Optimists say thank you

On March 7, The Downtown Optimist Club hosted the 70th annual Pancake Jubilee at the Temple Ballroom Theater and as always, thousands of people in our community came out to support our efforts in spite of busy lives and bad weather. The DTOC served over 2,600 people all the pancakes and sausage they could eat and in turn, they helped us raise funds to support local Youth Activities.

We thank every person who purchased a ticket. This year, the DTOC will donate more than $18,000 to youth programs all over Meridian and surrounding areas.

We thank all the media outlets that help us promote this event every year. Newspaper, TV and radio stations gave freely of their valuable print space and air time to help us get the word out about the jubilee and let everyone know we were continuing to serve in spite of the rain.

We thank the volunteers from various organizations who came and helped make the event a success. The Debs have been helping us for several years and once again they were amazing! Volunteers from Care Lodge helped when we needed them most and Cans For Kids once again came and did some of the toughest jobs. Choctaw Area Boy Scouts came out in force and assisted late in the day and proved once again they really are prepared!

We thank our vendors and sponsors. Wood Fruitticher, Meridian Coca-Cola, and Borden’s Milk provide the ingredients that make a Pancake Jubilee possible. The Temple Theater Ballroom has been our home for many, many years and hopefully many more! The Service Company donated their time and expertise to connect our power panels so we could cook pancakes and McDonald & Hill donated propane so we could cook sausage. Mississippi Beverage donated water for our coffee and our customers. First State Bank and the Choctaw Area Council Boy Scouts sponsored the printing of our tickets.

Finally, thanks to the members of the Downtown Optimist Club who commit to this project every year and give of their time and energy to make this event the special day it really is. There is a LOT of work that goes into making a large event like this a success and each year our members step up and make it look easy.

To us, the annual Pancake Jubilee is more than just a fundraiser because each year we remember the Downtown Optimist Club members who have since 1947 cooked pancakes to raise money to build baseball fields or playgrounds or make donations to youth projects. And, each year we are blessed to see the people of our community take time out to come together to eat and laugh and rekindle friendships with people they may not have seen for a while.

The annual Pancake Jubilee is more than just a fundraiser, it is tradition shared among friends.

Thank You!

Paul H. Tarver

The Downtown Optimist Club of Meridian

Support ‘Blue Water’ veterans act

Please support the “Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act” (H.R. 299 & S. 422 ).

These bills would allow “Blue Water” veterans who served off the coast of Vietnam to be compensated for service-connected disabilities related to their exposure to Agent Orange herbicide. Studies demonstrate the desalinization process used on Australian and U.S. Navy ships off the coast of Vietnam magnified the toxicity of the Agent Orange in the water.

Many want to forget about the Vietnam War. I offer you a quote from a wise man, “Honor to the soldier and sailor everywhere, who bravely bears his country’s cause. Honor, also, to the citizen who cares for his brother in the field and serves, as he best can, the same cause.” President, Abraham Lincoln.

We should never forget those who served during the Vietnam War. Many of these veterans are now senior citizens and the time to help them is long overdue! I urge you to support these respective bills.

Charity Jones

Meridian

Fight for education funding

Let me explain one reason (and, later, many) why I want a seat at the table when it comes to education funding in Mississippi and why I want you to have a seat at the table, too.

I’ve been tutoring a student. In January, this student could barely read. Now, this student can read some words with four syllables. This student had the ability all along but just needed additional resources (attention and time) to break through.

Now, here are a bunch of reasons: smaller class sizes, more individualized attention, school counselors who have time to do actual school counseling, field trips to allow students to experience and explore new things, updated science lab equipment, for students to have their own textbooks for each class, so teachers don’t need to use their own money for classroom supplies, for a copier to work all the time at each school, to have buses that don’t consistently break down, so administrators have the personnel and resources to adequately support staff, to not force schools to hire less experienced teachers because they’re cheaper, to not force school maintenance personnel to have a near magic touch to get the lights or air conditioning to work.

A Seat at the Table rally for public education is 10:30 a.m. Thursday, March 16 at the Mississippi Capitol. Be there if you can. If not, contact your legislators, hold a rally at your neighborhood school, get your friends and family involved, share on social media. We must fight for Mississippi children.

Jon Delperdang

Leland