The "Manhattan Optimist Club Bulletin" Vol. 2026 #11 12-10-25
VOLUME 2026 DECEMBER 10 NUMBER 11
President Kelly Karl welcomed the membership and guests and Greg Wurst presented a reflection. The flag salute followed.
Kelly Karl outlined the Optimist's Manhattan High School Student of the Month Program. The program recognizes Manhattan High School seniors who make a difference in their community through volunteerism and leadership of activities that have a positive impact on the MHS or Manhattan community. The goal of the program is to inspire and encourage youth to get involved in their community in an effort to benefit others. We recognize six Students of the Month throughout the year. Applicants submit a résumé and are judged by a committee of Optimists. Recipients receive $100 to donate to the organization of their choice and are eligible for a $1,000 scholarship as the overall yearly winner.
Elias introduced himself and his mother, who was in attendance; his father was unable to attend. He is deeply involved in the robotics program at MHS and is in his third year as design lead in charge of the small design team. They manufacture the robotic parts themselves. Last year they won their first ever regional and made it to the World Championship. The robotics team is heavy on seniors, thus they are focused on training the younger students. Over the last few years they have doubled their membership, fostered inclusion, and prepared the next generation of leaders.
He also does research at K-State's Advanced Manufacturing Lab, including 3D printing stainless steel through ink jet printing as well as developing new laser based sintering (yes, this is a term, not a typo) to achieve higher density and strength. He will co-author two research papers. This is cutting edge research and he is excited to be a part of it.
He also participates in Science Olymplad where they took first at regional and fourth at state as a team. Individually he placed second at State in the Electric Vehicle category. They placed in every event this year. He also mentored younger classmates in CAD, Bungee, and Helicopter.
Elias does math tutoring. He ran a free math summer camp for elementary students. He prepared students for the math curriculum in following years; some students advanced full grades. His proudest acheivement was teaching a student with disabilities of dyscalculia, dysgraphia, and dyslexia, to do multiplication.
As a STEM mentor, he mentored Lego Robotics at elementary schools (Bergman, Theodore Roosevelt, and Bluemont). He taught STEM concepts through weekly challenges. Everyone had lots of fun and he still sees some of the students around town who recognise him.
He also has time for other activities. He works at Varsity Donuts, is a big fan of math and physics, is learning to play the guitar, does cross country and tennis, reads, and rides his bike where ever he needs to go when possible.
He enjoys traveling and spent six months in India with his parents when his father was on a faculty exchange program. He enjoys just having a life like everyother high school student.
He hopes to get a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering, compete on a solar car F1 Team, work abroad for a non-profit engineering organization, publish several significant research papers, and work on tech backing for disaster aid (UN drone provision). He would also like to learn to play jazz on his guitar, run a half-marathon, as well as stay healthy, ambitions and happy!
Elias donated his $100 from the Optimist Club to GiveWell - Malaria Consortium. The Malaria Consortium works on seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC) in sub-Saharan Africa. SMC involves giving children monthly courses of antimalarial medicines in locations where malaria is highly seasonal (i.e., a high proportion of cases occur in a relatively short period each year) The Malaria Consortium provides funding and operational support to deliver SMC campaigns for preschool-age children. https://www.malariaconsortium.org/
Heather Peterson introduced Niki Sadler, Executive Director of the Kansas Dental Charitable Foundation and Assistant Executive Director of the Kansas Dental Association. She has 24 years of dedicated service to the Association and has played a pivotal role in organizing every Kansas Mission of Mercy (KMOM) event since its inception. This year marks her 25th KMOM event, a testament to her unwavering commitment to improving access to dental care across Kansas. She spoke on the Kansas Mission of Mercy's next event to be held in Manhattan on January 30th and 31st, 2026 at the National Guard Armory, 721 Levee Dr.
Now in 2025, they have the opportunity to come back to Manhattan for the third time to treat patients. On January 30th and 31st they will be at the National Guard Armory. They will set up 100 dental chairs on those two days and they will treat those who show up at the door. They will feed patients because of the long wait times. They have been out in the community seeking money for food to take care of the patients' needs while they wait.
Dentists from across the state and some from across the nation participate. They even had one dentist from Hawaii participate in Hays, and now they are working to set up a project in Hawaii. Each of these projects costs about $170,000 to do, so they look for community resources to cover the costs. None of the expenses are government funded; all of it is funded through private donations and grants. Approximate $1,000,000 worth of care is provided. Not only do they have dental teams who volunteer, but many non-medical volunteers are needed to assist in organizing patients and providing for their non-medical needs, such as welcoming and greeting them, as well as answering their questions. In addition, volunteers are needed for packing and providing lunches for the patients and escorting them from one area to another.
Many of these patients have been in a lot of dental pain for a long time. After doing these from many years, she noted how good it feels to be a part of this project and help those who have had painful dental problems for a long time to be pain free, both in actual pain and in the emotional pain of having teeth which are unsightly. They are looking forward to being back in Manhattan. They have had a lot of support from the local community, Visit Manhattan, and the Chamber of Commerce. They are getting posters and fliers out to let the community know about the project. Also they have been in contact with local and regional media outlets to let people know about the opportunity to get dental work done and to volunteer to assist in the project.
The event is “First Come/First Serve” and doors open at 5:30 am. Information is on their website for donating money, volunteering, and for receiving dental work. It is a lot of fun and many of the volunteers have done it for many years. It takes about 1,000 volunteers to do the project.
For more information: https://www.ksdentalfoundation.org/
Our student of the Month, Elias Mateson and his mother; Pete Jackson, USA Softball; and Judy Nickelson's guest, Lily Kobler; as well as our speaker, Niki Sadler, Executive Director of the Kansas Dental Charitable Foundation and Assistant Executive Director of the Kansas Dental Association.
Pete Jackson from USA Softball presented the Optimists with a $1,000 check for hosting four softball tournaments over the summer. He noted that what we do at the ball park is amazing. With all the teams that played on our fields this past summer, he did not get one complaint about the fields or the way participants were treated by the Optimist hosts. The participating softball teams were very complementary of our fields and the assistance we provided during the games. He thanked the Optimist for everything they have done.
The Optimist Club meeting on December 17th will be the annual Christmas Breakfast at the Blue Hills Room.
The meeting for December 24th is cancelled.
The morning meeting on January 31st will be held; the program to be determined.
Congratulations to Lee Modesitt for being selected to the 2025-2026 Leadership Manhattan Class.
Early expressions art judging is coming up on December 12th and help is needed to pick up art work from the schools before the judging, help is also need during the judging to lay out artwork for judging and pick it up and organize it by school. And finally, help is needed to return the artwork to the schools at the end of the day.
Doug Jardine gave a shout out to Gary Lloyd and his fellow musicians who performed with the Celtic Women show at McCain. They received many complements from the Celtic Women cast.
Gary Lloyd also announced a Thundering Cats concert at the First United Methodist Church at 7:00 pm on Wednesday, December 17th.
Meeting adjourned with the Optimist Creed.
SAVE THE DATE: Christmas Breakfast December 17th
DECEMBER 17 – MORNING MEETING: Program: Annual Optimist Christmas Breakfast with MHS Pops Choir and Santa”
DECEMBER 24 – MEETING CANCELLED
DECEMBER 31 – MORNING MEETING: Program: to be determined
