Cullman Mayor Woody Jacobs welcomes Lions Club International President Bob Corlew and his wife Diane, naming them honorary citizens of Cullman.
CULLMAN – On Thursday, Lions Club International President Bob Corlew and his wife Diane were welcomed to Cullman by the Cullman Lions Club, Cullman Community Lions Club and Cullman Mayor Woody Jacobs, as well as Cullman City Parks and Recreation (CP&R) Director Nathan Anderson and representatives of the Cullman Area Chamber of Commerce. It was the first time a sitting Lions Club International president has visited the city.
While in town, Corlew, who was escorted by Cullman Community Lion Ron Seybold, visited the Cullman County Fairgrounds, where the Cullman Lions host the annual Cullman County Fair, and Field of Miracles sports complex. At his last stop on the tour, he cut the ribbon to officially reopen the recently renovated Stiefelmeyer Park.
Anderson explained, “The Lions Club contributed the money to build this playground in Stiefelmeyer Park. Today we have the International Lions Club President in town, so the local Lions Club decided to come together and have a ribbon cutting commemorating the park. It’s one of my favorites; there’s a lot of land here, but because it’s narrow, you can put little play features in here and it feels intimate. We were able to put a small-scale playground, perfect in size for the land.
“Even though we placed it, we could still get a disc golf course out here. If you look on the perimeter, you’ll see four disc golf baskets that you can creatively play as nine holes or 18 holes. We did lay out something with the local disc golf association, so when we were laying out the baskets, we thought like a disc golf enthusiast.
“We also have soccer teams that come out here to practice. We have the pavilion and added a grill, so that families could have a neighborhood get-together or a family gathering. You can get out here and throw a ball. You can get out here if you’re into golf and have some fun with the chipper, play football, soccer. It’s just a great little neighborhood park.”
When Corlew arrived, he was greeted by a strong contingent of local Lions, and paused to have his picture taken with members of the local Leo Club, a Lions Club youth auxiliary. He also took a moment to speak to The Tribune about his visit:
“I love your city. This is not my first time in Cullman; it’s my first time here on Lions’ business, but I’ve been through Cullman a number of times. It’s beautiful; the people are so warm, so friendly. It’s just great to be here.”
Cullman Lions Club President Barry Willingham introduced Corlew, and later Jacobs presented the international president and his wife a certificate naming them honorary citizens of Cullman.
Corlew addressed the audience:
“Lions is such a great organization. This year, serving as your international president, that message has been driven home to me over and over and over again. And it’s being driven home to me again today by you, the Lions here in Cullman. It has been so great for me to see the work that you are doing to help your community. I had said earlier today, I wish we had a Lions Club just like yours in every community all over the world, because you folks are truly outstanding and I so appreciate the work that you’re doing.
“You, of course, are doing so much work for your community. You have contributed so many hours to your community, but I’ll tell you, in all honesty, your work is not unique; because this year, just since last July, Lions around the world have donated more than 32 million hours of their time working on projects to help their communities. In fact, this year we have recognized as one of our themes, ‘Where there’s a need, there’s a Lion.’ And in order to make that theme truly a reality, we have recognized that every community has needs. And thus we have worked hard this year to build new Lions Clubs in new communities, so that in every community around the world there’ll be a Lions Club to meet those needs.
“The reason that we’ve been excited to start new clubs, and the reason we’ve been excited to have new members come into our organization is because, statistically, on average with every new Lion who joins us, 70 people are benefited in our communities. That’s the reason we want to continue to grow, and that’s the reason we want to continue to serve.”
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