Suzanne Stewart
Staff Writer
At its July 25 meeting, Durbin Lions Club presented its 13th Melvin Jones Fellowship award – the highest honor a Lion can achieve.
Charles Sheets, past district governor and former Durbin Lions Club president, presented the award to club secretary Jacob Meck. Sheets was Meck’s sponsor when he joined the club in 2003.
The Melvin Jones Fellowship is named for the founder of Lions Club International. To honor his memory and dedication to founding a service-centered organization, The Fellowship is awarded to those who have shown a commitment to humanitarian work.
Those who receive the award have either donated $1,000 or had $1,000 in donations made in their honor to the Lions Club International Foundation – LCIF – which provides international relief in areas of diabetes, environment, hunger, vision and childhood cancer.
The first Durbin Lions Club members to receive the Melvin Jones Fellowship award were Kenny Vance and Dick Reigel in 2008. Both gentlemen were the longest standing members of the club at the time.
At the club’s 65th anniversary celebration in 2011, the Melvin Jones Fellowhship was awarded to Harold Crist.
Durbin Lions who received the award in 2013 were Charles Sheets, Carolyn Sheets, Linda Stewart and Suzanne Stewart; 2014, Donnie Waybright; 2018, Rick Wooddell; and in 2022, Kay Blackshire, Bob Sheets and Murrel Mullenax.