BY DAN HILDEBRAN
The Lake Region Kiwanis Club recently celebrated its 35th anniversary with an event at the Montgomery Conference Center.
In the organization’s newsletter, Karen Lake reported that 33-year member Tina Bullock organized the party, which included several games. Guests included former Lt. Gov. Laura Dean, square dance caller Bill Chestnut, former Mayor Tony Brown, and former members Jude Sorano, Betty Hodges, Keith Hatch, and Rebecca Farmer.
After the meeting, Bullock said that the club’s only remaining charter member is Johnny Mason, founder of Johnny’s Barbecue.
Bullock recalled that her involvement with Kiwanis began in 1992 when she was the Assistant Principal at Keystone Heights Elementary School.
“Laura Dean was doing the Terrific Kid program,” Bullock said. “She and I were on the stage, and when I saw the first kid come up there for Terrific Kid, I leaned over to her, and I said, my gosh, what a great organization, and look how excited these kids are, and I just went on and on. So, at the end of the program, she said, I’d like to introduce our newest Kiwanis member, and she introduced me at that time. I joined the week after that.”
Over the next three decades, Bullock would hold every office in the club except treasurer and represent the group as Lt. Governor.
The group’s mission is to improve the world, one child, and one community at a time.
Although Lake Region Kiwanis organizes the Keystone Heights Christmas and Our Country Day Parades, Bullock maintains that its most significant impact remains the character-building Terrific Kids program, which recognizes elementary school students for positive behavior and builds self-esteem and perseverance.
“I know the parades are kind of our signature pieces,” Bullock said, “but the Terrific Kids are always up there too because we’ve been doing that for so long. I think Badger Moring got us started in that, and the Starke Club picked it up from us.”
Bullock said the program has touched thousands of Lake Region students over the past 30-plus years.
“We now have parents who come up and say, I was a Terrific Kid,” Bullock stated. “It’s touched so many kids, and I like it because they don’t have to be straight-A students. They just have to try to improve and achieve and do the best they can.”
Bullock said Lake Region Kiwanis’s sponsorship of K-Kids at elementary campuses and Key Club at Keystone Heights Junior-Senior High School has also fulfilled the nonprofit’s mission.
“K-Kids teaches students about volunteerism and leadership,” she said. “We have clubs at Keystone Elementary and McRae.”
Bullock said the club took over organizing the Christmas parade in the 1980s after the Junior Woman’s Club launched the event in the early 1970s and ran it until the club disbanded.
She added that the Kiwanis’ involvement with the Our Country Day Parade occurred because Noel Thomas was Commander of American Legion Post 202 and President of Lake Region Kiwanis simultaneously. When the post wanted to start an Independence Day parade and sought help, Thomas recommended that the Kiwanis Club step in.
Bullock now serves and has for years served as the announcer for both processions.
