Exchange Club of Albany took home multiple awards at 93rd Georgia District Convention

ALBANY – One of the area’s top service organizations, the Exchange Club of Albany, sent 11 members and their spouses to represent the local club at the national organization’s 93^rd Georgia District Convention in Columbus last week.

“The convention included Exchange education, speakers on Americanism and prevention of child abuse, which is our primary national project,” Exchange Club of Albany President Gary Knight said Monday. “We made several donations to organizations that work with children and focus on prevention of child abuse at the convention, including Open Arms from Albany.”

Knight explained that members of the Exchange Club followed in a tradition of service that is more than a century old, and said attending the Georgia convention is an important annual part of making sure that tradition continues.

“The convention is very important,” Knight said. “We do it yearly, and it is a time for us to have additional education on the Exchange and talk about what we have planned for the upcoming year. We actually have a four-hour session on that. For new presidents or secretaries, these sessions are extremely important. We also take the time to honor our Americanism, which is our main project, by having a guest speaker who usually speaks on behalf of our veterans or active military service.”

Honoring those who serve has always been a primary focus of The National Exchange Club, which was organized as a nonprofit, educational organization in 1917. The name “Exchange” was selected because the group wanted to exchange ideas and information with like-minded individuals about how to better serve their communities.

Now local clubs across America sponsor activities under the organization’s Programs of Service: Americanism, Youth Programs and Community Service, as well as its “National Project,” the prevention of child abuse.

“One of the most important and inspiring portions (of the convention) was when we brought over the district winners for our Youth of the Year speech contest and ACE Awards,” Knight said “These are all (high school) juniors or seniors, and we get submissions from all the clubs all over the state. We have 43 clubs from which we take the top ones that are judged by an independent group. The kids are brought in and presented their awards, which is usually a scholarship for $1,500.”

The Exchange Club Of Albany selected their club’s local ACE Award winner as part of the club’s youth recognition program. ACE stands for Accepting the Challenge of Excellence, a program that recognizes high school students who have made a dramatic change in their attitude and performance during their high school years.

The local Albany winner goes on to compete for the Georgia District Exchange Clubs ACE Award program, after which, the Georgia winner goes on to the national competition and the possibility of winning a $10,000 scholarship.

“Listening and watching these young people gives you confidence that there are many young people capable of leading this great nation,” Knight said. “The Albany Exchange Club also won a number of awards at the convention, including Bulletin of the Year, Wes Sadler; Secretary of the Year, Cody Jolley, and Club History Book, Community Service for our Veterans Week, and Outstanding President, which belonged to the effort of the entire club. (Club members) also took home numerous patches for various community activities and projects that honored law enforcement, fire and rescue.

“These are all excellent awards for a very hard-working club, but many believe the most important was the Community Award for our Veterans Week during the Fair. Being able to honor our veterans during that week will remain a high point of the year.”