thomas , now a resident of Florida , who was an official of the Reliance Foundry Co. of Cincinnati Ohio. This foundry hauled thousands of tons of core sand and castings over a period of several years. Along with the purchase of dirt by the club, the present playground emerged. As time went on, playground equipment was bought, basketball courts built, back stops installed for the ball diamond and the area lighted and fenced.

Many money-making ideas were used and the first and one of the best was the holding of a Monte Carlo night at the Riveria Club on Alexandria Pike, later called ‘The Oasis’ and is now the location of the Convenient Shopping Area (Editor’s Note: I believe this is now an Ameristop which is on US 27 in Newport). In conjunction with this affair, we had what we called a ‘Brick Program’. Contributions were solicited from the residents of Southgate at $1.00 per brick, and the donors name was placed on a brick and put on display on a huge billboard located on our recently purchased property. Another of our successful money-making projects over the years, was at the Alexandria Fair where we started with a Wine Pitch Booth, manned by members with the help of their families. Later we changed to the Teddy Bear Pitch, the Jewelry Pitch, and the Parakeet Pitch. We also had out booths at the Independent Food Dealers Assn. in Covington for a few years. Other means of making money were street carnivals held both at the playfield and at the V.F.W., a Spaghetti Supper at St. Therese cafeteria, the house numbers painted on the curbs of homes in the city and the Jr. Optimist selling Booster Decals to the public. Out most productive project is the annual sale of Benson Fruit Cakes from early November until after Christmas. This past Holiday Season was one of our best and sales continue to climb each year. Any member of the club will sell you a cake.

Annually, Optimist International sponsors a National Oratorical contest for the youth and the prizes amount to thousands of dollars in college scholarships. We have entered contestants a number of years and these boys come from both the Public School and St. Therese. They must memorize their speech and give it before our club, where they are judged. The winner then competes with other winners in the district for the championship. The district winner then contends with other district winners at Optimist International Convention.

Each year we have sponsored basketball, football and baseball teams. During the summer and fall months, these activities are on the playfield and during the winter months the club rents the Public School gym, usually two or three nights weekly. All of these activities are under paid supervision. The Supervisors are working with anywhere from 30 to 150 boys at any one time.

The Annual Easter Egg Hunt was started several years after our inception and has been held continuously on the Optimist playfield on Easter Sunday (Editors Note: This has since moved to the Southgate Community Center ). All prizes, candy and hard boiled eggs are furnished by the club. About 300 children each year look forward to hunting for the Prize Egg.

Annually we participate in the Bicycle Safety Check sponsored by the Coca Cola Company and the Southgate Police Dept. Anyone may bring their bicycle, have it inspected and registered with the Police Dept. Each one is given a free Coke and prizes are given to the one that makes 100 points for having the proper equipment on their bikes.

The slogan of the Optimist was ‘Friend of the Boy’ and had been this since 1919 when Optimist International was founded. In line with changing times, this slogan was changed to ‘Friend of Youth’ in 1975. With this in mind, the Southgate club is in the process of promoting a program for girls, and has hired a lady supervisor to undertake this program. To date, the girls have shown much interest and we hope it will be a success in the years ahead.

-- End of Letter --

Below is a list of the original charter members of the club that organized on May 21 ^st , 1946.

Official Charter Members

Elmer E. Baugh	Hendon Blades	William F. Blatt
Claude G. Bonar	George I. Breiel	Frank Bubenhofer
Arvil N. Dameron	Charles F. Droege	Christian J. Ebert
James Flaig	George R. Flaugher	Michael A. Furio
William F. Grimm	Carl L. Groeschen	Graland F. Guilfoyle
Earl F. Hemer	Leroy Joseph Heringer	Dr. George J. Mermann
James Hicks	Oscar F. Landberg	Anthony Manyet
Albert E. Meyer	Ralph J. Morrison	Edward H. Paper
George J. Roesel	John W. Rumford	Oscar W. Rust
Edward Schumann, Jr.	Roy Scott	Franklin E. Siebert
W.H. Seibert	William G. Ziegler

Notes By Jeff Blanchet

I became a member of the Southgate Optimist club in 1998 when my Dad was president of the club. I became a member of the board in 1999 as the Editor.

Back in the late 70’s, I can remember playing baseball on the field next to Southgate Public School when Don Dietriech held baseball pickup games. The equipment and T-shirts were donated by the Southgate Optimist Club.

Don also coached basketball teams at the time and I can remember playing our games at St. Joe’s gym back in 1978-1979 when I was an 8^th Grader. We came in second place in our league.

I also participated in the Oratorical Contest when I was in the 7^th and 8^th grade.

I don’t remember the year exactly but when I was in High School, Bob Shields, the police chief at the time, stopped me as I was walking home and asked me to hop in. As he drove me home, he talked to me about playing in a Jr. District Golf Tournament. I participated and remember that my uncle Gene Blanchet drove me down to Lexington and I played in the Tournament. I did not do that well but I really enjoyed playing in a competitive environment.

As you can see, I benefited by many of the activities the club sponsored and now I am a member creating the same memories for other youth in Southgate .

I don’t know the exact year or the activities but they also had a summer program for the kids. At one point, my brother Mark Blanchet headed up a summer Olympics team.

Of course I also remember the Easter Egg hunts they had at the playground when I was a child. They moved the hunt to the community center after it was built. We switched from hard-boiled eggs to plastic eggs filled with candy in 2000.

From 1999-2001, The Southgate Optimist club sponsored a baseball team with my brother Jay Blanchet as the coach. In 2001, we sponsored an Indoor Soccer team for U-10 boys and a summer basketball team for kids at Southgate Public School . In 2002, we sponsored a summer basketball team for the girls entering 4^th grade at St. Therese and I served as the coach.