Corbin Kiwanis Club on ‘stand-by,’ still planning to award scholarships

It’s safe to say that just about everyone has plans that had to be put on hold once a state of emergency was declared due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the men and women of the Corbin Kiwanis Club are no exception.

“Everything has been put on hold as far as meetings go,” said President Beth Davis. “We are adhering to all of the guidelines, and trying to stay healthy. I have reached out to our members to check up on them, and to make sure that everyone is okay, but right now we’re all just on stand-by.”

Before the pandemic forced a halt to most in-person meetings, and before it temporarily closed the doors of the club’s regular weekly meeting place, David’s Steakhouse, Corbin Kiwanis had many interesting events on the calendar. There were guest speakers, and a group tour of the hospital, just to name a couple.

One event that did get to take place, though, was the Annual J.T. Ohler Memorial Chili Supper, which also serves as a fundraiser for the club’s scholarship fund. “Luckily we were able to have our chili supper,” Davis said. “And we are still doing our best to make sure that those scholarships will be awarded.”

Each year, the Corbin Kiwanis Club awards scholarship money to seniors from Corbin and Lynn Camp High Schools. An application process leads to in-person interviews before recipients are finally chosen, but things have obviously been different this year with local schools closing and utilizing NTI days in order to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Sean Disney, chairperson for the Corbin Kiwanis Club’s scholarship committee, explained that, in Corbin’s case, scholarship information has been accessible digitally since schools moved to the NTI day format.

Disney said that the deadline to apply for the Kiwanis scholarship is this Friday, April 17. Applications will then be collected on Monday, and interviews will be conducted online once candidates are selected. He said the process will last about two weeks – one to review the applications, and one week to conduct interviews – before the recipients are finally selected.

In Lynn Camp’s case, Disney said the club is currently waiting to hear back from guidance counselors before deciding how they should proceed.

Looking ahead, the Corbin Kiwanis Club is still planning on hosting their annual Alzheimer’s Walk event at Corbin High School at the end of the summer. Other than that, Davis said, “We’re just trying to keep our ears open to see if there’s any way that we can still be effective in the community while operating within the proper guidelines. We just want to help take care of our community.”

Find the Corbin Kiwanis Club on Facebook for more updates and information.