Mt. Pleasant Optimist Club Fund

The Optimist Club is a civic service organization comprised of community members who refer to themselves collectively as the “friend of the youth” in Isabella County.  Their goal is to benefit the development and well-being of youth in our community through fundraising and philanthropy.

In 1994, the Mt. Pleasant Optimist Club became the first service club in the area to start an endowed fund at the Mt. Pleasant Area Community Foundation. The fund is set up to benefit local youth causes through donor advised grant-making.  When the fund was created, initial donations were matched with a gift to the Kellogg Youth Fund as well.  This matching gift gave the Optimists a chance to impact youth right away and to simultaneously plant the seed for long-term impact in the Mt. Pleasant Community.

“When the opportunity arose to gain Kellogg fund-matching assets that would be designated to youth in an endowment,” said Jim Sisson, long-time member and past president of the Optimist Club, “the club decided it was a great fit and agreed to make a contribution to start the fund.” Having the fund available and growing is “like doing another fundraiser that we don’t have to plan and spend hours making it happen,” Sisson said.

Since the late 1960s, the Optimist Club has been working to make Mt. Pleasant an even better place for kids to grow up and with the help of the fund they will be able to do so for generations to come.