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THE BLOOMFIELD HILLS OPTIMIST CLUB P.O. Box 781 Bloomfield Hills, MI 48303 NAVIGATION
	BACK Holiday Wish 2006 The 18^th Annual Holiday Wish Program schedule was planned at a meeting in August 2006 between Jessica Valascho (OLHSA PR representative) Brian MacKenzie (Bloomfield Hills Optimist Club Chairman), Ted Wilson (Bloomfield Hills Optimist Club Co-Chair) and Mike Cowdrey (Bloomfield Hills Schools Director of Recreation). We began collecting the wishes for all the Oakland County Head Start and the Pontiac Academy for Excellence students as they registered for school in September. This year about 2500 children benefited from the program. We recorded Name, Phone Number, Age, Parents Name the Child's Wishes and the school where they attend. OLHSA prepares an Excel database with control numbers for each child and transmits it to the Optimist Club in October. In the meantime, the Sponsoring Companies from last year are contacted to reaffirm their participation for this year. There are, currently, about 85 companies along with the Bloomfield Township Employees that participate in force. In addition new sponsors are solicited. Most sponsors take about 30-50 names, although the range is from 5 to 270 names. The “wish labels” are distributed with First Name, Sex, Age and “Wish” in late October or early November. People are asked to spend $30-40 for each child, although some people are very generous and spend much more. This year, about 150 names requesting bicycles were separated out and the Optimist Club purchased bicycles for all of them. Our sponsored Boy Scout troop 1034 assembled the bicycles as an Eagle Scout project by Michael Reed. On a Tuesday, this year December 12^th, we begin collecting gifts. Three teams of 4-5 club members delivered the bicycles to Frost School, the main Head Start Distribution point. On Wednesday, two teams begin collecting gifts from the sponsoring organization offices. We place “shipping labels’ over the “wish labels” with “ship to” information including school and teacher names. We use 30 gallon clear garbage bags to collect and transport the presents. It is truly amazing to see a school gymnasium filled with bicycles and presents. Between Wednesday and Thursday the bulk of the gifts have been collect with a final collection on Friday. Not every sponsor manages to buy for all their children and on Saturday about 25 club members and friends of the club descend on our wrapping center and we shop for and wrap presents for all the children not covered by sponsors. This year, this was about 400 children. These presents are delivered on Monday to complete the project. Besides the club members who spend hours working on this project, there are many other people to thank for the success of this program, not the least of which are The Chrysler Corporation and the Bloomfield Hills School District for the use of their trucks and Organic Corporation for their office space as an operational center. There are hundreds of people working for companies all over Oakland County, without whom this project would not have been possible and we want to thank them, for without them, this project would not have happened .

THE BLOOMFIELD HILLS OPTIMIST CLUB

P.O. Box 781

Bloomfield Hills, MI 48303

NAVIGATION

BACK

Holiday Wish 2006

The 18^th Annual Holiday Wish Program schedule was planned at a meeting in August 2006 between Jessica Valascho (OLHSA PR representative) Brian MacKenzie (Bloomfield Hills Optimist Club Chairman), Ted Wilson (Bloomfield Hills Optimist Club Co-Chair) and Mike Cowdrey (Bloomfield Hills Schools Director of Recreation).

We began collecting the wishes for all the Oakland County Head Start and the Pontiac Academy for Excellence students as they registered for school in September. This year about 2500 children benefited from the program. We recorded Name, Phone Number, Age, Parents Name the Child's Wishes and the school where they attend. OLHSA prepares an Excel database with control numbers for each child and transmits it to the Optimist Club in October.

In the meantime, the Sponsoring Companies from last year are contacted to reaffirm their participation for this year. There are, currently, about 85 companies along with the Bloomfield Township Employees that participate in force. In addition new sponsors are solicited. Most sponsors take about 30-50 names, although the range is from 5 to 270 names. The “wish labels” are distributed with First Name, Sex, Age and “Wish” in late October or early November. People are asked to spend $30-40 for each child, although some people are very generous and spend much more.

This year, about 150 names requesting bicycles were separated out and the Optimist Club purchased bicycles for all of them. Our sponsored Boy Scout troop 1034 assembled the bicycles as an Eagle Scout project by Michael Reed.

On a Tuesday, this year December 12^th, we begin collecting gifts. Three teams of 4-5 club members delivered the bicycles to Frost School, the main Head Start Distribution point. On Wednesday, two teams begin collecting gifts from the sponsoring organization offices. We place “shipping labels’ over the “wish labels” with “ship to” information including school and teacher names. We use 30 gallon clear garbage bags to collect and transport the presents. It is truly amazing to see a school gymnasium filled with bicycles and presents. Between Wednesday and Thursday the bulk of the gifts have been collect with a final collection on Friday.

Not every sponsor manages to buy for all their children and on Saturday about 25 club members and friends of the club descend on our wrapping center and we shop for and wrap presents for all the children not covered by sponsors. This year, this was about 400 children. These presents are delivered on Monday to complete the project.

Besides the club members who spend hours working on this project, there are many other people to thank for the success of this program, not the least of which are The Chrysler Corporation and the Bloomfield Hills School District for the use of their trucks and Organic Corporation for their office space as an operational center.

There are hundreds of people working for companies all over Oakland County, without whom this project would not have been possible and we want to thank them, for without them, this project would not have happened .