The Exchange Club of Greeneville hosted its Annual Awards Banquet Tuesday at Hackler Hall Event Center in Downtown Greeneville.
Here are the highlights:
Book of Golden Deeds – The Book of Golden Deeds Award is an Exchange Club program that honors a worthy person who continuously donates time, talent and energy to help those in need. The award is designed to recognize outstanding community volunteers and may be given to a member of Exchange or a non-member.
The 2024-2025 Recipient is Carmen Ricker who recently celebrated her 92nd birthday Carmen has a son, two grandchildren, five great-grandchildren and two great grandchildren.
She worked at Magnavox for 32 years and was “retired” …or a month. She has devoted her time as the Volunteer Coordinator at the Greene County Food Bank for the last 32 years. Carmen has also been an active member of the Eastern Star for more than 50 years.
Carmen gave a brief speech about her work and what it means to volunteer. She pointed out that she couldn’t do it alone, and it’s the volunteers and their impact that bring the community closer together. She is especially proud of the progress toward eliminating child hunger in Greene County. To know that children are being helped makes the work especially meaningful and provides motivation to carry on through the rougher parts.
The Hugh Felts Memorial Scholarship is a 4-year program providing $500 per semester, not to exceed a total of $4,000. It is a merit scholarship program intended primarily to recognize outstanding community service by students. Hugh Felts Memorial Scholarship recipients are selected from a pool of applicants by a committee. For 2024-2025, the recipients are Adaley Lamons and Dominic Tweed.
Adalay, who was unable to attend the banquet as she is currently volunteering as a camp counselor for Young Life in South Carolina. Some of her other accomplishments include: a 4.0 GPA at Greeneville High School, National Honor Society, Homecoming Queen, Varsity Cheer Team, Varsity Softball, GCP Leadership Academy, and a volunteer for Halloween Happenings, Trunk or Treat, Capitol Theatre, Greene County Fair and more. She is the daughter of Jamie and Kelly Lamons and plans on attending UT Knoxville.
Dominic has a 3.90 GPA at Greeneville High, National Honors Society, Varsity Basketball Captain, Varsity Tennis, Young Life, FCA, Green County Youth Council, and a volunteer for Tusculum Glow Run, GHS Blood Drive, Greene County Fair, Iris Festival and assisting with Helene recovery efforts. He is the son of Jackie and Amy Tweed and plans on attending ETSU.
The Youth of the Year is selected from the Youth of the Month recipients that have been previously recognized this school year. This year, Bennet McLain was chosen as the 2024-2025 Youth of the Year. He is the son of David and Delana McLain, he had a 4.53 GPA at North Greene High School, played Varsity Basketball, was Senior Class President, a member of BETA Club and FCA, and student representative for the Greene County School Board. Bennett plans to attend UT Knoxville to major in biology or pre-med, with the goal of becoming an anesthesiologist.
• Membership Milestones awarded last night were to Larry Coughlin – 40 years, Gary Shelton – 40 years and Paige Mengel – 25 years
• Exchangite of the Year – Billy Endean
Elected Officers and Board members:
o Bob Schooley – President
o Amy Malone – Treasurer
o Billy Endean – Secretary
o Chris Edwards – BOD
o Paige Mengel – BOD
o Stephen Cook – BOD
