Though Tellico Village has a slew of clubs and organizations, seven groups — four service clubs and three churches — are forming a coalition to uplift each group’s mission collectively.
“Tellico Working Together,” the banded group of Tellico Village Lions Club, Kiwanis Club of Tellico Village, Tellico Lake Rotary Club, GFWC Tellico Village Women’s Club, the Community Church at Tellico Village, First Baptist Church in Tellico Village and Shepherd of the Lake Lutheran Church, will make their introduction Oct. 25 at the Tellico Village Property Owners Association Fall Festival.
Despite each group focusing on a different mission, the greater desire to do good in the community overrides specifics. Tellico Working Together kickstarted with the groups coming together to help the Lions Club raise money.
“We’re both in Kiwanis,” Dan Kuzdzal, club member, said. “(Randy Heiden) is also in the Lions Club on their board. I’m involved with Community Church on the outreach committee. His group initiated this. They wanted to do a Habitat (for Humanity) build. They got seven civic groups in the Village together … they collected enough money, $33,000.”
After the collective goal to donate to the Habitat build, similarities began to dominate among the groups.
“What struck both of us was in Kiwanis we have over 50 projects,” Kuzdzal said. “Some of them are community-focused, some are school-focused, some are children with disabilities focused, some are (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) program-focused, and what we noticed was the churches — several of them, maybe not all three — provide scholarships. Kiwanis has scholarships. We all support the Family Resource Center. We all support the Child’s Advocacy Center. We pretty much all support the Good Samaritan Center (of Loudon County). Most of us do things to support the Good Neighbors Shoppe. It’s like we’re doing these things together, we’d have a much bigger impact — you take a look at seven groups, $33,000. Maybe if we did some of these things together, we’d have a bigger impact.”
For many annual events, like the Lions Club’s glasses drives, having more volunteers to collect glasses could create a greater outcome, Heiden said.
Tellico Working Together would also serve to sub various team members when others fall sick or are unable to attend crucial events.
“If we do more things together by collecting and so on, and we also want to do one other thing,” Heiden said. “We want to help each other. Let’s say the Women’s Club is having their big dinner that they have once a year. Well, four people get sick, and they operate at capacity. All they have to do is get on the phone and call us and say, ‘Hey, we need four people over here to help us out with that,’ and we better say ‘yes’.”
Group members can also learn from one another and analyze what could be done in switching up events.
“We want to analyze the people we’re helping,” Heiden said. “In other words, say three of us are delivering to the same account. Should all three be there or should just two be there and one go to someone else? In other words, make the maximum of our work efforts. I’m not trying to hurt anyone, we’re just trying to help. Maybe we find out that this agency that we’re helping, if they would do this and this, it would help us, it would help them, then let’s talk to them and say, ‘Hey, can you help us by doing this?’ We’re just trying to get better results with similar-type effort.”
“The whole idea is to take the time to evaluate what we’re doing,” Kuzdzal added. “We’re all doing something for Lenoir City Schools or Loudon County Schools. Rather than sticking with what we normally do, why don’t we periodically evaluate what they need and assess their need? We did that about two years ago. We started a robotics program at (Lenoir City Intermediate/Middle School). They already had it at (Lenoir City High School). About two years ago, there were two graduates from LCHS that went to a two-year trade school and studied robotics like they did in high school. They both got hired by Oak Ridge National Laboratory for $68,000 a year.”
The festival will give Villagers a first glance of what Tellico Working Together has to offer. A main booth staffed with a few volunteers will give a run-down of activities offered. Separate booths for each organization will detail what the groups do.
“There’s really two goals,” Kuzdzal said. “You take a look at Tellico Village and the (Tellico Village HomeOwners Association) as this New Villagers program. … They’re all looking like, ‘I’m retired, but I want to give back. I want to do something.’ How do they find out what’s going on out here? I know the HOA has a list that you can get at the Wellness Center, but it doesn’t tell you anything about what they do or how they do it. The idea was that we would like to be able to use this for two purposes. One, to inform the community what the opportunities are if they’re interested in participating. They’ll know what we do, how we do it, what it takes to do it.
“I think the other thing is, we want to let people know that if you want to get involved, if you don’t want to join a club but you want to participate with the church, whether you’re a member or not, they have all kinds of social and civic things that you can participate in,” he added.
Tellico Working Together believes the approach can properly inform Villagers about the new group with a variety of booths that will have information about each organization.
“What we’re trying to do is have an event that keeps people happy,” Heiden said. “We’re going to have the live music there and the hot dogs and ice cream, and we’re going to have very low-pressure things at the booths. We’ve even got two clowns that are going to be walking around. It’s a fun time. There’s going to be kidding and sarcasm and so on and so forth, but usually when you have a fun time like that, people get much more interested in what’s happening than they do if they go to a show and they’re just being hit left and right, ‘Do this, do that, so on and so forth’.”
The POA Fall Festival will take place 11 a.m.-2 p.m. in the back parking lot of the Community Church at Tellico Village. Free hot dogs, ice cream and beverages will be provided, and weather permitting, a dunk booth will be on site. Live music will be playing.
Attendees are asked to bring non-perishable food items for the Good Samaritan Center as well as used eyeglasses and hearing aids, which the Lions Club will collect.
