By JESSA PEASE / Staff Writer

PELHAM— After one year of gathering interest, the Exchange Club of Shelby County will host its first official charter meeting July 9 at 6:30 p.m. at the Hampton Inn off Alabama 119 in Pelham.

Exchange Club is a national service organization composed of about 700 clubs and 20,000 members across the United States and Puerto Rico. While the club provides its members the opportunity to develop personal and business leadership skills, it also focuses on four main components: Americanism, the prevention of child abuse, youth programs and scholarships.

“There are a lot of things that we do and we are excited to be a part of the community,” said the club’s president Marilyn Eddings. “Each exchange club can decide what projects they are going to participate in based on the needs in the community.”

Eddings said she invites the entire Shelby County community to join the meeting tonight, and it’s also the last night to become one of the first charter members of the group. Birmingham’s Exchange Club has been around for about 100 years, and they still have a plaque with its original charter members.

“We want to bless the citizens of this county and have other like-minded people come take a look at us,” she said.  “It’s a great organization, and a great group of people.”

The Exchange Club of Shelby County has already gotten involved in the community by helping fundraise for Carly’s Clubhouse, and now that the organization has its own charter, Eddings said they can begin their own service projects.

They have a committee that will be meeting to discuss the club’s first projects, although she said they already know they want to honor veterans and continue the ongoing support of Birmingham’s Child Abuse Prevention Center.

“It’s really what meets the needs of the community,” Eddings said.

As a former schoolteacher she is excited to begin offering Ace Award scholarship to graduating students who have overcome a lot of obstacles to graduate high school. School counselors nominate a student for the award who will graduate despite a challenge such as child abuse, drug abuse or homelessness.

What drew the club’s president elect, Coni Fievet-Crawford, to the organization was the class of people who are involved. She said she can tell they are devoted people who see something and want to make a change.

“We’re excited about it,” Fievet-Crawford said. “We’ve been trying to get the charter together for about a year now. We finally got the amount of people we needed, and we are very excited to have a Shelby County charter.”

The Exchange Club of Shelby County meets on the second and fourth Thursday of each month at Hibachi Sushi Super Buffet in Pelham. They meet at 6:30 p.m. on the second Thursday and 11:30 a.m. on the fourth Thursday.

The club will be electing its board members and officers at the July 9 meeting. For more information, email Eddings at eddingsma@gmail.com.