Think of kids, think of fun and then think of the Castle Rock Optimist Club!!  Our club was invited this year to help coordinate and volunteer in the Kids Imagination Zone at the Front Range Showcase.  In partnership with Stacie Jacoby of KidsTown, the Kids Imagination Zone was a must see attraction full of fun games, arts and crafts, luau kids corner and a great scavenger hunt that took all the kids and their families through the Front Range Showcase.  Thank you to the members who volunteered their time to make this event a success!!  Many of the kids who joined us were able to watch the Optimist International "Internet Safety" video with Faux the Cat and learn all about being safe on the internet!!

Our club had a great bake sale as a fundraising activity at the Annual Eggstravaganza Event at Butterfield Park!!  Thank you to the many CROC members who donated their time and talents to create wonderful baked goods for our bake sale!  The goodies included all kinds of cookies, bunny and duck shaped rice crispy treats, butterscotch and peanut butter crunchy egg nests with jelly bean eggs, cupcakes and the very popular banana cherry bread!!  We also had many Castle View high school students join us and volunteer their time to help the sale.  The proceeds from this fundraiser will help to support the BUG program (bringing up grades) that will start in the fall at the Sedelia Elementary School.

Nathan Worts, a Castle View High School Senior is the winner of the 2010 Castle Rock Optimist Club Scholarship Essay Competition.  His winning essay has been moved up to the District competition where it will compete against other essays from all of the Wyoming and Colorado district.  He joined us on our Tuesday club meeting to read his essay to the group and discuss his plans for college.  Congratulations to Nathan!!

This year the Colorado Springs Brain Bowl was a big success! Our club volunteered and assisted in the positions of readers, timers and score keepers for the competition.  Below are pictures of some of the activities!!  Congratulations to all of the teams that participated!

On December 1st, 2009 the club had our annual Santa's Sharing "wrap" party at the Grange.  This event is when our members, families and friends come together to wrap the gifts for the Task Force families that we have sponsored. 

This year we were joined by Black Belt Candidates from the Han Lee Taekwondo Academy.  There was lots of wrapping, goodies and holiday cheer!  Thank you to all for participating again this year to bring a holiday gift to our Castle Rock families in need.

Thank you to the communities of Soaring Eagle Estates and Briscoe Ranch neighbors who donated all of our wrapping paper, tape, ribbon, gift tags and boxes!