Fresh off a resounding Nuggets victory in Game 1 of the NBA Finals, smiles and happy faces filled the American Legion hall on a beautiful Friday morning, June 2, 2023. Ed Collins was pressing the flesh as the sole greeter (soul greeter?) offering greetings and laughs. A handshake from Ed is good for the soul I think. He was also offering up a joke of his own creation:
An optimist builds airplanes, and a pessimist builds parachutes.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
It is the end of the school year, and Charlie Korsoski awards were awarded this week at Bradley, McMeen and Lowry Elementary schools, plus Hamilton Middle School.
Jon Wachter,
Pat Bush,
Don Thomson,
Paul Stratton and
Karl Geil handled the presentation duties. All ceremonies went well, however Karl is still trying to recover from the blow of being misidentified as
Tom Mauro during the Hamilton event. Please offer Karl your support when you see him.
HOLM ELEMENTARY KORSOSKI AWARD
Andy Towt and Robert Wardlaw had the privilege of awarding the Korsoski Award to Maleah Mayers, a fifth grade student at Holm Elementary School. It is worth noting that the children of April Milow, the Principal of Holm, were Super Citizens and one of them was given the Korsoski Award. She told Robert and Andy how special the awards were to her children.
BRADLEY INTERNATIONAL DESTINATION IMAGINATION
Jon Wachter shared a thank you note that the club received from the Destination Imagination team at Bradley Elementary. Our club made a donation that helped fund their trip to the global competition. When asked what the team’s results were at the event, Jon acknowledged that he didn’t know, but would do some research and report back next week.
LOTTERY
Phil Peri
ngton took the mic and shared a raffle update. The 3rd annual raffle will officially kick off next Friday. The goal is to raise $5,000 that goes directly to our programs. Promoting the raffle and ticket sales is a great way to meet people and talk about Optimism. Tickets will be available for purchase next week, and only 500 will be sold, so get yours soon! You can also consider buying a ticket or two on behalf of a non-profit of your choice.
GOOD NEIGHBOR
Tom Glazier looking for volunteers to help a neighbor of his clean up yard June 17th and the 24th. She had a number of cottonwoods cut down but the person she hired then disappeared. Please come by for an hour or two to load branches into a dumpster on site at 4701 E. Amherst. Tom passes around a sign up sheet, or give him a call.
Michael Chavez says that a couple of more folks are needed for us to fully staff the handouts at the June 8th Rockies game. The gates open at 11:00 am for the fans, so we need to meet up at 10:15.
Michael also passed around a sign up sheet to staff our water station at the MS Ride, coming up on June 25th. We meet in Longmont at 6:30 am.
Tom Kramis let us know that the Gateway Club is having their pancake breakfast on Saturday, June 24th. It will start at 7:30 am at the Appleb ee's at the corner of E. Iliff and Abilene. Tom is selling tickets for the low low price of $10.
Bob 
Meyer makes the following plea for Junior Golf help:
Hey guys, I know I’m really late in asking, but are you available for June 15 for our Optimist Junior Golf Qualifier? On Thursday, June 15, we have a 8 am tee time at Meadow Hills in Aurora for all of our Girls divisions. If you know anyone else who might be available, please forward this email to them. If you need more information, please let me know.
Thanks,
Bob Meyer
Colorado-Wyoming District Optimist Junior Golf Program Co-chairman
303-919-4532
President Larry Pulaski announced that the monthly board meeting is coming up on Tuesday, June 6. All club members are welcome to attend, please just let Larry know so that there will be enough food. 6:30 pm is the start time in the front room of the American Legion.
SPEAKER
Larry then introduced today’s speaker, our own Greg Hurd with a career snapshot.
Gre
g is a charter member of our club, and the only one who has not served as a club president (yet). He is an electrical engineer, aka a “Sparky”, and has worked for 44 years and over 80 different projects in the power, food and beverage, water, and waste water industries.
His first major project was in 1971 at a power plan in Wyoming. Other career highlights include:
* A cement plan in Lyons, which was the first computerized cement plan in the country.
* Handling the automation and controls for the Denver Mint in 1997, and moving the whole facility to digital control. Working with the production of nickels, quarters and dimes meant there were highly tuned metal detectors for people coming and going. Greg tried to leave one night and had a chapstick stain in his pants pocket require him to disrobe nearly completely.
* Installing the underground power feed to the buildings and services on the north rim of the Grand Canyon.
* Yosemite National Park, updating the wastewater plant controls and automation.
* The water treatment plant at Mt. Rainier National Park.
* Working for Keebler on the automation and controls for the Cheez-it line. Raising and lowering the temperature while making the crackers was a delicate task.
* Helping NATO in Northern Germany by tracking and mapping scatterbomb explosions. They modified a digital data acquisition system by using microphones to track patterns of the explosions.
* Daimler Benz plant working on their onboard crash testing.
* Multiple glass projects helped him develop an expertise in high temperature systems with a range of 2,500 - 5,000 degrees. Greg worked on many projects at Coors Ceramics
Over the course of his career, Greg worked for 9 different companies 7, of which no longer exist. Thanks for sharing tales of your experiences Greg - very impressive and entertaining!
DRAWING
We had a drawing! $40 lurked in the pot, with the 9 of diamonds as the key to finding it.
Cold cups of cash went to:
Dave PeckDick Nickoloff
Mike White
Bill Morgan
Don Roth
George Buzick had his number drawn and went for the big money to no avail. As a consolation, he then drew his other number, and took a cup this time.
G
reg Young has his number drawn and had no choice but to pick a card. And pick he did! 9 of Diamonds and Greg went home $40 happier! Congrats Greg!
Due to Greg’s good fortune, there was no nametag drawing this week, since there was no longer a pot to be won! Tune in to next week’s GUMS.
Our Guest Gary Menard started us off on the recitation of the Optimist Creed: Promise yourself…
President Larry Pulaski began our meeting promptly, and asked Jon Wachter to deliver our invocation. Jon chose a message on thinking only of the best. Though very difficult, we should endeavor to let slights and grudges go, rather than allow them to fester and cause greater harm. He then led us in the Pledge of Allegiance.
se... Past PresidentEverett Gardner - looking a lot like Rip Vanwinkle.