Garry says that the members are involved in the community with education such as the Historic Preservation Expo in March and on the Museum Board to promote older homes and develop an appreciation of what is around.

Beth has been the President for the past 2 - 3 years. (We asked if Tom should do the same, but he declined.) The annual Tour of Homes is the first weekend in November. They generally tour 4 - 5 houses and the Stone Cottage. Tickets are $8 in advance or $10 at the door. The profits are donated back to the community for magazine subscriptions for 5 libraries and gifts to the Stone Cottage, and local museums.

Beth noted that Charlie Clark’s house is on the tour and he said that he learned more about his house working with this group. They generally also choose one home like the Vaclavik house that is not older because some enjoy the newer homes as well. They will tour the Bayley Building downtown. The tour uses over 70 volunteers.

She said the club members are from 7 local counties and is loosely tied with a Dubuque club. There is no State level organization. Most members are from Platteville and Lancaster and they meet on the 2nd Sunday of the month. They go places like Villa Louis and get "behind the scenes" tours that the public does not get. She asked for interested people to volunteer and join the club.

Thanks for the wonderful speech!

UPCOMING EVENTS

UPCOMING SPEAKERS

The Platteville Area Optimist Club is an official pilot club. It was chartered on Wednesday, October 28th by Past Optimist International President Dwaine Sievers. There are 21 members so far. To be eligible for OI awards, they will need to get to full status of 25 members. They meet on the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays at Noon at Chicago’s Best. The Charter President is Tyson Lybeck.

Doug Martin was the lucky one selected. He drew the 5 of Spades and won $2! The pot is over $660 and growing! Good luck to next week’s winner.

Steve & Maxine Lane have graciously opened their new house to have a dinner social on Saturday November 14. After dinner, there will be a road trip to the Grand Opera House in Dubuque to see "The Regifters". For more information, or to sign up, click here.

For our meeting on November 20th we will meet at First National Bank. We will have a light breakfast for $5 in the Community Room. Maxine & Eileen will give us the grand tour and we hope that all who attend will bring a hat, scarf or mittens to donate to the Mitten Tree.

It was a great turn out for the Conference. We had 11 Platteville members show up. Holly Cook won a surprise gift as a "First Timer". She won a bottle of wine. Our club received a nice print for our $500 donation to the OI Foundation. As we have done in the past, we are donating the print to the Badger Camp Telethon auction.

The new board will meet on Thursday, November 12th at 7 am at Badger Brothers. We will discuss the Protect Youth Online, - an Optimists International program.