By John Howell
Batesville Exchange Club members recognized two 40-year members during a June 16 banquet celebrating its 40th anniversary.
Bobby Baker and Billy Downs were presented certificates attesting their long history of membership in the service club from the time it received its charter in June, 1976. Club president Danny Jones as past-president Ed Casteel made the presentations
Also recognized was Gene Wallis, designated an “honorary charter member” for his initial 1973 membership in the Tupelo Exchange Club before he moved to Batesville and joined the local club.
Mississippi Exchange District President-elect Margaret King of Oxford presented the club with a certificate commending the Batesville club for its long service.
Former district and local club officer Jimmy Dickerson said that Batesville is one of 29 clubs in the state. Mississippi has had an outsized influence on the National Exchange Club, Dickerson said, with four of its presidents having been selected from the state.
Among them was Dr. Ed North of Jackson who in 1979 persuaded the organization to adopt child abuse prevention as its national project.
“He saw so many cases as a doctor of abused children coming in,” Dickerson said.
Dickerson also talked about the late Doyle Sibley, a Batesville Exchange member and state officer. “He pushed a lot of us to work hard to get the Oxford center located there,” Dickerson said, referring to the Exchange Club Child Abuse Prevention Center supported by local clubs in north Mississippi.
“We’re about prevention,” Dickerson said.
The Batesville Exchange Club holds breakfast meetings each Wednesday at 7 a.m. at the Church of Christ fellowship building on Eureka Street. Anyone interested in the Exchange Club’s work is invited to attend and learn more about the organization, Jones said.