This Thursday, November 5th, the Evansville-Downtown and Evansville-East Side Optimist Clubs will be honoring over 45 top scholastic high school seniors from our local high schools at their annual Youth Appreciation Breakfast. The breakfast begins at 7am in the Crescent Room at 621 S. Cullen Avenue Evansville IN 47715. The breakfast was first held in 1957, next year celebrating 70 years. Mayor, Stephanie Terry, will be our guest speaker. In addition, we will have representatives from the EVSC and Catholic Diocese Catholic Schools.
The hallmark of the program is the “job shadow” initiative. Immediately following the Youth Appreciation Breakfast, the chosen students spend the remainder of the day paired with local businesses in their area of interest.
Schools included in the Program: Bosse, Harrison, North, Central, Reitz, New Tech, Reitz Memorial, and Mater Dei
“A lot of them after they do the job shadow, they told us they really appreciated that, and it gave them insight into the career they were thinking about choosing. And some said they kind of changed their career goals,” says Ron Eberheart, Secretary of the Downtown Optimist Club. (WFIE-News 2024)
Optimist International formally launched the Youth Appreciation program in 1956. It was designed to counter negative stereotypes of teenagers at the time by publicly recognizing the overwhelming majority of young people who were making positive contributions to their communities.
Questions reach out to:
Ron Eberhart
Youth Appreciation Week Chairman
Downtown Optimist Club
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