VOL. 61, No. 40, July 26, 2007

We had a good-looking group of members and guests today with Pres. Sidney Sandridge in charge. Dave Schultz gave a prayer of thanks for our many blessings, and we pledged allegiance to our flag. Since our meeting was being video recorded by a representative of the Chamber of Commerce we hoped to make a good impression to sway the judges to pick the Huntsville Optimist Club as the outstanding non-profit organization of the year. More than our appearance, though, was in evidence as community service an Bob Martin called on representatives from 3 of the 11 charitable organizations we supported over the past year to speak briefly: Melvin Allen from the Girls' and Boys' Club of Harvest told about how our support had made a big difference in the lives of several youngsters in that community to move from an essentially hopeless environment to one of optimism and hope for the future; Candice Dunnaway told us that our support has enabled the Drug Free Community organization to conduct town-meeting forums throughout Madison County to combat the earlier and earlier recruitment of our young people into gangs and drugs, a vitally important activity with rapid growth on the horizon; and the speaker from HEALS Clinic was social worker Ray Saunders. HEALS is an acronym for health establishment at local schools. No kids needing health care are ever turned away-thanks to organizations like ours, dedicated social workers and volunteers from the medical profession.

Rebecca Billings introduced a group from the Sparkman HS JOOI Club, headed by her son as president. Our Pre s.-Elect Connie Gipson presented them with maple-leaf JOOI Club medals she brought back from the Optimist International Convention in Montreal earlier this month.

Two new club members were installed and indoctrinated by former Optimist Governor Zack Thompson. Welcome aboard Suzanne Thames and Nelson Peddycoart! Note the latter swells the ranks of the Harvest mafia.

Connie introduced Mark Hubbs who gave a very informative presentation on the status of missile defense and ancillary space projects - much of the work being performed at Redstone Arsenal by 180 workers recently transferred here. He anticipates a transfer of another 1,000 jobs soon - followed by several thousand in a few years.

We hope the Chamber finds our club to be worthy of consideration of the award we seek. Byrom Goodwin won the attendance prize.

CALENDAR

August 2		Thursday		11:45 am		Downtown Holiday Inn		Sandra Moon (City Council)
August 7		Tuesday		4:00 pm		1st Commercial Bank		Board Meeting
August 9		Thursday		11:45 am		Downtown Holiday Inn		Shannon Blue (Books)
August 16		Thursday		11:45 am		Optimist Recreation Center		Business Meeting
August 16-19						Airport Sheraton		AL-MS District Convention
August 23		Thursday		11:45 am		Downtown Holiday Inn		Terry Davis (County Schools)
August 23		Thursday				Von Braun Center		Chamber of Commerce Meeting
August 30		Thursday		11:45 am		Downtown Holiday Inn		Steve Ragsdale (Bridge Street)
Carl W.