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Wednesday, November 1, 2006

OPEMNG
Gary Tanner lead the group in prayer followed by the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag and the Optimist Creed. Sixty-two Optimists and six guests were present. Guests included: Indiana North Governor Denny Reeve; Ben Deatsman guest of Joe Wilkey; David Baker guest of Andrew O’Conner; Jerry Beasley guest of Jane Green; Norman Bakhit guest of David Haines; and Dr. Fredrick Plastow guest of Jim Nesbitt.
Door Greeter were Ed Nordstrom and Jim Kessler. Birthday Honoree was Jim Jordan
INFORMATION

Salvation Army Can Drive—Denny Andrews reminded the Club that the first three weeks of November is our annual canned food drive.

Childhood Cancer Campaign—Optimists are asked to send games and toys with the officers who will be attending the District meeting.
Committee Reports

Spooktacklor—Art Gekstatter reported that two hundred kid participated in this years event. Optimists made the event safe and fun.

Boys and Girls Club—Andrew O’Connell reported on the upcoming Thanksgiving dinner for the kids. Membership—Bill Lawrence gave the second reading for Claudia Fussle— Mary Ellen Jordan is her sponsor. Safe Assured—Fred Nieter reported on last week’s activity. At Eisenhower 179 kids were enrolled; at Men- tone 41 kids were enrolled and at Warsaw Christian School 48 kids were enrolled. The next opportunity is Warsaw Christian School on Nov 11 from 5 until 9 pm Christmas Bells—Merl Heckaman needs some “dinga-lings” to ring for The Salvation Army Christmas Drive at K-mart on Saturday, Nov 25th from 9am to 9 pm in one-hour increments. Sign-up.

Christmas Trees—Mary Ellen reported that Harry Gigous is working on committee to unload trees on Thanksgiving morning.
AWARDS

Rookie of Year — Immediate Past President Mary Ellen Jordan presented John Lippe the Rookie of the Year Award for his outstanding work on the Student of Week Program

Bowlathon—Jeff Owens needs volunteers to sign-up for the playoffs on Saturday Nov 4th.

Sergeants ofArms—Merl Heckaman, Mark Skibowski, Jeff Newman and Jim Nesbitt managed to add humor and fun to the morning while collecting funds for the Scholarship Fund.

PROGRAM
Jim Nesbitt introduced Dr. Fredrick Plastow, Professor at Grace College, who spoke on Islam in America. During the past fifty years, four major waves of Islam believing immigrants have entered the USA from India, Pakistan, and other middle east countries. There are around a half million Muslims in the USA. They live in every state in the union. With substantial growth of Muslim population on college campuses, their goal is to have build Islam Centers in all states. After graduation, Muslims are staying the USA because of good paying jobs and their mission. Plainfield Indiana is the National Center of the Islam Organization which seeks local, national and global networking. The over-riding goal is to work for establishment of Islam society, ruled by Islam law. Islam wants relationships with other faith communities. North American Islamic Organization with 40,000 members invited Christian and Jewish leaders to attend convention in Chicago. Results of conference: bookstore are to carry more books; women are no longer segregated; spokespersons are to be more public; and greater push for their personal identity in the nation. The talk is about a Judeo, Christian, Islamic community in America. Issue of free speech is important. They are monitoring media, college classes and local government. Their purpose is to restructure the way Muslims are perceived. The political agenda is to get a voice and grow from half million to two million. Last year alone there were 96 thousand Muslim immigrants to USA.