Philanthropy Today
Philanthropy Today
Manhattan Optimist Club on the GMCF Community Hour Show Episode - 305
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We talk with Gary Lloyd and Gene Clausen about a practical way to remove a major barrier to music education: getting real instruments into kids’ hands. We also hear how the Manhattan Optimist Club funds youth programs, builds community partnerships, and keeps the work fun and welcoming.
• the story behind the Manhattan Optimist Instrument Recovery Program and why it started as a pilot project
• how donated band and orchestra instruments can help students who cannot afford rentals or purchases
• where to drop off gently used instruments across Manhattan through local bank partners
• the partnership with the Kansas State University Instrumental Repair Program to help restore instruments
• how GMCF grant funding helps cover repair parts and outreach costs
• what Optimist Club membership looks like, including meetings, service projects, and fundraisers like the Chili Crawl
• a quick thank you to the community for support during Grow Green Match and how that strengthens youth programs
You can go online to ManhattanOptimistClub.com
Welcome To The Community Hour
SPEAKER_01Philanthropy Today is brought to you by the Greater Manhattan Community Foundation. In this episode, we feature a recently broadcast segment of the GMCF Community Hour, as heard on News Radio KMAN. We are back at the GMCF Community Hour on News Radio KMAN. We do this every Monday morning. Yes, we will have a show next Monday on Memorial Day. But today we're going to be visiting about a great program that uh was kind of introduced to the community. Was it last year, Gary? Yep, that was our pilot program. Gary Lloyd is the second vice president of the Manhattan Optimus Club. And you brought a friend along, Gene Clausen. Welcome, Gene.
SPEAKER_02Good morning.
SPEAKER_01This is your first time here. It is. You're new to Manhattan, aren't you?
SPEAKER_02Um four years.
SPEAKER_01Four years. That's new.
SPEAKER_02I can't got here as quickly as I could.
SPEAKER_00And Gary, you're still new. Kinda. I have four years. We're coming up on our four-year anniversary here, Memorial Weekend. And and not together. Nope. Not together. But it's great to have kids brought me here.
SPEAKER_01Grandkids. That's the best influence ever. Isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's been awesome. So uh if I recall correctly, you're a retired music teacher. Yep. Band director, primarily. Okay. Pretty much the same thing, right? Oh yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00It's all music education.
SPEAKER_01And you brought a concept to the Manhattan Optimist Club. And I just love what you do. So let's uh uh let's talk a bit about what it is you are doing with instrument recovery.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. Uh one of our uh past presidents, uh Greg McCune, uh came to me. He was looking for some uh new projects that Optimist could could um uh support and and in terms of uh outreach to youth, providing you know some new type of activities, services to youth in our community. And and he approached me because he knew I was a music person and he said, What what kind of arts related ideas um would you have? And and I said, Well, Greg, when I was teaching, one of the challenges I had was finding instruments for all my students, particularly for students and families who could not afford to rent or buy an instrument. It's not cheap, right? No, no, it's not. And I would have students come into my program back in Colorado. Um they would come into my program, they would want to play in the band, and they said, Well, but we you know, parents, I would meet parents in instrument meetings and and they would say, Well, we you know, we really can't afford. And I said, Well, I've I've got I've got a couple instruments in the band room. So I was always finding myself beating the bushes uh around my community and and and enlisting support to to try and get some donated instruments, and I had some really generous people that would help me out uh through through all my years there teaching. Um so I was able to build up quite an inventory of of band instruments that that I could get into kids' hands when a student would approach me about wanting to play, but I don't have an instrument. And so I shared that with Greg, and he said, Well, why don't we try something like that? And so that's how we got started last year with the pilot program of the instrument donation drive.
SPEAKER_01He handed me a piece of paper. It says, Donate your instruments, Manhattan Optimus Instrument Recovery Program. This uh June 1 through the 6th. So you've got a collective effort from your team as Optimus.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, have a great marketing team that come up with ads and promotions like this. You can just say Gene is great at marketing and then we get it all covered there.
SPEAKER_02It's a team effort.
K-State Repairs And Program Model
SPEAKER_00Oh, it is. We have a we have a a couple, um uh Tyler and Becca Track Traxon. Actually, Becca produced the ad for us. But Tyler is exceptional. He works for KSU in the marketing department, and and he's exceptional at at utilizing social media and putting out dynamic ads and things like that, um, and targeting certain demographic in the community. So that's pretty cool. Um, and then uh just you know, the people on my committee that help me with this, uh um, you know, when we get into the instrument drive, we have terrific bank partners. We've we've got the uh uh K-State Credit Union, we've got the KS State Bank, uh, we have the Landmart Bank and all their branches to be drop sites for us. So we have drop sites all over the community, east, west, central, um, that that people can can drop off their old, used, gently used instruments. What kind of instruments are you looking for? We're looking for primarily band instruments like you would normally see in a in a concert band, trombone, trump, clarinets, saxophones, flutes. We're also looking for orchestra instruments, violins, violas, cellos that you know could be sitting around in basements, garages, attic. I have 17 probably. Yeah. And and then we have a terrific partnership with uh Kansas State University Instrumental Repair Program. And the professor there, Josh Cook, is is the instructor, and he has an applied program where he is teaching music, music, prospective music educators who are going to go and teach in the schools, and he's teaching them how to repair instruments. And so some of his students will be helping us with the summer repairs on the instruments we collect.
SPEAKER_01Is there a model for this program that you based off this, or are you just uh come up with this idea and you're going with it?
SPEAKER_00There's a there's another another program that Josh is involved in, um, and I think it's in in Kansas City, and right off the top of my head. But it's a it's a similar, it's a similar project. And and again, targeting um the areas of need and and and providing those instruments um to to students and families that can't afford them, especially like in an inner city type situation.
SPEAKER_01So does he have an opportunity for his students to learn how to repair instruments?
SPEAKER_00So you that's what he does. That's it's he's actually has an applied class where everybody gets a chance to fix things. Everybody learns. Yeah, he's training, he's training KSU music ed students how to repair instruments.
Grants And The Real Cost Of Fixes
SPEAKER_01How about that? Now let's talk a bit about uh a GMCF grant. And Gene, I don't know, can you address that real quick? Or okay, we'll stick with Gary. Gene, I promise we'll come to you. We want to make sure that your presence here is you know not overlooked. Um but you did get a grant from GMCF. Yes, we did. And uh this is a big thing, you know, to support your efforts. So how's this going to help you?
SPEAKER_00Well, last year we started the project with an Optimus International grant for new projects. And so that's that was a one-time deal. And the uh stipulation was that our club could match that grant. So we had we had about 2,500, um, including our match from the Optimus Club, um, plus the Optimus International grant to get the program started. So this year, um with the with the help of some grant writing friends, um, we decided to apply for a GMCF grant. And GMCF was um very uh very generous in that respect. Um and so we have increased our budget and we also have an optimus uh uh optimus line item for this project as well that um has has provided even more funds that we can you know feasibly we can get more instruments repaired and um and then also helps with our advertising cost and things like that.
Optimist Club Culture And Fundraisers
SPEAKER_01You know, there are things that cost money you know um because parts aren't cheap. And to get all this done, I mean it it it takes a little it takes a little cash in order to make this work. Gene, this has got to be as a member, you know, and it just says you're a club member on my notes here. So, you know, we talk about the things that that Gary is doing. What's it been like? How has this been received by the membership of the Optimus Club?
SPEAKER_02Well, Gary's program has been received incredibly well because it was something new, but something so needed, and it benefits as does everything that we do with Optimus Club. Everything benefits the children of Manhattan, Kansas. And we have so many activities and a lot of fun. So I think I want to stress how much fun it is to be a member. We meet once a week in the morning at 7:30 and at noon so we can accommodate our people to attend meetings. And then we have great fundraisers throughout the year, and our next big fundraiser will be the Chili Crawl, which will be in October, October 24th, and talk about a lot of fun. You take a walk through Aggiyville and visit 12 to 15 different restaurants that compete for the winning um chili trophy, and um, it's just a lot of fun, and it's uh we just as a group do a lot of fun things. All the money that we raise goes back to our um Manhattan Park for T ball. We have 15 softball girls' teams that play, and the entire city's um T-ball group comes and plays with our for free, which so our fundraisers support all of our.
SPEAKER_01How does that happen in today's world?
SPEAKER_02You know what? And it has been challenging, and it's been a wonderful way for us to give back to the community. So we love new members of all ages, and recently we've been able to recruit some very astute young members who are contributing to our social media and those things that uh the old folks don't know how to do as efficiently. So what you mean, old folks? It's been terrific, but we do have a lot of fun. We've got a great group of people, and like Gary coming up with new ideas. One of the other things that I love, we have an interpersonal skills class at uh Manhattan High that matches children that have challenges with other students, and those students seniors, they're all seniors, and they're they're reviewed and then brought in to uh match with another student. That's a program you started too, didn't you?
SPEAKER_00No, no, no, no, no. I did not.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00He can't take credit for everything. He can't do Ed Climac. Oh, I'm sorry, Ed Climac, yeah. Ed Climac. Um Ed Climac. Thank you. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yes, well, Ed has done a great job with that. And um at the end of the year, they write essays about what that process has been for them and with them, and then we give scholarships to those kids. Um it's just been a great way to meet people in Manhattan who are interested in giving back to the community. And I can't speak highly enough about the group, and we won the best organization to belong to a year ago, and we're very active and looking for new members all the time and new ideas, like Gary's idea.
SPEAKER_01And of course, you know, you do that hoop holler and shoot, you do, and and that's the underlying uh theme for Optimus's friend of youth.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
Grow Green Thanks And How To Join
SPEAKER_01And just so many great things. We've got just about 30 seconds left before we need to go.
SPEAKER_00Well, one one of the things I want to make sure that we would be remiss if if we didn't thank the community for their support during Grow Green Match. Um, we we had a project goal um during that time, and it it was tremendous. It it was it was our best effort yet you know through that opportunity. And and that's that's gonna help even support more youth programs that we sponsor. We love Grow Green success stories.
SPEAKER_02And we and we made our goal.
SPEAKER_01How can people find out more about uh Manhattan Optimists?
SPEAKER_02You can go online to Manhattan Optimist Club.com and um or just um find a member.
SPEAKER_01There's a bunch of them. We're all over the city, yeah. And you meet on Wednesdays?
SPEAKER_02We meet on Wednesday mornings on at 7 30 in the I'm sorry, 6 30 in the morning.
SPEAKER_00That's on first and third Wednesdays.
SPEAKER_02And then yeah, second and fourth we meet at noon.
SPEAKER_00Our noon meetings.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_01And you meet where? At the Blue Hills Room. Yeah, yeah. All right. Where there's always some good food available for you. Always. Yeah. We always have food.
SPEAKER_02And a lot of people.
SPEAKER_01Jane Clausen, thanks for coming in.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01Appreciate you providing moral support for Gary Lloyd over here. You needed that too, didn't you? Yep. Man, what you're doing is great. Yeah. This is just an awesome program. Thanks for helping us bring it to light. Absolutely. When we come back, oh gosh, we got Jaina coming in. We're going to talk about some things that are coming up on the schedule and a preview of next week's show on the GMCF Community Hour here on News Radio KMAM.