The fun stuff
The Optimist Club of Mount Horeb, Wisconsin enjoys many adventures. A silent auction at the Super Bowl Sunday pancake brunch. A craft tent for the kids on the night before the Fourth. Cops and Bobbers at Stewart Lake, where Mount Horeb police officers fish with the kids. A self-defense workshop at the end of summer. A youth play in early February with five-dollar tickets. A monthly meeting where we get to know a high school student we ought to know. A speech contest where one of our kids made it all the way to the world championship.
Whatever a Mount Horeb kid is doing — singing, performing, speaking up, painting a flag on her cheek — our village knows an Optimist had a hand in it.
Our friends and neighbors
The Optimists also raise money to support our hard-working, generous friends doing their own good work in the village. A scholarship handed out at the high school's senior awards night. A check to the American Legion so a Mount Horeb junior can spend a week at Badger Boys' or Girls' State. A donation to the music department for the marching band's trip to London. Burger shifts at Summer Frolic. Lefse with the Lions Club.
An investment in our youth, and an investment in our village.
Someone You Should Know
The best part of every monthly meeting is the opportunity to visit with some of our extraordinary high school students and their families. We call it Someone You Should Know — and once you meet a few of them, you'll see why.
Five scholarships at senior awards night
At the Mount Horeb High School senior awards night this May, the club handed five $500 scholarships to graduating seniors — Eleanor Guenther, Kaylen Hastings, Lily Nelson, Kyle Frischman, and Barret Kreul.
Each of these extraordinary students was featured on our Facebook page this school year as Someone You Should Know.
Mount Horeb Optimist Cynthia Jefko presented the awards. A special, emotional night — for the kids, for their families, for the village.
Pop-up pottery at the library
One June afternoon, Center Ground Studios turned a room at the Mount Horeb Public Library into a pop-up pottery studio — and more than fifty neighbors, kids and grown-ups alike, spent three hours up to their wrists in clay.
Hand-building stations with every kind of tool and texture to try. Four pottery wheels, with local potters helping folks throw their own bowls, mugs, and vases. A remarkable afternoon — made possible with support from the Optimist Club.
Kid's Zone at the Norsk July 3rd Celebration
On the night before the Fourth, the village gathers at the Norsk Golf Club — blankets on the grass, food, music, and the long wait for fireworks. The Optimist Club of Mount Horeb, Wisconsin runs the Kid's Zone to fill that wait: a free tent of crafts, yard games, face painting, and a bouncy house. This year it had a centerpiece — the Friends & Neighbors board, where kids walked up, grabbed a marker, and wrote a thank-you to someone right here in Mount Horeb. The stars around the edge honored the men and women who've served in the military, as the country marks its 250th. Every note, every star, made by a kid who just wanted to say thank you.
It rained — on and off, all evening. We kept ducking under the tent and heading back out to play, then back under again. The kids never lost a step. Their energy carried the whole night.
We've run the Kid's Zone for a few years now, but Emily took it to the next level — the last two especially. She put in the hours and kept the whole thing humming, from the first face painted to the last paper crown. And the face painters, crown-makers, and craft helpers? Kids too — volunteers, every one. Rain and all — one of the good ones.
Come help
If something here resonated, we'd love to meet you. Optimists are made, not born — most of us were just looking for a way to show up for kids in our village, and one Monday evening we walked into a meeting at the Mount Horeb Public Library and stayed. There's room at the table for you, too. Come for the work or come for the company. Either way, we'll be glad you're here.
Say hello