Optimists Gather for Brentwood Youth

Seated at several tables on the back patio of in Brentwood, seven people quietly eat Chinese chicken salads and drink iced teas. They exchange friendly conversation and talk about casual topics.   

“The youth is the future of any country,” said Massimo Mioni, a financial adviser of Italian extraction who works in Sherman Oaks. “If you don’t take care of the youth, it shows where your priorities are at.”

Massimo isn’t alone in his opinion. The reason these people have met here is to learn about and become members of the newly chartered Brentwood Optimist Club.      

Officially established on June 19, the club is an autonomous collective run by people in the community who strive to help underprivileged and troubled children.

The Brentwood club is one of over 2,900 different national and international community clubs that are part of the Optimist International, an association that has been around since 1911, according to its website.

“It’s fairly simple,” said Larry Brown, a board member of the Brentwood club. “People get together in a community to help kids.”

Though the club is still waiting for its nonprofit status as a social welfare organization, the club so far has at least 20 members who have each paid a $30 membership fee.

The board of directors is due to meet on July 10  to establish its set schedule for meetings, as well as its bylaws and membership dues, and also what kind of activities the club will partake in.

“We’ll probably explore some programs involved in education,” said Thomas Saulenas, who lives in Manhattan Beach and is a manager for in Santa Monica, as well as the club’s secretary treasurer.

Whichever programs the club decides to pursue—which can be anything from oratorical contests to Internet safety classes—they will be sponsored by the Optimist International association. All dues and fees made by the club are for club fees, such as hiring guest speakers, and paying for meeting spaces.

Whether the club will promote any programs within the Brentwood community is undecided.

“We can basically do stuff anywhere,” said Saulenas.

The club’s president, Charles Tripp, who was not present at Tuesday night’s meeting, is an educator at . According to a newsletter sent out by the club, he partook in an Optimist Club oratorical contest when he was younger, and he credits this with having a positive impact on his life.

“I’ve wanted to do something like this for a few years,” said Saulenas, who has never been a member of any other community club. “I want to give back to society.”

One such program that the Optimist Clubs of Southern California are involved in is the Optimist Youth Homes and Family Services. The Youth Home is a campus specifically meant for housing kids who have been referred to by probation officers—in other words, kids who have had a rough streak but didn’t get sent to juvenile detention centers.

Youth Homes offers individual and family therapy, as well as vocational training to the kids who are referred there.

The Brentwood Optimist Club’s next meeting will be held on July 10, at 6:30 p.m. on the back patio of Chin Chin.