Perceptions that area civic and service organizations have only older members and are on the verge of collapsing are false, an investigation into the groups shows.

Perceptions that area civic and service organizations have only older members and are on the verge of collapsing are false, an investigation into the groups shows.

That's good news for everyone because those groups with their important local histories and supporting national organizations help make communities strong and unique.

Some Fort Smith civic groups do have fewer members than past membership rosters do, but other clubs have as many or more individuals than before, taking their weekly commitment to meetings and various community projects seriously. The Fort Smith Rotary Club and the Fort Smith Noon Exchange Club have 104 members and 105 members, respectively, offering proof that civic-club pride is far from dead in Fort Smith.

For the Fort Smith Noon Lions Club and the grass-roots group Friends of Recreational Trails (FORT), the numbers are smaller. That Lions Club currently has 25 members; FORT has 15. However, Lions Club secretary Dovie Tinsley and FORT member Griffin Hanna are urging the public to not be fooled by their clubs' small numbers. Heart and hard work, according to them, are more important than triple-digit memberships.

"It does take time to do what we do," Tinsley said. "Some people will put in 30 to 40 hours getting ready for the TV auction fundraiser we do early each year on Channel 5. We'll say to ourselves, 'Can we do this?' But we do it. You'll see what this does and how it helps, and then we say, 'Yes. We can do this.'"

A show-must-go-on mentality is also part of Hanna's discussions of FORT's mission to promote awareness for and the construction of trails in Fort Smith. To him, Tinsley and other local civic group members, it's not the size of the club, but how effective the club's members become in the community.

"We are about showing the point of having trails and how trails benefit a community," said the 26-year-old Hanna. "We try to find ways, through grass-roots funding at www.fortsmithtrails.com, to promote awareness. People can make a donation of $5 or $5,000. Everything helps."

Unlike some civic groups, FORT members don't follow a structured meeting schedule. The 15 FORT members meet at Hanna Oil & Gas and on the top floor of First National Bank's Garrison Avenue office whenever a need arises. For Hanna, the number of members is less important than members' enthusiasm and willingness to follow through on projects.

"It is important to have younger members in groups," he said. "I was at a festival next to the co-chair of FayetteChill, and it was neat to see a younger business and the attitude and energy they have.

"You can lose that momentum in Fort Smith, although I'm not saying that we don't have any of that momentum here," Hanna added. "We're advocating for more younger people to move here, because, obviously younger business professionals are important, but it's good to have younger people move here to live. The energy, the excitement, it makes you want to stick around Fort Smith on the weekends instead of going to Fayetteville, Little Rock or Hot Springs."

Tinsley admitted to taking pride in the fact that the Fort Smith Noon Lions Club will be celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2019, and that the Lions Club as a national institution will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2017. The mission of the Lion's Club can be a life-changing experience for beneficiaries, and it often is an inspiring reminder of why the Lion's Club is an important part of the community, she said.

"Our mission is to provide eyeglasses and eye exams for the needy," said Tinsley, who joined the noon Lions Club 25 years ago after she learned that the club set a goal to help 25 people each year. "That seemed like something I would be interested in. When you see a child who can see clearly for the first time, that is heart-warming."

The Lions Club's annual TV auction raises as much as $12,000 annually, with organizations such as the Children's Emergency Shelter and the Good Samaritan Clinic benefiting from the club's hard work. Each organization can receive $200, $500 or $1,000 from the club, depending on how much is raised and how many beneficiaries need help.

Service projects

The Fort Smith Commissary Kiwanis Club also helps the Children's Emergency Shelter. An annual bowling tournament organized by the Kiwanis Club calls for some volunteers to wear authentic-looking Stormtrooper costumes and other clothing to resemble "Star Wars" characters to promote a casual, sci-fi theme. This laid-back event raise funds for the Children's Emergency, which provides a safe, educational place for children who have been removed from their home by DHS Services because of neglect or abuse.

"The motto of Kiwanis is serving the children of the world," said 52-year-old Jeff Adams, who joined the club four years ago.

Last year, the "Star Wars"-themed bowling tournament collected $5,000 for the shelter, and the most recent tournament gathered $7,000 for for the shelter in February. Those amounts still thrill Ashley Ahlert, CES advancement coordinator.

"Kiwanis Club's mission goes back to serving the children of the community, so we feel like our missions are really in line," she said. "Last year, we almost took up all of Bowling World for the tournament with the amount of teams and sponsors we had.

"It was a nice collaboration, and $7,000 would support about eight kids during their average stay of 27 days at the shelter," Ahlert added. "We serve 24 kids at a time, so $7,000 would help 1/3 of the kids here. One-hundred percent of the money from that bowling tournament goes directly to the Children's Emergency Shelter. That makes a difference."

Commissary Kiwanis members also maintain a presence at Cavanaugh, Sutton and Spradling elementary schools via the K-Kids Clubs program, which involves students in grades 3-6. The program encourages the students to become active in community service, with Kiwanis members acting as liaisons between the national Commissary Kiwanis organization, the Fort Smith group and the public schools. K-Kids Club members elect their own student presidents, secretaries and treasurers, and often engage in projects and programs to raise money for various community projects.

"At Sutton Elementary School, K-Kids Club got the funds to buy materials for an education-based garden at the school," Adams said. "We helped supply the manpower, but the kids raised the funds."

Commissary Kiwanis members also were instrumental in creating Cavanaugh Park opposite of Cavanaugh Elementary School, he said. This park area now boasts a walking track, a softball field, a soccer field and an outdoor learning classroom, Adams said.

"We have 18 to 20 members, and the numbers have been steady over the last 10 years," he said. "The heyday for many clubs was the 1960s and 1970s, but I believe that when millennials become more involved in service, numbers will increase."

K.C. Shay, president of the Fort Smith Noon Kiwanis Club, practically grew up in her civic group. As a young child, she would accompany her father, Noon Kiwanis member Wayne Hancock, to club meetings. Shay absorbed the camaraderie displayed between her father and the other members each week, as well as their positive motives and frequent interactions with non-club members.

"My father will be 90 on July 23, and he still goes to Kiwanis," she said. "He has been lieutenant governor � the whole nine yards � in Kiwanis."

Shay's husband, Rodney Shay, also is a member of the Noon Kiwanis group, which was chartered in the late 1930s. When K.C. Shay joined, the club had about 80 members. Today, 28 members call Noon Kiwanis their calling.

"Most Kiwanis members in our club are older, and we're trying to get some younger members," she said. "We have a few young ones � one is in his 20s � but life has gotten so busy and other things have made priorities change for some people."

Attracting younger members

A smaller club membership is something Tinsley notices, but she never obsesses about her club's slowly declining membership. When she joined the Fort Smith Noon Lions Club, 65 members attended meetings and participated in programs, but death eventually claimed some of the older members through the years.

"It's very difficult to get people interested in committing to an organization now," Tinsley said. "People are busy, and it's harder to get younger people to join. The older people will work at it, but exactly why it's harder for younger people to sometimes become involved, I wish someone would tell me."

Adams said the youngest members of the Commissary Kiwanis are in their mid- to late-30s, while the oldest member is 85. That age range has served the club well, he said.

"It's a good mix, because you have the ideas and things that worked well in the past, but you also are open to new things," said Adams, whose organization also hosts an annual Fishing Derby at the Janet Huckabee Arkansas River Valley Nature Center.

Commissary Kiwanis members plan to host a poker run in August, an event they hope will involve area mountain bikers and other outdoor supporters. This event aims to attract younger potential members and other supporters, Adams said.

Staple programs, in the opinion of Shay, are just as vital as new programs to the life of civic groups. The 79th annual Kiwanis Boys Camp, which is set for the last two weeks of July at Lake Fort Smith State Park, is proof that a winning event continues to make a positive, lasting impact on the community, she said. The free camp's first week is offered to 45 boys ages 9-11, with the second week being offered to 45 other boys of the same age group.

"The camp is a leadership program, because sometimes it's a case of dad being in jail and grandma is raising the kid," Shay said. "Those children need a good, strong leader and someone who cares about them. People still come to us today and say, 'Hey, I went to your Kiwanis Boys Camp and it changed my life.'"

Campers learn to make bows out of PVC pipe and learn to use them to shoot arrows. The Sebastian County Sheriff's Department joined the camp two years ago, providing Law Enforcement Day during each Thursday of the camp. LED events include interacting with a K-9 unit dog, a personalized photograph with the dog, a demonstration of a state trooper helicopter and boat rides.

"Some of these boys have never been in a boat on the lake � something other people take for granted," Shay said. "Law enforcement also brought up four-wheelers, and the kids got to see how quickly they set up and map out search-and-rescue parties when someone goes missing."

The Fort Smith Noon Kiwanis Club allows law enforcement representatives like Phillip Pevehouse on-going opportunities to serve as a constructive outreach to the community. The Sebastian County Sheriff's Department is a member of the club, whose members mostly are in their 40s and 50s.

"Civic groups are a way of being connected, because every week we have a speaker from some facet of the community � the library, college, a museum and so forth," Pevehouse said. "Those speakers tell us about events and programs that are going on in the community."

Community bonds

Like most civic groups, Noon Kiwanis members are eager to take their mission to the street, spending the noon hour on Wednesdays packing backpacks full of food for hungry children at the Community Services Clearinghouse. On Tuesdays, the club members venture to the Next Step Day Room, where they make sandwiches to help feed residents and visitors of all ages in a friendly, no-questions-asked setting.

"It's inspiring; it helps," Pevehouse said of civic organizations. "It's a great way to immerse yourself into what is going on and to help serve others."

Daren Bobb, who becomes president for the Fort Smith Noon Exchange Club in one week, puts a priority on the effort to eliminate child abuse. Noon Exchange members work closely with the Hamilton House, a facility that teaches parents how to be more responsible and sympathetic to their children and other family members.

"We strive to break the cycle of child abuse," Bobb said.

Noon Exchange members offer financial and moral support to the Hamilton House. They also send girls to summer camp programs through Girls Inc. of Fort Smith, and they recognize an outstanding Fort Smith firefighter, police officer and EMT official each year. The club's Golden Deeds Award has been given to a member of the community for years.

"With our club, 80 percent of the membership are all veterans, and we have a member, Charlie Rutzel, who just turned 104 recently," said Bobb, whose 91-year-old club also is involved with Step Up Speak Out, a local affiliate of a national anti-child abuse campaign. "There's a who's who of Fort Smith individuals in the club.

Civic club members like Bobb, Adams, Shay and Pevehouse constantly feel the benefits of being in an organization that is devoted to the needs and wishes of others.

"Getting to see the kids organize themselves in the K-Kids Clubs and witnessing them getting a service attitude, giving back to the community, I get satisfaction from that," Adams said. "Seeing 120 kids come out and go fishing at the derby and getting together after, that's rewarding."

Adams and Lorie Robertson, director of marketing for Fort Chaffee Redevelopment Authority, both predicted that Fort Smith will always see and feel the presence of civic organizations.

"Any age group is busy, and it doesn't matter if you call yourself retired, working or having school-aged children," Adams said. "You're always busy, but people make time. The community always is supportive. It doesn't matter which charitable organization you mention, you always see someone stepping up to help raise funds and keep things moving. With civic groups, people will always set an example."

Civic groups and their deeds act as essential pieces to a "successful" community, Robertson said.

"These organizations and their guest speakers continue to bring to the forefront issues that are facing the community," she said. "They educate people on local government and local issues that come up on ballot, as well as the needs of the community like hunger and children's issues.

"These groups are a very important resource for community members to stay connected with their community beyond what they read in the media," Robertson added. "They help build networks in the community. That is the fiber of the community."

Shay agreed. The weekly meetings with guest speakers at noon Thursdays at Golden Corral are among many benefits of Noon Kiwanis, she said.

"If people love children, and most do, and they want to help out, then Kiwanis is the place to be," Shay said. "Civic groups have good fellowship, and they have a lot of fun doing projects. You get to meet and work with other people who are from all walks of life. It's the best."