SEARCY — Irene Gray is the glue that holds the Rotary Club of Searcy together, said Christine Walker, the club’s new president.
Gray, 81, is the longtime executive secretary of the club. She got involved with the club following the unexpected death of her husband, Barron, 21 years ago.
“She is Ms. Rotary Club,” Walker said of Gray. “She is the core of our Searcy Rotary Club. She is amazing. She is the whole reason that I accepted becoming president. I just have so much admiration and respect for her. When she brought up me being president, I didn’t want to disappoint her.”
The Grays moved to Searcy from Memphis in 1977. Barron Gray was a vice president of purchasing and engineering for Yarnell’s Ice Cream in Searcy. He was involved in the Rotary Club early on, and Irene said she would do volunteer work, like many wives did at the time.
“I had helped out in a volunteer way, which happens in a lot of Rotary Clubs,” Gray said.
When her husband died in 1998, Gray got more involved with the Rotary Club.
“My husband was Mr. Rotary,” she said. “When he died unexpectedly, the club called me and told me I had been elected to come in. I didn’t even get a choice.”
Gray decided to go through with working with Rotary.
“I just felt like Rotary did so much good,” she said. “I just felt so strongly about what they were doing and how Rotary is. We’re a civic club, and we’re international. We’re all over the world. Up until a few years ago, we had no clubs in the Middle East. We do have one in Jordan now, and maybe another. My husband helped start a Rotary Club in the Ukraine while on a mission trip.”
Gray said an international convention is held each year, and she has attended five of the conventions.
“A couple of years ago, it was in Atlanta, Georgia,” she said. “Five members of our club went to it. I’ve been to five of them. Next year, it’s going to be in Hawaii. I’m hoping I get to go to it.”
The Rotary Club recently honored three public servants in the Searcy area for their work.
“We’ve been doing these for several years,” Gray said. “We did change the title of it a few years ago to honor those who were members of our club.”
Patrolman Jason McGlawn of the Searcy Police Department received the J.R. Thomas Award for being the outstanding police officer for the department.
Bradley Stevens was honored as the Benton Robbins White County Deputy of the Year by the Rotary Club.
Lt. Cody Larque was awarded the J.W. “Red” Morris Firefighter of the Year award.
During her time with the Rotary Club, Gray has served as president, as well as assistant governor for the area. Now she serves as the club’s executive secretary and has for some time.
“Every year, we got a new secretary, and some of them were not keeping records real well,” she said. “We were getting low on money and couldn’t figure out why. We then found checks that didn’t get put in the bank, things like that.
“A few of the clubs decided to have an executive secretary. My job is supposed to be sending out the bills and making sure things are getting paid. That’s not all I do, but that is what I’m supposed to do.”
Gray said the Rotary Club is heavily involved with A Day of Caring, sponsored by Unity Health.
“For several years, we’ve done this,” she said. “We’ve given socks to school children, two pairs per child. Last year, we gave out 1,100 pairs of socks. We have Coats for Kids in the winter. We collect coats from all over town. We put barrels out in businesses. People put coats out there. Hall’s Cleaners in Searcy cleans them for us free. We give them to schools and to Jacob’s Place.”
Gray said the club is always on call to open up its storage unit, where they keep all their items.
“There’s not a charge for any of it,” she said. “As long as they need it, we give it to them.”
The Rotary Club also gives out scholarships to four area high schools — Searcy, Riverview, Harding Academy and White County Central.
“This year, we managed to get a one-time matching grant, where we were able to give two scholarships to each school,” she said. “We do have an opportunity to do matching grants like that sometimes. We’ve done a couple where we’ve managed to get things for the Sunshine School.”
The Rotary Club of Searcy also supports projects in areas of Central America.
Additionally, the club takes a collection at its gatherings for various projects.
“Every meeting, we pass a basket around so people can throw in a dollar or two,” Gray said. “Every quarter, we choose a charity that gets that extra money. Last time, we used it to buy socks for A Day of Caring. This time, we’re donating it to the Arkansas Run for the Fallen for them to buy wreaths for the cemetery at Christmas.”
The Rotary Club of Searcy meets at noon every Tuesday at the Searcy County Club. For more information, find the club on Facebook.
Staff writer Mark Buffalo can be reached at (501) 399-3676 or mbuffalo@arkansasonline.com.