BERLIN — After raising well over a million dollars for its scholarship program for Stephen Decatur High School over the years, the Ocean City-Berlin Optimist Club is branching out with a new event slated for later this month to enhance and expand its efforts.
On Saturday, Nov. 22, the Ocean City-Berlin Optimist Club and Fager’s Island are hosting the first-ever Beach Party event, from 1-5 p.m., featuring local craft beers including Evolution, Burley Oak and Dogfish Head, along with barbeque chicken, ribs, carved beef and more. The event, which will be hosted by DJ Batman, will also feature silent auctions and other games along with live music by the Steve Ports Duo.
Since it was founded in 1972, the Ocean City-Berlin Optimist Club has dedicated its efforts to supporting local youth in a wide variety of ways. Its signature event for the last 31 years has been the Seaside Boat Show, held each February at the Roland E. Powell Convention Center, and the funds raised by that event are dispersed in a variety of ways to support youth programs all over Worcester County including Snow Hill, Berlin, Ocean Pines and Ocean City, for example.
The Beach Party set for Nov. 22 at Fager’s Island represents a means to expand the club’s scholarship program for Stephen Decatur High School.
“Over the last 26 years, we’ve given about $1.5 million to Stephen Decatur High School for the scholarship program,” said OC-Berlin Optimist Board member Rich Dalton this week. “We’ve been able to do that in a bunch of different ways over the years. We’ve had condo lotteries and cash lotteries over the years. This is the first time for this event and the proceeds will go directly to scholarships at Stephen Decatur High School.”
Dalton explained the club contributes funding for Decatur’s scholarship program and a club committee works directly with teachers and guidance counselors at the school to determine how best to distribute the money. Potential awardees fill out a six- to eight-page application and the committee and school representatives evaluate the applications and distribute it to students based on a variety of factors.
“We’ve generated an average of around $40,000 per year for the scholarship program,” said Dalton. “We’re not certain just how many students have benefited from the program over the years, but it’s a considerable number.”
The Seaside Boat Show remains the signature fundraising event for the Ocean City-Berlin Optimists and a large percentage of the money generated goes out to the club’s other charitable endeavors to support local youth.
“The proceeds from the boat show generally fund our charitable giving for the whole year,” said Dalton. “That money goes to things like Little League, youth activities in Snow Hill, youth activities in Ocean Pines and activities in Ocean City, for example. We’ve been able to do many, many things over the years to support youth programs in the area.”
Beyond the boat show and the new Beach Party set for later this month, the Ocean City-Berlin Optimists host several other fundraising events throughout the year at venues such as Sunfest and Springfest, for example. Nearly every dollar raised is reinvested in local youth programs and its scholarship program.
“We have no overhead,” said Dalton. “We don’t have a building and we don’t have a lease or a mortgage. We have about 100 members and every one of them volunteer.”
Tickets for this month’s Beach Party are $40 in advance and $45 at the door. Tickets can be purchased through the organization’s website at ocberlinoptimist.org, or can be picked up in person at Fager’s Island.