ASHLAND For 50 years, the Ashland Breakfast Kiwanis Club has served the youth of the Ashland community in a variety of ways, from community service projects to representing the area statewide.
Now, the club invites the community to celebrate its landmark birthday with a luncheon, set for noon Nov. 12 at the Ashland Transportation Center. Tickets are $18 and must be purchased before Nov. 8. Doors will open at 11:30 a.m. to give attendees time to visit.
A slideshow program will start at 12:30 p.m., created by Dale Queen, who has been a member for 17 years and served as president for three years.
Charter member Bill Burch noted the club has survived difficulties and enjoy successes in the last 50 years.
"Our club has undergone many changes and faced many challenges, including COVID-19," he said, noting the upcoming luncheon is meant to "observe this special occasion, to encourage club members to remember our past, celebrate the present and look forward to a promising future."
Founded on Nov. 12, 1974, the all-male club included Art Emmons as president; George Wolfford as vice president; Dean Bayes as second vice president; and Ted Conley as secretary/treasurer. Much of the club has focused on meeting the needs of children.
Club members came to their membership via different routes.
"I was asked by a friend of the family who was a member if I would be interested in attending a meeting. This was during their membership drive, so I attended just help my friend out," Queen, assistant professor of communications at ACTC, said. "Once I went to the meeting, I discovered there were people who were passionate about serving. This was interesting to me since I, too, enjoyed serving others. After attending a few meetings, I was hooked and wanted to help."
Queen said he has enjoyed helping at Summer Motion and in the Bringing Up Grades (B.U.G.) program, which encourages grade-school students to bring their grades up a letter grade. He said he also enjoys working with the Shriners during Winter Wonderland of Lights as they board families on trains for rides around the part, as well as working at the log cabin in the park, where Santa receives visitors, and working with the Key Club at the concession stand.
The Key Club is a civic club for high-school students sponsored by Kiwanis. Longtime member Lynn Hutchinson got involved with the club via the club at Boyd County High School, where she taught English, broadcast journalism and speech and drama for 33 years.
"I started in 1989 as Key Club advisor. I didn't even know what Kiwanis was," she said. "I liked the concept of students leading the meetings and choosing projects; they pretty much took care of themselves."
As Key Club advisor, Hutchinson said she attended the Kiwanis meetings, but was not a member until Cynthia Champer, the first woman to be admitted to the club, urged her to join.
"I didn't realize it when I joined that women hadn't been allowed," she said. "The Key Club did admit women in the 1970s, but the international organization was started by a group of men in 1915 in Michigan and they began Key Club, which was an all-boys thing." Women were allowed to join the adult clubs in 1987.
Hutchinson went on to serve, on the state level, as governor and lieutenant governor three times; she was the third woman to serve as governor. She also has been president of the breakfast club. She also is the current district administrator, overseeing Kentucky and Tennessee.
If you go
The Ashland Breakfast Kiwanis Club will observe its 50th anniversary with a luncheon at noon Nov. 12 at the Ashland Transportation Center at 99 15th St. Tickets are $18 and must be purchased before Nov. 8 from a club member.
In addition to sponsoring The Key Club at Boyd County High School, the Ashland Breakfast Kiwanis Club also sponsors The Builders Club at Boyd County Middle School, K Kids at Fairview Elementary School, The Aktion Club for adults with disabilities; the club co-sponsors clubs at Rose Hill and Fairview.
Birch said he's enjoyed many aspects of his membership, including friendships he's made. He said the club continues to make a difference in the community.
"What a joy it is to have been a Kiwanian over the last 50 years," Birch said.