Weekly Optimist Meeting 04-11-2019

Before we get to the meeting here is your password “OCCyouth”. Use it to log into the Members Resources in our beautiful revised website.

And now to the meeting on this gorgeous morning. Dennis Dorman was driving the bus this morning, and he introduced Charlie Ahern to pray and Jim Callaway to pledge.

Next we had a delightful report from senior members Lilly and Kelly of our Octagon Club on their continuing assistane to the young women at the Lindsey Community School in downtown San Diego. The high school provides education for students who become pregnant or have babies. They are not left behind. The club collected $300 to provide some resources to the girls at Lindsey. Erin Downey told us about the young people who attended our meeting this morning: Lilly, Daisy, Rose, Emi, Kelly and Josh.
We had guests in the house. Sandy Anderson and Andres Schenk were with Irish. Kate Jordan was with husband Matt.

Cynthia introduced our Fire Chief Jim Lyden who told us all about the history of our fire service and the tasks the firemen do to keep our city safe. The past year the fire department has responded to 2200 incidents. Seventy-five percent were emergency medical responses, and 6% were false alarms. The department aims for a 4 minute response time 90% of the time. There are programs for the community and in our schools to prepare folks to stay safe. The chief anticipated a growth in calls for medical help and changes in the technology the firemen employ. Chief Lyden is pleased to report that all is done with 31 firefighters–about the same as the number of volunteer firemen back in 1892 when it all started.