Up & Coming Weekly

January 19, 2021

Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.

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WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM JANUARY 20-26, 2021 UCW 11 Then there were two: The Cape Fear Kiwanis Club by PITT DICKEY Today's column will grant relief from its usual snark. Readers hoping to be offended by some- thing in this column's stain on world literature will have to look elsewhere. But do not fear, the next time this column appears, it will certainly include something to draw offense. However, today's column will keep with the theme of this issue of the Up & Coming Weekly, which is celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Fayetteville Kiwanis Club. First, a history lesson. In the year of our Lord 1960, the Cape Fear Kiwanis Club was founded as the brainchild of the Fayetteville Kiwanis Club. Like Athena springing full-grown from Zeus' forehead, the Cape Fear Kiwanis Club was char- tered by the Fayetteville Kiwanis in 1960. It is the nature of Kiwanis Clubs to be fruitful and multiply by chartering new clubs. e Fayetteville Kiwanis Club's desire to procreate resulted in the orga- nization and formation of the Cape Fear Kiwanis Club. e Cape Fear Kiwanis Club held its Charter Night event in the General Hodge Room at the Fort Bragg Officers' Club on December 8, 1960. It was a glittering affair, according to the Charter Night Program, which somehow came into my possession. Fayetteville's own J.O. Tally, who was then International President of all of the Kiwanis Clubs in the world, was the keynote speaker. is part of the column, being a history, is like the begats in the Bible as it consists of the names of the men of the Fayetteville Kiwanis Club who were responsible for organizing the Cape Fear Kiwanis Club. e term men is used intention- ally because women were not allowed to be full Kiwanis members until 1987, when the Interna- tional Kiwanis changed its bylaws to admit women as members. e change to invite women mem- bers was excellent as many of the hardest working members of the Cape Fear Kiwanis are women. e recitation of all their names may be a bit dry, but the Cape Fear Club would not exist without their foresight. e Cape Fear Kiwanis had its first female President Polly Davis of FTCC in 1997. So on to the begats and founders of the Cape Fear Kiwanis Club; the Fayetteville Kiwanis Club's 1960 officers were President Gould Hambright, Vice President Basil Laslett, Immediate Past Presi- dent Ike O'Hanlon. e Cape Fear Kiwanis Club's first set of officers were President Howard M. Buie, Vice President Monroe Evans (who was elected Mayor of Fayetteville from 1965-1969), Trea- surer W.B. Liles, and Secretary Merritt Harrison. (Sidenote: Twenty years later, Merritt's daughter Merrilyn married the publisher of this newspaper, Bill Bowman. Small world, huh!). ere were 54 Charter Members of the Cape Fear Club, our last remaining charter member, Harold Downing, who remained an active mem- ber until his death in 2018. Other notable Charter Members were Derb Carter, the Chief District Court Judge in Cumberland County for many years, Mitch Nance, Attorney Ritchie Smith, Leon Sugar and Charlie Taylor. Perhaps the hardest- working member of our Club was John Poulos, a grand member who for decades, sold thousands of pancake tickets and cooked millions of pancakes. John passed away in 2020, leaving an enormous hole in the heart of our Club. us, endeth the begats. Like the Fayetteville club, the Cape Fear Ki- wanis Club services the community in many ways. We have two major annual fund-raising events each year until the coronavirus hit in 2020. We have a Golf Tournament in the Fall and the 45th annual Pancake Breakfast in February. We were able to have a socially distanced Golf Charity Tournament in 2020 but postponed our Pancake Breakfast until April 2021. ese two events raise about $60,000 each year, which our Club returns to the local community in the form of grants. Organizations supported by the Cape Fear Kiwanis over the years include Better Health of Cumberland County, Boys & Girls Club of Cumberland County, Boys & Girls Home of North Carolina, Cape Fear Valley NICU, e Care Clinic, Catholic Charities, Child Advocacy Center, Dolly Parton Imagination Library, E.E. Smith High School Mentoring Program, Five Sparrows, Friends of the Cumberland County Library, Habitat for Hu- manity, Homeworks, Key Clubs at five county high schools, Lewis Chapel Builders Club, New Parent Support Diaper Program of Fort Bragg, Opera- tion Inasmuch, Police Activity League, Safe Kids, Salvation Army, 4 Annual College Scholarships for local students, Second Harvest Food Bank, Urban Ministry, USO, Vision Resource Center and West- minister Church Eyeglass Program. e Cape Fear Kiwanis Club meets at 12:30 p.m. on Tuesdays by Zoom during the pandemic. We also have a satellite evening branch of the Cape Fear Kiwanis for members who cannot meet dur- ing day time. Join us. Again, we congratulate the Kiwanis Club of Fayetteville on reaching this historic 100-year milestone, and we much appreciate them inviting us to celebrate the occasion. If you are not a Kiwanis International organiza- tion member, we invite you to contact us and get involved in improving your community and serv- ing humanity. For more information, find us on Facebook at Kiwanis Club of Cape Fear or contact Lynn Grates at lgrates@nc.rr.com. John Poulos was the hardest working member of the Cape Fear Kiwanis Club, seller of thousands of tickets and maker of millions of pancakes. PITT DICKEY, Columnist. COMMENTS? Editor@upandcomin- gweekly.com. 910-484-6200. KIWANIS INTERNATIONAL

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