In keeping with Tennessee District President Pat Anderson’s suggestion to pick a club member that other clubs should like to get to know,.
April 2022 – Beth Cox, Livingston Exchage Club
Beth Cox. Beth is the newest member of the Livingston Exchange Club.
Beth is married to Dr. Michael Cox. She has two wonderful sons, David and Daniel. Also a talented daughter in law, Lynne.
Beth is involved in many clubs and organizations. She has a great love for animals and spends a lot of time doing pet rescues and finding them foster and forever homes. Beth has brought experience, wisdom, insight, and a service driven outlook to the Exchange Club. The club is thankful to have Mrs. Beth Cox.
March 2022 – Jerry Anderson, Greeneville Exchange Club
Jerry Anderson is a long-time Exchange member who is very active in all our club activities. He is a key organizer in the Greeneville Christmas Parade which our club stages in conjunction with the Greeneville/Greene County Partnership. For several years, Jerry has headed our club’s Youth of the Month/Youth of the Year Program, through which our club honors outstanding seniors in the five high schools in Greene County and Greeneville. Perhaps his biggest contribution is in directing our Field Day event. On the second Friday in May, we sponsor a full day of athletic contests – running, strength, and skill – open to all the elementary/middle schools in Greeneville/Greene County. This full-day event, held at Tusculum University, draws approximately 2,000 participants. While the covid pandemic forced the cancellation of Field Day for the past two years, Jerry has kept planning and organizing to make sure we are ready to resume the event this year.
February 2022 – Tim Witherite, Lake Tansi Exchange Club
Tim Witherite is a six year member of the Lake Tansi Exchange Club and has served in a number of roles including Co-Chairman of the Annual Chicken BBQ, Buddy Benches for Brown Elementary, Highway Clean Up, Board of Directors, Club President, District Director and the Field of Honor Committee. This past year Tim recognized the need for Automatic Defibrillators in the Lake Tansi Community and developed a plan to bring the community together to fund this need. Through cooperation of the Exchange Club and many different community organizations, businesses and individuals this program became a reality with the installation of seven AED’s throughout the community. (Please note that I did not nominate myself. This decision was made by the club members which I was not a part of).
January 2022 – Debbie Gordon, The Pulaski Exchange Club
She is one of several members who could have been chosen.
A member since 2005, she has served as club secretary and would have been nominated for other offices, had she chosen.
“Debbie Gordon is the epitome of an excellent Exchange Club member,” according to Dewitt Booth, interim club president.
“She gives 110% on every service project and fundraising effort conducted by the Pulaski Exchange Club.
The Pulaski Exchange Club has continued meeting weekly at noon in person during much of the pandemic. For medical reasons, Gordon has missed several meetings, though she has returned to work.
Club member Paul Manke recalled seeing Gordon at the Senior Citizens Center, in Pulaski, and how enthusiastic she was about the club’s very successful fund raiser, a reverse drawing for the grand prize of an automobile, just before Thanksgiving.
“Debbie has always been the member who would anticipate what pitfalls a project might encounter and be able to mitigate any fallout,” Booth said.
“When I think about the Exchange Club’s Covenant of Service, it seems to describe Debbie Gordon’s demeanor.”
The Covenant of Service follows.
“Accepting the divine privilege of single and collective responsibility as life’s noblest gift, I covenant with my fellow Exchangites:
“To consecrate my best energies to the uplifting of Social, Religious, Political and Business ideals;
“To discharge the debt I owe to those of high and low estate who have served and sacrificed that the heritage of American citizenship might be mine;
“To honor and respect law, to serve my fellowmen, and to uphold the ideals and institutions of my Country;
“To implant the life-giving, society-building spirit of Service and Comradeship in my social and business relationships;
“To serve in Unity with those seeking better conditions, better understandings, and greater opportunities for all.”
The Gordons live outside Pulaski in the Minor Hill community of Giles County.
The Pulaski Exchange Club celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1938. is the only one in Exchange with two national youth of the year and sponsors an active Excel Club at Giles County High School.
Other club officers are Douglas Wong, president; attorney Bob Massey, vice president; Sylvia Harrison, secretary; Tish Lochridge, treasurer.
December 2021 – Peyton Riley, Brownsville Exchange Club
Exchange Club – Brownsville, TN would like to honor Peyton Riley for her outstanding dedication to our club. Peyton works at a local bank and they have a business membership with us which is how Peyton got involved with Brownsville Exchange Club. She has been a member of our club for just 2 years now and is the Chair of Fundraising. She has helped and headed up several fundraisers such as 2 of our Community Yard Sales, Sunshine Bag, and our American Flag Fundraiser. She is always there to serve in whatever way she can, and always has a smile on her face with all kinds of ideas in her head on how to serve the community.
Brownsville Exchange Club THANKS you Peyton for all your hard work and dedication we can’t wait to see what you bring to the future of our club!
November 2021 – Mary Jane Cole, Humboldt Exchange Club
Mary Jane Cole is the Secretary of of the Humboldt Exchange Club. She has been a member of the club since 2012. Mary has served as Secretary since 2014 and was Secretary/Treasurer for 2 of those years.
Mary heads up the Club’s Student of the Month/Year Program, personally coordinating with the high school counselor and the selected students. Mary is active in most all of the Club’s community events by helping to plan, coordinate and lead the activities. She is a strong supporter of the Club’s Child Abuse Prevention Program in that she is a forensic nurse and at times works with abused children.
Another activity close to Mary’s heart is the Club’s annual Veterans Day Program. Mary’s dad was a POW during WWII. She works diligently to ensure our Veterans receive the recognition and honor they so truly
October 2021
The Exchange Club of Jonesboro Arkansas
The Exchange Club of Jonesboro will celebrate our 75th anniversary in August of 2022. We currently have close to 40 members. Our club is active with programs such as:
Law Enforcement Officer of the Year where we serve all law enforcement agencies in Craighead County a meal, provide door prizes, and honor the recipient with several gifts.
Hand out flags at the Veteran’s Day program at one of our local schools for kids to waive at program
Citizenship Awards are presented at each 6th grade school acknowledging a recipient for their commitment to being a good Citizen.
Sunshine Special is a program we do once a year where we cook hot dogs and hamburgers for kids with special needs at a local park where they get to play together and enjoy a day outdoors together.
We provide a scholarship to Arkansas State University to assist a local student with their journey become a college graduate.
We sponsor a boy and a girl so they can attend Boys State/Girls State each year.
We sponsor a Little League Baseball team by contributing to the Jonesboro Baseball Boosters.
Santa at the Hospitals is a long-standing event where a club member dresses as Santa and goes to each local hospital to provide kids with a few gifts directly from Santa.
We supply and maintain flags at a few intersections or parks around town.
Our club provided the seed money to start a Children’s Advocacy Center which serves multiple counties in Northeast Arkansas.
We also provide money and goods to a local Family Crisis Center about once a quarter.
We also make donations each year to organizations such as Civil Air Patrol, Foundation of Arts, Hope Found NEA, Diego Ranch, etc.
To fund our annual budget, we have two primary fundraisers that allow us to give back to our community and support the programs through which we serve. We presale racks of ribs and the Thursday before Memorial Day we cook and distribute between 400-500 racks. We also cook Kettle Corn at the Northeast Arkansas District Fair.
– Member Spotlight
Les Abernathy became a member of The Exchange Club of Jonesboro in 1956. He has been a very active member through the years winning our James Echols award in 1990 and was our Exchangite of the Year in 1998. At age 93 he is still attending our meetings and is a joy to serve with!
The Exchange Club of Paragould Arkansas
The Exchange Club of Paragould is celebrating their 60th anniversary this year. We currently have around 20 members.
We are very active in the community throughout each year with service projects and community activities. We have participated in the Youth of the Month/Year program, Law Officer of the Year, Book of the Golden Deeds, and the One National Under God program.
Our community activities include:
Sponsor Senior Citizens Day at the local county fair
Work admission gate at the fair
Hand out flags at the Veteran’s Day program at one of our local schools for kids to waive at program
Host a trail run at Walcott State Park
Host a mandated reporter training for local law enforcement
Collect money at each club meeting and later present 4 local school the money for their backpack program for kids that are in need of food on weekends or holiday breaks.
Our biggest fund raisers are the Walcott Trail Run and our annual paper goods sale. We sell paper goods (paper towels, Kleenex, and toilet paper) in bulk to local businesses. We use the funds to donate to different charities, sponsor a boy and a girl to Boys/Girls State, sponsor a youth baseball team every summer, and this fund-raising money also helps us with the above listed community activities.
– Member Spotlight
Neva Shewmaker became a member of the Paragould Exchange Club in 1987. She was the first female member of the club. She was also the first female president of our club and later became the first female District President.
Neva is a nurse and retired after 30 years at one of the local factories. Her and her husband W.T., who is also a member of the club, have been very active over the years with club activities. Neva is a master gardener and she and W.T. love to travel. They have taken many trips in and out of the country.
September 2021 – Meghan Ward, Exchange Club of Tipton County
The Covington Exchange Club was formed in 1948 by community members to lead the charge in promoting local businesses and improving community involvement. In 2008, dedicated men and women formed the South Tipton Exchange to help raise more awareness for Child Abuse Prevention and serve their community. Over the years, the clubs unfortunately struggled with membership amongst other matters, and decided to form the powerhouse club now known as the Exchange Club of Tipton County in 2016 and has 16 active members. The club supports the local Child Advocacy Center which is the Exchange Club-Carl Perkins Center for the Prevention of Child Abuse. The club has several projects during the year to raise much needed funds for the Center, such as an annual Chili Lunch and the Field of Flags, as well as honors firefighters, law enforcement, and our youth.
We would like to shine a spotlight on our President, Meghan Ward. Meghan has been a member of the club since 2018. In 2020, she became president of the club and is in her second term in this role. Meghan has personally sponsored 3 members and has developed an outreach program to support our youth in Elementary and Middle Schools as well as enhance our fundraising efforts. Meghan leadership is unwavering and has a heart of gold to serve the community. Meghan is the AVP-Branch Manager at Patriot Bank in Covington. She is married with three wonderful children and is a member at Calvary Baptist Church. We thank Meghan for all her hard work and dedication to the Exchange Club and to our community.