Tom Karnes, former Lincoln Park mayor and immediate past president of the Exchange Club of Lincoln Park, announces the club’s centennial year and its status as the city’s oldest service club during the Aug. 11 city council meeting.
By SUE SUCHYTA
Sunday Times Newspapers
LINCOLN PARK – The Exchange Club is celebrating its centennial along with the city it serves, former mayor and immediate club past president Thomas Karnes announced at the Aug. 24 city council meeting.
Karnes, who is a past Michigan district president and the 96th national Exchange Club president, said Aug. 22 to 24 will mark the local group’s 100-year milestone since it first sponsored Lincoln Park Days, which is the group’s largest annual fundraiser.
“The Exchange Club is Lincoln Park’s oldest service club, and the bond between the city and the club has continued through thick and thin,” he said. “The city of Lincoln Park and the Exchange Club of Lincoln Park are unique in all Exchange Clubs as the city has had an active Exchange Club in every year of the city’s existence.”
The national Exchange Club, also known as America’s Service Club, was founded in Detroit in 1911 as a way for people to share their good fortune in business with the community.
The group’s motto is “Unity for Service,” and its core values are family, community and country.
Its mission is to make their communities better places to live, and it performs service projects that support Americanism, community service and youth projects. Nationally, the club is committed to the prevention of child abuse.
The Lincoln Park Exchange Club uses the proceeds from Lincoln Park Days to award four $1,000 scholarships annually to Lincoln Park High School seniors, and to honor four students as Youth of the Month and one student as Youth of the Year.
For the past 20 years the Exchange Club has also honored a police officer and a firefighter each year, supported the Goodfellows service group, and supported First Step, which helps victims of domestic violence.
The Exchange Club has run the city’s Easter Egg hunt for the past 13 years, at which it distributes brochures on parenting tips.
The group has installed freedom shrines in all of the city’s schools and in most of the city’s buildings.
Each May the Exchange Club erects a field of flags at Memorial Park in memory of the 129 local people listed as killed in action in service to the United States.
The group has sponsored a high school Excel Club for the past 14 years to teach students about leadership and community service.
This year the Lincoln Park Exchange Club was honored by the National Exchange Club for its service to the city.
In addition to Lincoln Park Days serving as a special city event, other local service, school, church and fraternal groups depend on it to meet their fundraising goals.