With hundreds of years worth of experience and time spent volunteering, the Carmi Kiwanis Club added two new members to it’s roster while honoring long-time members for hitting milestones Thursday. New members inducted include Alison Cozart and Megan Newman. Cozart is Carmi’s newest legal counsel and a fine addition to both the club and community according to her sponsor, fellow attorney and Kiwanian Greg Stewart. On top of her joining Kiwanis, Cozart has immediately poured herself into community service also joining the non-profit Pets at Risk organization where she provides unique, valuable insight. Newman joins as the Carmi Chamber of Commerce representative. She’s the Executive Director for the business-centric organization. Both are Carmi natives and say they’re excited to be involved with the community they love. Their membership brings the total number of Carmi Kiwanians to 58.
Toby Brown had the honors of recognizing four members who are reaching milestones and have spent so much time as Kiwanis members it would be understandable if they didn’t remember much about the world the year they joined. Luckily, Brown looked up pertinent happenings throughout the world, nationally, and locally during the years they joined.
In 1999, the world was a bit worried about Y2K. Tiger Woods won his first PGA Championship. Michael Jordan announced his second retirement from the NBA. The Sopranos premiered on TV, Star Wars Episode I opened the new expansion of the franchise, and Believe by Cher topped the charts. Locally, a few highlights included…
Police officer Rick York and Sergeant Keith Brooks saved the lives of two women after their apartments in the Carmi Village Complex became engulfed in flames. M&S Implement Company closed it’s Carmi farm equipment store after operating for 40 years. And an agreement was reached between Rice Motors and LB Incorporated for the acquisition of that Ford dealership.
It’s also the year that Stan Williams officially joined the club. He says it was Dan Drone who coerced him into the organization and he’s glad he did calling it the best club in Carmi. Williams has run the car show in the past and still helps line up the parade each Corn Day.
35 years ago, Dave Johnson joined Carmi Kiwanis after taking a leadership role within the school system that allowed him a vice principal and the availability to attend noon meetings. Also happening in 1989, an earthquake rocked the bay area just before Game 3 of the San Francisco/Oakland World Series. The Chines government crushed student led demonstrations in Tiananmen Square. Milli Vanilli was big on the radio. Locally,
It was the first year the school would be known as Carmi-White County High School as the now defunct Crossville High School merged with Carmi. Also, Wal-Mart was kind of on the rise as “the shopping center” in Carmi. Younger people don’t realize we used to have a K-Mart here in Carmi. But they were on their decline and they actually closed a couple years later.
The typically wry and quick-witted Johnson says it was the people that made him want to join and the reason he’s still a member. He quickly resorted to the Mr. Johnson most of us know saying Art Saunders was his vice principal which allowed him the ability to come to the noon gatherings, delivering through a smirk…
It was a mess when I got back…(laughter)
Two other gentlemen hit milestones for Kiwanis this year. Scott Rice is now a 40 year member of the organization joining back in 1984. He couldn’t be at the meeting. Another member, also unavailable as he was out of town, will be celebrated in the spring for surpassing 5 decades in the club.
Next Thursday, Kiwanis club members will travel to Brownsville School for their annual Christmas program before taking a couple weeks off for the holidays.
