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The Andalusia Lions Club held their annual banquet at the Oakwood Lodge on Thursday, April 14.

During the event, the prestigious Melvin Jones Award was presented to Rose White Parker by Lion Mindy Barton, recognizing her outstanding work with children in the Andalusia Community.

Parker works at Andalusia Elementary School as well as during the summer with a youth program at the Coleman Center.

“She is a great role model for our youth and she instills in them the belief that they can achieve anything they set out to do,” according to the Lions Club.

The award is named for Melvin Jones, the founder of Lions Clubs International. Since the club’s inception, more than 100 years ago, LCI has grown to become the largest civic organization in the world.  There are Lions Clubs in over 200 countries around the world.

“The Melvin Jones Award is among the highest honors in Lionism and Rose Parker is a deserving recipient of this award.”

Later during the event, Lion Billy Joe Stallworth presented the club’s “Lion of the Year” award to Carroll Mullis. Mullis was chosen for the award because of his outstanding volunteer work within and outside the Lions Club.  Among other Lions activities, he volunteers at the Andalusia Lions Physically Challenged Deer Hunt. Carroll also serves on the board of directors of the Blue Lake Methodist Camp and is the chairman of the Men’s Fellowship Group at the First Methodist Church. Members of the Men’s Fellowship frequently travel to volunteer at disaster sites around the southeast. He also volunteers with Habitat for Humanity.

Mullis stated that “he wakes up every morning thinking about how he can help someone.”

The Andalusia Lions Club “Man of the Year” award is well deserved by Mullis, according to the club.

Following the presentation of awards, Brian Foshee, director of the Andalusia Veterans Service Center, spoke about his work helping veterans. Some of those activities include filing for VA disability benefits, application to VA nursing facilities, and application for VA pension benefits.  Foshee stated that his office currently serves over 1,300 veterans.

“The Andalusia community is blessed to have this center here in Andalusia.  It serves veterans and their surviving spouses.”

To close the banquet, Jeff and Jacob Sellers sang and played guitar for the group. They are members of the 3-Notch Ramblers who will be performing during Andalusia’s July Jamz series this summer.