Optimist Club holds annual Ham and Egg Day
The Goodyear Civic Center was packed over the weekend as local residents of all walks of life took time out on Saturday morning to enjoy breakfast with friends and help raise money for good causes.
Cedartown’s Optimist Club opened up the civic center early for their annual Ham and Egg Day fundraiser, which for years is one of the big events heading into the spring for people to gather and see each other.
“It’s always great to see the community support us,” Scott Ford, the 2019 Optimist Club president, said. “For our community we see it as an event and not just a fundraiser. They support the projects that we do, and our focus is youth and we get the youth to come out and help us, and the community is seeing what we’re doing, and we appreciate everyone coming out to help.”
Scouts and 4-H members were on-hand with club members to help serve breakfast, which money raised from helps the American Cancer Society, Boy Scout Troop 21, Cedartown FC Soccer, the Cedartown Housing Authority’s drug program, football and softball programs with the Cedartown Recreation Department, Cherokee Elementary School’s Renaissance program, CHINS (Children in Need of Services,) the FERST Readers of Polk County, the Cedartown Library’s Summer Reading program, the Respect for Law program, Polk Family Connections’ Teen Maze, the Jonah Bags Backpack program, Polk County 4-H, and Polk County’s annual Special Olympics.
They also use proceeds from the breakfast to fund their annual prize for the Optimist International Essay Contest, which this year went to Echelon Howell.
The Cedartown Optimist Club meets on the first and third Thursday of each month at 7 a.m. at the Goodyear Civic Center for breakfast meetings. Regular members pay dues of $30 a quarter to participate. They are always interested in new members joining, and those who want more information can contact Ron Ray at 770-324-2444 or email ronray50@att.net.