VOL. 59, No. 23, April 7, 2005
Our annual Youth Appreciation Banquet was held tonight, and as usual we were blessed to honor Youth from our community who have distinguished themselves with a mix of scholastic achievement, community service, and good citizenship. This year's honorees, and their nominators were:

	Jennifer Cowie	Madison Academy
	Sara Grace Epps	United Way of Madison County
	Gezelle Glasgow	Girls Inc.
	David Taylor Hendrikson	Madison Academy
	Mitchell Ryan Hunt	Madison Academy
	Binta Jalloh	YMCA of Metro Huntsville
	Jade Moten	Girl Scouts of North Alabama
	Elizabeth Perkins	Westminster Christian Academy
	Anthony Petty	Boy Scouts of North Alabama
	Farrell Robinson	Girl Scouts of North Alabama
	Johnathan Trimuel	Big Brother/Big Sisters

Mary Hix, YAB co-chairperson, opened the meeting, and introduced President Duarte, who welcomed members and honored guests. Chaplain Bingham, whose 90th birthday we celebrated, led us in the invocation and the pledge of allegiance to the flag.

Dinner was a carbon copy of our latest NOW banquet (Cajun chicken, veggies, dessert), but was delicious. I lost count of how many pieces of cheesecake Fred Binner enjoyed.

Will made a shameless commercial announcement extolling the benefits of membership in the Optimist Club of Huntsville, and Mary Hix presented the awards to an outstanding group of young people. We then recited the Optimist Creed, and were adjourned.

Our special thanks to our YAB chairpersons, Mary Hix and Beth Townsend, for their hard work and organizational skills, and to all members who helped them. Things ran very smoothly, and none of the children were up past their bedtime.

Beth had a slight fender bender between work and the Hilton, and was unable to attend, but was unhurt. Her automobile, however, was transported by ambulance (flatbed wrecker) to the hospital (body shop) where it is resting comfortably in stable condition.

CALENDAR

April 14		Thursday		11:45 am		Hilton		Y&R Dream Band
April 21		Thursday		11:45 am		Optimist Recreation Center		Business Meeting
April 28		Thursday		11:45 am		Hilton		Camille Solley, Director Big Brothers & Big Sisters of Alabama