Optimist Club serves up Easter breakfast and rethinks future

The pancakes went out hot this year at the Fort Erie Optimist Club’s Easter breakfast, but the club is cooking up something harder to pull off: winning back a generation that barely knows it exists.

Candace Wiess, the club’s acting treasurer and trustee, knows the annual Easter breakfast is one of the groups strongest draws, but she also knows that a once-beloved community institution has quietly become invisible to Fort Erie’s young families, and wants to win them back.

Wiess organized the club’s annual Easter breakfast from 9 a.m. to noon, serving pancake and sausage meals starting at $5, running a bake sale, colouring contest and raffling off gift baskets. Every person in the kitchen was a volunteer or completing community service hours, including the person in the Easter Bunny costume.

This year’s kitchen ran on a cook-to-order system for the first time, a shift Wiess told Fort Erie Radio made a measurable difference.

“Everything was hot as they got it. They had to wait a little longer, but it was hot when they actually received their food,” she said.

The Optimist Club has operated at its Gilmore Road hall for years, running scholarships, making donations to local sports teams, and hosting seasonal events. Revenue from events like Saturday’s breakfast goes toward building upkeep, scholarships and community donations, including support for local sports clubs.

One recent donation went to a Greater Fort Erie hockey club traveling out of town. Renovations to the main hall are already underway, with new ceilings, floors and a fresh coat of paint planned.

But outside of Christmas, Wiess said, many residents simply do not know the club exists year-round.

Krystena Cashman, is the club’s new marketing lead and has taken on the task of rebuilding its public profile and pulling in younger families. The club currently has a Facebook page, and Cashman is working to expand its presence to Instagram and TikTok.

“Right now it feels like it’s a little bit more the older generation knows about us. I’m trying to reach more towards the younger generation and get them more interested in volunteering and being part of a bigger community,” Cashman told Fort Erie Radio.

She grew up attending dances at the YMCA and watched that community staple disappear. In 2024, the Optimist Club launched monthly tween dances on the last Friday of each month, open to students in grades four through eight from 7 to 9 p.m.

The cost of living and shifting social habits have complicated community-building in ways the club is trying to account for.

“When I was younger, this place was huge, because the community was a little bit less online, it was more like person to person,” said Cashman. “Now the times have kind of changed, prices have spiked up, and generations kind of have a little bit more conflict, so we’re trying to kind of create an open space where every generation can be here.”

The club’s next event is a Disney-themed high-tea luncheon planned for Mother’s Day weekend in May, designed to be gender-neutral and open to all. A movie night and biannual crop shows are also in the works. During summer, the club operates a Sugar Shack to support local sports teams.

“We’re trying to create an open space where every generation can be here. You’re seven years old, you’re 70 years old, you can come here, you can have fun,” Cashman said.

The Optimist Club’s Facebook page currently lists upcoming events. Cashman said the club’s social media presence will expand in the coming weeks.

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