Great Falls Optimist Club

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Great Falls Optimist Club Provides Thanksgiving Dinner to Area Families

  
          Once again this year, the Great Falls Optimist Club and the National Council of Jewish Women’s (NCJW) Northern Virginia Section joined in providing a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner, complete with turkey, potatoes, cranberry sauce and sparkling cider to 21 families in the community.  The Optimist Club used a donation from the NCJW to purchase the dinner items from Safeway, and delivered them to several area schools, where the families picked them up.  Safeway donated the sparkling cider.

            “This is such a rewarding activity for our club,” said Angela Bongiorno, chairperson of the Thanksgiving Dinner program.  “We get tremendous satisfaction from knowing that dozens of children and their families were able to enjoy a delicious Thanksgiving meal that might otherwise not have been possible. And I can’t say enough about how helpful the Safeway employees were in pulling together the food and helping load all the items for delivery. ”

 The Great Falls Optimist Club is a child-centered non-profit organization that focuses its activities on supporting, encouraging and challenging children to reach greater heights.  A voluntary organization, the club is always interested in welcoming new members and volunteers.  Among the many annual projects sponsored by the club are the Falls  Festival and Fourth of July event in

Optimists Angela Bongiorno and George Hersey load dozens of Thanksgiving dinner fixings into her car with the help of Sean Walsh (center) from Great Falls Safeway.
Great Falls.   In addition, we have raised funds for:

 

- providing local learning centers with mentoring support, money and equipment to address the needs of learning and emotionally challenged students;

- raising funds for children’s cancer research;

- supporting local youth and sport groups through donations;

- providing local families with needed meals and gifts during the                holidays;

- contributing to Special Olympics, Operation Smile (a floating dental charity performing plastic surgery for children of third world countries), Habitat for Humanity;

- supporting the Analemma Society in its efforts to establish an astrological education facility at Turner Farm Park;

- contributing to Turner Farm Park;

- honoring local police and emergency personnel;

and much more.

 If you are interested in joining the Great Falls Optimist Club or volunteering at specific events, please contact President T.R. Cook at 703-938-5885 (cooksphotoart@aol.com) or Membership Co-chair Angela Bongiorno at 703-759-2925 (angela.bongiorno@verizon.net).