Corbin Kiwanis Club reflects on century of service

Over its century of service to the Corbin community, the Corbin Kiwanis Club has donated many volunteer hours and performed many local projects.

Each year the club awards scholarships to graduating seniors to assist them in furthering their professional pursuits. These scholarships were to Corbin High School seniors until Lynn Camp High School was added a few years back. The scholarships at Lynn Camp High School were named The Margaret Thurmond Memorial Scholarship in honor of her contributions to the Kiwanis Club and the community.

Kiwanis adopted a slogan of “Young Children: Priority One” a few years ago and several projects reflected this focus.

The club supported University of Kentucky Children’s Hospital, provided car seats at Baptist Health Corbin, participated in reading programs at local schools, provided books for schools and the Corbin Public Library.

An annual project was providing gifts of clothing and toys for Angel Tree children both at Corbin and Lynn Camp schools.

Another project was to have family and game night each quarter at the Appalachian Children’s Home in Barbourville.

“The children there really enjoyed family night. They had an opportunity to see a family unit and be a part of it for a night. The comments that those kids would make to us would just melt your heart that is what it is about. Kiwanis is about service,” said Corbin Kiwanis Club President Paul Matney.

The club hosted a Team Reed Day in honor of local youngster Reed Elliotte to raise money to fight childhood cancer, promote organ donation and support the Ronald McDonald House charities. The club was also a supporter of Corbin Special Olympics and the Corbin Backpack Club.

The Corbin Kiwanis Club has supported many other charitable causes. Such as Ronald McDonald House, Hope Lodge (American Cancer Society), Alzheimer’s Association and others.

The club has provided not only monetary donations, but also pop tab collection for Ronald McDonald House, preparing meals for Hope Lodge residents, and other donations of needed items. The club supported the Fine Arts Association and Corbin Senior Citizens.

The Corbin Kiwanis Club started a project a couple of years ago called the Kiwanis Alzheimer’s Awareness Walk to raise money to be used in the fight against Alzheimer’s. In 2021, Corbin became one of only two cities east of I-75 in Kentucky to host an official Walk To End Alzheimer’s. The walk was held Oct. 2, 2021, in downtown Corbin starting at Sanders Park.

The Corbin Kiwanis Club has performed fundraising projects to provide monies to fund the club’s various projects.

One of those projects is a chili supper. The project was named the J. T. Ohler Memorial Chili Supper after a local businessman and club member for his contributions to Kiwanis and the community.

The club has also hosted pancake breakfasts as a fundraising project. The club has temporarily suspended many of these events due to the Covid pandemic.

“It makes it very difficult to have fundraising projects. With the pandemic going on, you don’t want to have a public event, such as a chili supper or pancake breakfast that the public would come in and be a part of it if it might contribute to the spread of the pandemic,” Matney said.

“Also, likewise, our club voted to not have a formal dinner to celebrate 100 years because of the surge in Covid cases. We are hoping to build our attendance back up so that we can raise the funds and do good service projects for the community, award scholarships and make sure we manage the cemetery.”

The club has also provided snacks to the staff at Baptist Health Corbin to thank them for their dedication and service to our community during these difficult times.

The Corbin Kiwanis Club has also sponsored a Key Club at Corbin High School.  The first president of the Key Club when it was established was Bob Terrell, who later would become an active member of the Corbin Kiwanis Club.

“We do volunteer service. We pay dues … We pay for all of the administrative expense of the club so that every single penny of monies we raise for projects goes to the projects. We do not have any salaries. The project money is never used to pay any of the club’s expenses,” Matney said.

“We pay to volunteer our services for the good of the community. Hopefully, the younger generation will realize there is a lot of peace and contentment to do that and helping the community.”

The Corbin Kiwanis Foundation is a 501 (C) 3 tax exempt charity and accepts donations to support its charitable service to the community. Donations may be mailed to the Corbin Kiwanis Foundation, P.O. Box 12, Corbin, KY 40702.