The Virginia Beach Optimist Club will sponsor its 22nd Annual Youth Appreciation Week Breakfast on Thursday, November 29, at the Eastern Shore Chapel Episcopal Church Parish Hall, beginning at 7 a.m. Twenty-eight Virginia Beach “outstanding high school seniors” will be honored for their scholarship and civic and school activities by club members, parents, guidance counselors, and school administrators. All Virginia Beach City Public Schools (VBCPS) comprehensive high schools will be represented in addition to the Open Campus Center, the Technical and Career Education Center, and two private schools, Cape Henry Collegiate and Bishop Sullivan Catholic High School. VBCPS Superintendent
Dr. James G. Merrill will be the featured speaker and will present the awards.

For more than fifty years, member clubs of Optimist International have sponsored "Youth Appreciation Week" for the purpose of recognizing the outstanding boys and girls in our communities. This year the Optimist Club of Virginia Beach continues the same tradition begun nineteen years ago in Virginia Beach High Schools and repeated each year since.

At the breakfast, a young woman and young man from each of the Virginia Beach High Schools – public and private – will be recognized and honored. Each has been selected by his or her school guidance counselor to represent the school. In addition, from the record submitted to the Optimist’s Club panel of distinguished citizens, one male and one female senior student will receive an Optimist award as the top graduating senior in the City of Virginia Beach, based on their
demonstrated excellence in (1) character, (2) community service, (3) extra curricular activities, (4) citizenship and (5) scholastic achievement.

The Virginia Beach Optimist Club also sponsors four youth clubs, JOOI (pronounced “joy” – Junior Optimist Organization International) Clubs, at two VBCPS high schools, Princess Anne and First Colonial, and two VBCPS middle schools, Great Neck and Virginia Beach. In addition, the club sponsors an essay contest for students younger than 19 years of age, and an oratorical contest for students younger than 15 years of age.

For more information about the Virginia Beach Optimist Youth Appreciation Week Breakfast, please contact Mr. Les Cox, Secretary, Optimist Club of Virginia Beach at 486-4650.