Kiwanis, Rotary and Lions, Be Thanked
Published in Marietta Daily Journal July 2, 2016
Had it not been for the Marietta
Kiwanis Club, I couldn’t be telling Rick Weldon’s story.
Rick was a member of the Wheeler
High School Key Club, the high school organization sponsored by Kiwanis
International. Back before the Key Club
was coed, the club for which I was faculty advisor consisted of 25 of the
school’s finest young men.
For the decade I worked with them I couldn’t wait for the weekly Thursday
night meetings to experience their infectious zest for life and their inspiring
maturity. I cannot think of a single
Thursday night over that decade that a member of the Marietta Kiwanis Club was
not present at their meeting. It was
good having an additional adult in my classroom. It assuaged my still-held concern that youths
spend too much time with each other and not enough time with adults.
The Kiwanians were faithful and so
were school principals Larry Hinds, Jim Traylor, and Don Murphy who regularly
excused members from class to attend Kiwanis meetings in Marietta. This certainly contributed to the club’s
success with their service projects, leadership retreats, and state convention
awards.
Although Key Club members were good
students and young men of high character, they were not all of the same
economic level. Sons of Lockheed
engineers and other professionals, most of them were from stable, well-off
families.
But not Rick. Rick’s father, a struggling self-employed
carpenter, died when Rick was 13. Rick’s
mother took on 3 jobs. Rick had 2 jobs
while in high school. An older drugged-out
sister drained his mother’s energy and joy.
His senior year found Rick in both
the club and my English literature class.
Handsome and congenial, but with struggle and weariness written deep on
his face, Rick won the hearts of his classmates with his quiet strength and
intelligence.
It fell Rick’s lot to teach a
passage from Tennyson’s “Ulysses” that included the lines, “Tis not too late to
seek a newer world / Though much is taken, much abides / Be strong in will to
strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”
The class grew still and attentive
as Rick began to expound. They knew of
his struggles. Among other remarks that were mature beyond his years, Rick
stated, “No excuses. We’re all supposed
to bear up.” After class I asked Rick if
he planned to go to college. “No, sir,”
he answered, “I don’t think I could leave my mom in her situation right
now. I’ll stay on at K-Mart for a
while.”
Eight years ago I ran in to Rick,
his beaming wife, and 2 joyful children at Books-a-Million. He started college at age 20, “graduated late
and married late,” as he put it, and now has a successful insurance
business. “I’ll never forget Key Club
and those men from Kiwanis,” he stated.
Rick Weldon isn’t his real name since
I didn’t know then that I would be telling his story and didn’t get his
permission. But Ron Younker is the real
name of another Key Clubber, a leader in his youth who, fortunately, is a
leader in our community still. So are
Gary Cowan, one of the club’s presidents whom I met at Sweet Tomatoes only
weeks ago, Judge Tain Kell who was an outstanding student and leader, and
Chick-fil-A executive David Farmer.
Stuart Dyer – or General Stuart Dyer, that is – I chatted with a few years
ago when he returned home for his father’s funeral. He, too, mentioned “the Kiwanis men.”
At age 16 I received a call from the
Rotary Club president of my small Mississippi home town. The club wanted to send me to the American
Legion’s Boys’ State program that summer. That week at the state Capitol fed my
desire to understand and follow politics, placing me in a world in which I
still find myself. It eventually led me
to membership in the North Cobb Rotary Club in Kennesaw.
Only days ago I was reminded of the
splendid work of the Lions Club. A
friend wrote to say that the Mississippi Lions All-State band had placed first
in international competition in Fukuoka, Japan.
Local Lions Clubs helped pay for students who could not afford the trip
to Japan.
Daily and hourly on television,
verbally and visually, the mayhem of the world is blasted into our homes. Rotarians, Kiwanians, Lions, and other such
organizations don’t blast. Their
effective response to a needy world is to see needs and quietly, steadily, and
faithfully meet them.
I know because directly and
indirectly I have been the recipient of their goodwill, and I am grateful.
Roger
Hines
6/29/16
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