The Copperhill Kiwanis Club celebrated 100 years of serving the Copper Basin with a fundraising dinner and silent auction Tuesday, November 9, at Tooney’s Music Venue in McCaysville.
The proceeds raised from the dinner and silent auction go towards awarding scholarships to graduating Copper Basin High School seniors.
The program included guests from Kentucky and Tennessee districts of Kiwanis Clubs as well as Kentucky and Tennessee 2021-2022 District Governor Lynn Hutchison, Division Three Lieutenant Governor Paul Walters and the 2014-2015 Governor P. R. Cook.
Special guest speakers Harriet Frye and Stephen Carlson, who both grew up in Copperhill, gave the feature presentation titled “The Way We Were,” and Robert “Hoot” Skelton, who was the president of the club in 1977 and a member for four decades, recollected some of the history of the Copperhill Kiwanis Club.
The Copperhill Kiwanis Club received their founding charter November 23, 1921. Some of the other historical highlights noted at the dinner about how the club has served the Copper Basin over the last 100 years included the following:
•In the 1920s, the club was instrumental in building Waterlevel Highway connecting Copperhill to Cleveland;
•In 1934, the first annual Kiwanis Karnival was held with the proceeds going to benefit needy children;
•In 1935, the club began a Christmas gift program, which later was changed to food baskets for the needy;
•In 1938, the club played a major role in obtaining street and sewage improvements for the city of Copperhill;
•In 1940, the club helped to establish the “White Way” city light program; and,
•In 1949, the club began assisting area high school students with applying for scholarships and grants to attend college.
Many of the sponsorships and programs established by the Kiwanis Club are still going strong today, and they include:
•The annual “Kids Day” that started in 1949;
•The Kiwanis Key Club at Copper Basin High School that the club organized in 1956;
•The first of 62 – so far – Christmas parades that began in 1957;
•The annual Christmas time funding relationship with the Copper Basin Crisis Center in 1969; and,
•Awarding of scholarships to graduating Copper Basin High School seniors, which began in 1975.