UPTOWN OPTIMIST CLUB

Return of the Uptown Club Bell Raises money for Childhood Cancer Campaign

The saga of the Uptown Club Bell has finally ended. Uptown Optimist Club was forced to pay a ransom of $350 at the August conference to buy back the original Club Bell presented by “The Optimist Club of Tucson,” dated Sept. 8, 1952. Pete Filiatrault said, “This bell disappeared from the Uptown Club prior to my becoming a member in 1979. He added that, in fact no one presently in the club remembers the bell. But back in those days, when other Optimist clubs visited you, they usually absconded with the bell, a gavel or club banner. Then the club missing any of those items had to find out who had the item and go visit that club to get their items back. Filiatrault said, “I know we used to guard everything when some clubs visited us. Now I am not accusing anyone, but that is likely what happened and apparently Uptown never figured out who had it.” It is possible that a disgruntled former member took it. We will never know. Lucky for us and Arizona Childhood Cancer that our District Secretary/ Treasurer found it on eBay and bought it so he could SELL it back to it’s original owners. (pictured right: Uptown's Pete Filiatrault buys the bell back from Az District Secretary/ Treasurer) All told, the bell’s journey and recovery has raised nearly $800.00 for Childhood Cancer. It may behoove AZ Optimist clubs to keep an eye out on future eBay listings. Hint. Hint.

Oktoberfest Ticket Sales/ Food Sales strong this year

Tom Robeson our club President recently reported that we grossed $176,691.39 in tickets and Food & Beverage booths at this years Oktoberfest for all Tucson Optimist Clubs. This once year event is our main fundraising event for the year. In addition to ticket sales we had personal and corparate donations including $12,000 from Desert Diamond Casino plus the revenue from selling spaces for the craft booths, the final figure was around $210,000. Of this the Uptown Optimist Club expects to receive a minimum of $5000.00 from the total sales. This turned out to a excellent fundraising campaing over the four day event.

This page is resevered for fundraising activies and addtional fundraising events will be posted here throughtout the year