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Outdoor Adventure Day
Annual Student Excursion to Genesee Valley Outdoor Learning Center
Each year for the past several years, the Timonium Optimists have partnered with the Cockeysville Precinct of the Baltimore County Police Dept. to take the fifth grade classes at Padonia International Elementary School to the Genesee Valley Outdoor Learning Center in northern Baltimore County.
This Year’s Adventure
- Thursday, October 12, 2006
- Class size: 29
The trip to Genesee Valley has become a highlight of the fifth-grade year at Padonia School that both students and faculty appreciate. A day at the outdoor center is an amazing experience for building self-confidence and team spirit among the students. The positive impact on students individually and as a group is so great that the faculty requested that the event be moved from spring to fall so that the benefits could be felt in their classrooms throughout the school year.
Role of the Timonium Optimists
Besides contributing financially, the club sends volunteers to observe and to help the center staff in minor ways on the day of the trip. Volunteers who have gone in the past can’t stop talking about the remarkable day they enjoyed.
Padonia International Elementary School—Our Club’s Adopted School
As a continuing commitment, the Timonium Optimist Club has “adopted” Padonia School, a local public elementary school with an ethnically diverse student population.
Through volunteer time and financial support, the club helps to meet special needs of the school as they arise and as our resources of funds and people allow. These are examples of ways the Timonium Optimists have benefited the school:
- assistance in classrooms
- assistance with homework after school
- funding and volunteer support for fieldtrips (e.g., Genesee Valley)
- special projects to enhance the school environment.
Examples of special projects are raising money for playground equipment and physically painting hop-scotch patterns and maps on outdoor pavements on school grounds.
