Lions Club Celebrates 65 Years at Annual Scholarship Dinner
Lewisport Lions Club President Dakota Basham accepts a 65 year patch from Lions Club Region Chair Bill Brown during the club’s Scholarship Dinner Saturday.
The Lewisport Lions Club held their Annual Scholarship Dinner on Saturday, July 13th. They celebrated 65 years of service at the Lewisport Community Center and displayed place mats with the menu agenda from their Charter Night in 1959, listing the original members, some of which are still active today.
Lions Club Regional Chair Bill Brown presented members with a 65-year patch that will be added to their banner. Mr. Brown and his wife, Edwina, both taught in the Hancock County School System in the 1960s-1980s, and traveled to attend the dinner from their home in Sacramento.
Scholarships
Two recent Hancock County High School graduates received scholarships. They are: Jordan Payne and Sophia Reed. Jordan is the grandson of long time member Pat Payne, and great-grandson of long time member, the late Edgar Payne. Sophia is the granddaughter of the late Bobby Fallin, who was a member for over 50 years. Her scholarship was accepted by her grandmother, Alice Faye Fallin.
Jordan Payne accepts a scholarship award from Lewisport Lion’s Club president Dakota Basham during the club’s annual Scholarship Dinner Saturday.
Service Awards
For 30 years of service, awards went to the late Gary Marsch and to Keith Westerfield. Shelby Basham and Lewisport Mayor Chad Gregory both received an award for 15 years of service. And, awarded for 10 years of service were Michael Roberts and Mary Margaret Hawkins.
Another special award went to Larry Hedden. He received the Finis E. Davis Fellowship Award for dedicated humanitarian services to the Kentucky Lions Eye Foundation.
Past & Present
The Club’s longest living member is Layman “Sonny” Hawkins, Jr., who was Club President in 1968 and 1969. “During that time,” he said, “we used to have horse shows and we held them behind the Community Center, where the Tractor Pulls happen now. We didn’t have any lights back then, hardly. During my presidency, I got Kenergy to come in and put the lights up for us around the horse arena.
We had a Western show on Friday nights and an English show on Saturday nights. We enjoyed the horse shows and we had them every year. We had food booths and things like that. Jerry Ayers and I ran the novelty shop that was in the Community Center and sold little trinkets.
The Lions Club did not build the Community Center. Lewisport Industrial Community Improvement Corporation built it originally but couldn’t maintain it so the Lions Club took it over a few years later. The late Charles Hagan and I did a lot of work there. I put all of the ceiling tile in the bathrooms back then. We helped put the names on the front of the building. The Hawesville Lions Club had sponsored Lewisport to become a Lions Club.”
The current Lewisport Lions Club President, Dakota Basham, is serving his second year as president. Julie Newton is Vice President, and Tom Evans serves as Secretary/Treasurer.
Basham explained what the Lions Club does internationally and locally saying, “Our focus is on helping with blind people and helping with eyesight; We help get glasses out and help give eye exams. Locally, what we really try to focus on is just getting things back to the community.
Through the years, we’ve done dinners and chicken cooks. We’re always at the HC Fair and HC Heritage Festival, and those are to raise money. We try to find ways to give those funds directly back to families in need, locally, whether it’s families with children that are battling illnesses or a family that has run into hard times. If we know about those, we do what we can to help pay a bill or help them get groceries, etc.
We’ll have boxes around town where people can donate their old glasses. We take those and give them to the international clubs and they recycle old glasses to give to people who need them. We’ve also helped with eye exams. There have been times when the schools contacted us and said there was a child that needs help with a pair of glasses and we’ve done that.”
The Lions Club owned the Lewisport Community Center building for many years. Around 15 years ago, the City of Lewisport took over ownership but the Lions Club helps manage the building, and continues to have their dinners and monthly meetings there. They meet on the second Thursday of every month at 5:30 p.m., and have almost 60 members.
Basham said that membership has stayed pretty consistent. “There have been times when there are up years and down years,” he said. “The last few years we’ve been really lucky having a lot of new people getting involved. We find ways to try new things that members suggest; New members bring new talents and we try to put those into action to help the community.”
The Lewisport Lions Club, in past years, had a membership of all men for a long time. Women started getting more active about 10 years ago, Basham said. “They’re all welcome,” he said. “We need all the help we can get.”
This Scholarship Dinner was one of two main dinners that the Club has every year. The next annual dinner will be their Christmas Dinner to thank members for all of their hard work during the year.
By Jennifer Wimmer
