Club History
The Optimist Club of Keswick was chartered on July 27th, 1949. Our motto is "Friend in Youth". From the beginning our club was very active in providing activities and programs to support the youth in Georgina. In the early days of 1949, Clark Martin, James Clark, L.B. Pollock, Art Dawson,, W.E, Purdy, M.W. Connell, Dan McGenerty, J.A. Sinclair, George White, and W Erwin Winch came together with the idea to build an arena in Keswick. These 10 men would become the FOREFATHERS of the Optimist Club of Keswick. The charter party was held at the Sunset Lodge on July 27th, 1949 with 30 members. The North Gwillumbury Memorial Centre was built in memory of those killed in WW1 and WW11. In 1996 the property was sold and the arena was demolished. The Town of Georgina built a new two pad arena on Wexford Ave. near Woodbine Ave.
From our conception, the Optimist members worked diligently to develop events and programs for the youth and our community. Programs such as the swim program, hockey, baseball and soccer grew in such magnitudes that they developed their own identity or were absorbed by the town. In 1960, and unused school portable would become the first clubhouse, which would have additions added throughout the years. Our clubhouse became our local library’s first meeting place for the children’s programs and activities. It also played host to many scouts, cubs, sea cadets, girl guides and brownies, not to mention our own club activities such as rod and gun, archery, youth dances, Christmas and New Year parties and meetings. Our hall was the focal point for our walkathons, highland games, youth appreciation festivities, bike safety, respect for law, Red Cross blood donor clinics, family fishouts, oratorical contests, Whipper Watson Snowarama, many fundraisers and dances. To continue to support our sponsorships of hockey, baseball, soccer, figure skating, Sutton High School bursaries, Hoby, York County Hospital and the needs of individual children, our club hosted bingo every Friday night.
The all male Optimist Club changed in 1993, when Central Ontario District Governor Alex Ansell from Aurora inducted Sheril Thomson as our first female member. Lauralee Reily joined in 1994 and since then we have had many women join our club. Due to circumstances beyond our control, we lost our hall in July 1996. Coupled with a decline in membership, our club seemed destined to vanish. Through the dedication of the 7 remaining members, the club began to rebuild and is still active today. Sheril Thomson went on to become Central Ontario District’s first female Governor in 1997-1998. Frank Tuttle was Governor in 2005-2006 and Paul Thomson in 2008-2009. Our club has also had its share of Lt. Governors: Roy Galloway, Gavin Morton, Fred Herdman, Art Pollock, John Hopkins, Leif Eriksen, Clare Robbins, Paul Thomson, Ron Peebles, Sheril Thomson, Frank Tuttle and Lauralee Reily. Our members continue to be involved in community events such as the Santa Clause Parades, Canada Day, Georgina Food Bank, Georgina Sno’Fest, Harvest Festival at the pioneer village, Festival of lights. We continue to sponsor Blood Donor Clinics, Easter Egg Hunts, High School Bursaries, soccer teams, Junior Golf, COLS, chess tournaments, unplugged in the park, pumpkins for day care centres and elementary schools and the toy drive.
