[ July 19, 2021 ] The Optimist Club of Jasper held a special luncheon on July1 5th at 61 Main at which time the club honored the memory of Tom Eubanks as well as our Charter President, Von J. Hinton. Past President, Jim Kirk presented to Tom Eubanks' family a special certificate of Member Emeritus that the club was not able to give Tom last year personally due to covid restrictions. Tom passed away on January 9, 2021.

Tom remembered our club in his estate and the family made a donation to our Club Foundation for the Von J. Hinton Memorial Citizenship Award. His sister, Theresa Eubanks Ireland, made the donation along with 3 other members of the Eubanks family who were all involved with their various Optimist Clubs. Tom was a long time Optimist and held many offices at the District and International levels. We were honored to be remembered by Tom in his estate especially in recognition of the Von J. Hinton Memorial Citizenship Award.

The Club's luncheon was also an opportunity to recognize and give awards to two Von J. Hinton Memorial Citizenship Award recipients. Club President, Dave Slade, introduced Reeder Burch, Project Leader, who spoke about both Tom Eubanks and Von Hinton and the roles they both played in making our community better. The club honored Von J. Hinton by naming our Citizenship Award after him several years ago. We were honored to have Von's son, Mark Hinton, in attendance as well.

Reeder Burch presented each of the award winners with a bio of Von, a certificate and a monetary award in recognition of this honor.

Our two winners this year are:

Cheyenne Garrison of Mountain Education Charter High School/Pickens Campus. Cheyenne is the daughter of David and Terri Lynn Garrison. Site Administrator, Corey Thompson, spoke to the club about how Cheyenne was selected for this award and how she overcame obstacles to continue on with her education.

Emma Long of Pickens High School, daughter of Ann Long, was chosen as the PHS winner this year. Principal Chris Wallace spoke about Emma and how she was an outstanding candidate for this award and about her many achievements.

The Optimist Club of Jasper meets the 1st and 3rd Thursdays most months at 7:00 AM at 61 Main. Our two August meetings will be our annual donations meeting when monetary donations will be made to 13 organizations that support the youth of our community. We welcome guests and new members. Like to know more? Check us out on Facebook by searching for Optimist Club of Jasper, GA

[Photos by Gene Berry]