Cabot Lions Club president looks to build on first term
CABOT — During her second term, Karen Wilkins, president of the Cabot Lions Club, hopes to re-energize the community’s desire to volunteer and increase membership for the chapter.
“I want to help more people, and the best way to do that is to have more people [join],” Wilkins said. “It’s just kind of a trend in service organizations that people get so busy with other things that it’s not necessarily a priority in their lives, and I feel it should be.”
According to Lions Clubs International’s website, the organization and its local chapters focus on five areas of need: diabetes, vision, hunger, environment and childhood cancer. The organization’s network of 1.4 million members comprises 46,000 chapters in 200 countries around the world. The chapter in Cabot has 35 members.
“Our members are very different in many ways, but we share a core belief — our community is what we make it. That’s because we help where help is needed. In short, we serve,” the website states.
In August, Wilkins was elected to serve a second term as president of the Cabot Lions Club, an organization that has been a part of the Cabot community since 1950. To choose whom its next president will be, the organization accepts nominations, and about 15 to 20 members cast votes. Each term is a year long.
Wilkins’ involvement with the Lions Club started in 2009, when she was one of the founding members of the Little Rock South Lions Club. After getting married in 2014, she moved to Cabot and became a member of the Cabot Lions Club in 2016. Wilkins spent her first year with the organization as a member, then moved up the organization’s leadership ladder. In 2017, Wilkins served as second vice president, then as first vice president for two terms before becoming president. Wilkins is retired from a career as a registered nurse. In her free time, Wilkins enjoys spending time with her five grandkids — two of her grandkids live in Moutain Home, two of them are in Mena, and one in Mabelvale.
Wilkins’ predecessor, Ryanna Rapuano, decided not to run for re-election because of her work schedule as a nurse during the pandemic. While she was president, she had the chance to work with Wilkins on planning events such as the Pancake
Breakfast, Cabot Fest and other fundraisers.
“She’s very pleasant to work with,” Rapuano said of Wilkins. “She knows what gaps need to be filled in, with either organization or participation. She really does love the Lions Club in its entirety — its goal and its people and everything that we do.”
From her time as president, Rapuano recalled that the skill most needed for the job was the ability to bring people together.
“It was about connecting people who love to do community service, love to help with vision and health screenings, and just overall connecting people to do better for others in need,” Rapuano said.
In her first term, Wilkins said, her proudest moment was the organization hosting its Field of Honor event. In 2020, the organization set up a display of U.S. flags near West Main Street from Oct. 31 to Nov. 14 to honor current and past veterans, along with first responders, police officers and firefighters. About 200 flags were planted for the event.
Stephen Redd, first vice president of the Cabot Lions Club, said it helps having Wilkins’ leadership when planning these types of events and fundraisers.
“Karen is always involved and making sure that everybody’s where they should be,” Redd said. “If somebody can’t make it [to the event], she steps in and is usually playing two to three roles. She’s a great president, for sure.”
Wilkins said the Field of Honor helped the organization get more exposure, but more work is needed to get more members of the community to join the club.
“When I meet people, I’m always inviting them to meetings and encouraging them to come back,” Wilkins said.
Rapuano believes Wilkins is capable of getting more people to join the Cabot Lions Club.
“She has a really good plan to reach out to people who we haven’t seen in a while,” Rapuano said.
Going forward, Wilkins said, she wants to be more organized and help more people. From Rapuano’s experience as president, she remembers organization being a big part of the job.
“As far as tasks go, a lot of it was organizing meetings, organizing committees and looking out for the members of the organization,” she said.
In the upcoming months, Wilkins said, the organization plans to host a few fundraisers.
“Right now, we’re just sort of taking a little break,” she said.
The Cabot Lions Club’s website states that the organization is always looking for new members to attend its meetings. For anyone who wants to join the club, the meetings are at noon the second and fourth Thursdays of each month at Colton’s Steakhouse & Grill, 195 Northpoint Drive.