Recognized with the Outstanding Citizens award was the Centerville United Methodist Church Food Distribution Program. Lion Dennis Stephen, left, presented the plaque to its leaders, Kevin Smith, Sam Dixon and Jim Potter. Submitted

Four Centerville residents received the Community Service Award and the Centerville United Methodist Church Food Distribution Program and its leaders received the Outstanding Citizens award from the Centerville Lions Club on May 9.

Individual Community Service Award recipients include Kim Young, Mark Culbertson, Ty Farmer and Mark Howell.

In honoring Kevin Smith, Sam Dixon and Jim Potter, the leaders in the Centerville United Methodist Church Food Distribution Program, Lion Dennis Stephen said that small community food pantries had operated for several years before the program started.

“About five years ago their pastor, Ted Chalk, said to church leadership, ‘We can do better.’ Kevin Smith said he would lead such an effort. He soon had help from Sam Dixon and Jim Potter. They were able to get help from Gleaners,” a regional food bank. “With the help of church members and Gleaners, they were soon supplying food to as many as 80 families from our community.”

Young has been Centerville-Abington Senior Center director for about 10 years.

Culbertson has been Centerville’s scoutmaster since 2003. An Eagle Scout, he has been involved with Boy Scouts since the age of 7, when he joined Cub Scouts.

The club honored Farmer for his work with the Lions Club, noting that he comes early and stays late for meetings and projects. He is a key member in preparing for the club’s annual fish fry, which will be on June 11.

Howell, a Centerville native, had been a teacher for 40 years, having taught at Union County, Connersville and Lincoln before returning to CHS as athletic director in 1995, and retired in 2020.

>> More information printed in the May 18 edition of Western Wayne News.

 

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