Brookfield Optimist Club sponsored pumpkin carving at Brookfield Safety Awareness Night for many years. This photo is from 2019.
Brookfield Optimist Club, which supported youth activities in Brookfield, disbanded in November, said longtime member James E. Hoffman III.
The club had nine members, two of whom were not active and the rest beset by age, health or work issues.
“We just aren’t viable any longer,” said Hoffman, a 25-year member of the club. “What really killed us was COVID.”
Following COVID protocols, the club stopped meeting in 2020. By the time members tried to regroup in 2024, “A lot of people were no longer in the mood of going to meetings and lost interest,” Hoffman said.
As its last act, the club donated $1,200 each to Brookfield Local School District’s food pantry and Maker Space and the Brookfield United Methodist Church food pantry and youth ministry.
Brookfield Optimist James E. Hoffman III, right, hands out medals at the Optimist Speech Contest in 2018. Winners were, from left, Lauren Miller, Nick Varga and Julianne First.
The club initially formed in 1946 with 35 members, including Thomas Couts, John Lenhart, Paul Jurko, Leo Luchette and Elmer Lohr, according to a club history written by Hoffman. The club members built a clubhouse, ball field and basketball court on property behind the Valley View Department Store. The clubhouse was available for use by other clubs and for community activities.
The club supported athletic leagues, including what became the Carl Hoffman Youth Basketball Program; Boys and Girls Scouts; Bike Safety Week; and an annual Christmas party. Hoffman’s father, James E. Hoffman Jr., for years ran the Optimist Oratorical Contest, often inviting participants to his home to work on their speeches.
The club held annual steak fries and clam bakes and in 1971 had 100 members.
The area’s mill economy was booming and employers encouraged their workers to join local service clubs.
“They expected them (employees) to be part of the community,” Hoffman said.
However, that changed quickly when the mills started shutting down in the ’70s. People left the area and businesses closed or stopped supporting local clubs, prompting the Optimist Club to disband in 1979.
Brookfield school Supt. Toby Gibson explains the workings of the school’s Industry 4.0 and Robotics labs for Brookfield Optimist Club members Jay Hearn, in wheelchair, and James Hoffman III.
A new version of the club was chartered in 1985 with John Miller, later a township trustee, as president. The club raised money to buy and install playground equipment for the township’s three elementary schools and helped build Brookfield Township Community Park.
The club continued supporting athletics and scouting and added scholarships for school students, a Citizen of the Year Award presented to a community member at the annual steak fry, and contributed to activities held by other groups, such as sponsoring pumpkin carving at Safety Awareness Night, bike and wagon parades at Summerfest and Brookfield Township Outreach Association’s annual community Thanksgiving dinner – another casualty of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hoffman said he hopes people recognize that the club made a positive contribution to the community.
“People don’t realize what we did here,” Hoffman said.
