Great charity helping youth in need in the Lakes area - working through the schools in the area. They have a lot of volunteers and a lot of fun ways to raise money each year to assist youth. They have helped over 21,000 children in need since their inception in 2014.
Words cannot express how this wonderful group of volunteers, The Idiot’s Club, have helped our local communities – note I used the plural.
I serve on a local school board and the unselfish work that this cadre of volunteers does for our students is remarkable. They do the same for 4 other school districts in our area.
If there is a need, this wonderful organization meets those needs. From helping the local food bank so families have food, to replacing clothing when things are lost because of moves or disasters like a house fire, to helping students pay fees so the student can stay engaged in extracurricular activities, play in the band, or take a required exam – they do it all for children in our area.
If this organization ceased to exist, I cannot imagine the hardships and deplorable lifestyle these families would experience. They feed, clothe, and make life more hopeful for people who are sometimes at the lowest point in their life. They have purchased uniforms so students can get jobs and repaired cars so they can get to work. The club helps grandparents on limited income who have taken grandchildren into their home when they had no place else to go.
The Idiot’s Club mission is to make a positive difference for those in need and by meeting those needs. A mere $5 a year, makes you a member of this remarkable group, and other donations help them do more year after year.
If you are looking for an opportunity to do wonders and have the financial resources to contribute, please consider them so they can continue to bring real change in a world where we need this positive force at work !
Fun raising fun!!
Christmas in July at the Lake of the Ozarks!
This charity is all volunteers that help raise $$ to help those underprivileged kiddos in the Lake area!! The Idiots Club members, donors and others ARE making a differance in these children's lives!! Great job fellow Idiots! So PROUD!!
We moved to this area just a few years ago and we wanted to find a cause to get involved in. The more we heard about the Lake of the Ozarks Idiots Club the more impressed we were. All the money raised goes to help poverty level children right here in our community and some of the things they’ve done have truly changed these young people’s lives. The founders Denny and Danna Hiner work tirelessly at this and are really inspirational.
A great organization that focuses on providing for underserved children in the area. They work tirelessly raising funds to provide for the needs of low income children. This 100% volunteer organization, has created valuable relationships with businesses that allows them to provide more than is raised with generous discounts from retail partners. The impact to the kids is huge! The community has been blessed to have this organization there to help!
Lake of the Ozarks Idiots Club cares deeply for the well-being of the young people in our area - it’s leaders have hearts of gold. I am honored to be a member!
Hi! To give you the background info...June 14, 2013 Denny had 3 cardiac arrests, open heart surgery with 26 pints of blood. He had liver failure, kidney failure, respiratory failure, pneumonia, was on life support for more than 16 days, had to have stomach surgery because of all the blood he was given, his major organs were very fragile and he developed a tear in the stomach and had to have a portion of it removed. He was in ICU for 40 days and had more than 60 units of blood products. The doctors and nurses in the ICU dubbed him “The Miracle Man.” When he walked out of the hospital he began to wonder why God kept him on this earth.
We are both retirees from the Camdenton School District and over 65% of the kids in the lake area live in poverty! Many people don’t realize this. This is a situation that needs a lot of attention! We winter at South Padre Island, Texas and at a beachfront restaurant; they had the “International Idiots Club” that helped island types of charities: turtle rescue/dolphin hospital. We thought…this concept should work here at the lake, but to help all these kids that live in poverty!
We work through five different school districts; Climax Springs, Macks Creek, Eldon, Camdenton and School of the Osage. We do not work directly with parents or children, to maintain confidentiality of the child. Counselors, Social Workers or Nurses from the schools (or personnel from other social agencies, such as Domestic Violence Center, Developmental Disabilities Resources, DFS, Helping Hands Homeless Shelter, etc.) will e-mail a request to the Idiots Club and those requests are sent to Volunteers that will buy the items requested with the Idiots Club credit card, remove all tags, then deliver to the requestor, who will give the items to the child. These professionals know the families and the children and what is truly needed.
We do our fundraising at various lakefront restaurants during the summer months. We sell our annual memberships for $5.00, t-shirts, hats, koozies and lanyards and that's how we raise our money and help educate the people that come to the area for a visit or live here. First, we wanted a name that was an attention getter to help raise funds. During our 2018 season our charity had 1,359 members sign up—our annual membership is $5.00. Everyone has a great sense of humor and wants to enjoy life, not take themselves too seriously, but more importantly, they want to help the children living in poverty in the Lake area. Second, we are the Jesters of Goodwill (our logo is jesters) helping children in-need. The combination of the name and our fundraising plan is apparently working, because in the short 4 1/2 years since we started this charity, we have been able to provide more than 15,000 child assists!
We're a group of people (Jesters of Goodwill) helping kids and having fun doing it. Our 501(c)3 charity is all volunteer, so all the proceeds go to the children in-need. Since we started this charity on June 14, 2014 (this date wasn’t planned, but we just happened to get everything in order to start exactly 1 year from the date Denny had 3 cardiac arrests…) we have been meeting needs as identified by school counselors, nurses and social workers and other professionals in the Social Service agencies (we don’t work directly with parents or children to maintain confidentiality of a child) and we have spent more than $299,510.00. And because of donations and discounts from our business partners, the retail value of our items to kids is more than $490,916.00! We provide everything from shoes to car transmissions, cheerleading fees to band fees, tires to bed bug eradication and psychological therapy to heaters for a cold bedroom and scholarships for youth living in poverty to take Dual-Credit courses to help them gain the education they need to break the cycle of poverty. Since Spring, 2017, the Jesters of Goodwill has provided $35,740.50 to give 118 students the opportunity to take 169 classes and receive 501 College credits! We thought if we could raise $4,000-$5,000 each year for kids living in poverty that would be amazing…we just can’t believe all the blessings on this charity! We wanted to do something to help the kids in the community, but after everything we had been through, we also wanted to have fun! Nothing would be possible if it weren’t for our amazing members, donors and volunteers that have big hearts.
We use the name in a goodwill manner of fun and to get attention!!! And many people have told us we are marketing geniuses...not sure we'd go that far, but people love it and love what they are able to be a part of!!! It is an amazing gift!
Denny & Danna Hiner
Co-Founders
Facebook: Lake of the Ozarks Idiots Club
Website: www.LakeoftheOzarksIdiotsClub.org
E-Mail: LOTOIdiotsClub@gmail.com
Address: 694 Nautica Road, Camdenton MO 65020
Though this charity has an unusual name, they do a tremendous amount of good for youth in the Lake of the Ozarks area. The Idiots help kids who don't have clothes for school, school supplies, kids with medical needs, kids who are suddenly homeless even from their parents, etc. the Good Deeds are just too many to name. Follow them on Facebook and see the good!