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Last Thursday night, a large group of Greenville residents filled the Kiwanis fair grounds at the Rotary Crawfish Boil, as the Greenville Rotary Club awarded the Spirit of Greenville Award to Kathy Smyth.

The Spirit of Greenville Award is the highest recognition given by the club to a non-Rotarian. It recognizes those who practice service above self, demonstrate the utmost integrity, and are actively involved in the life of the community.

The club has presented the award since 2007.

When presented the award, Smyth was honored. She shared, “I guess the take away from this is bloom where you are planted.”

Beginning her career as the victims’ service officer for the 2nd Circuit DA’s office, Smyth now serves as the Executive Director of the Children’s Advocacy Center, better known as Safe Harbour.

Serving in Greenville over the years, Smyth shared her love for the community. She added, “Speaking of impact, I just want to say the children that we serve have made more of an impact on me than I have on them.”

Rotarian President Tori Norris said, “This year’s recipient is well deserved of this award as her work with children of Butler and surrounding counties is priceless. To be honest, when the committee came to me with their nomination there was not a second of hesitation when I responded yes!”

Everyone in attendance enjoyed live music and all 700 pounds of crawfish. Through these events, The Greenville Rotary Club raises funds to give back to the community. Norris added, “We are appreciative of the community support we received at the event Saturday night. This was our first time stepping out of the box and doing something different to raise money. We are excited to be able to take the money raised through the crawfish boil and invest it right back in the Greenville community.”

Rotary President Elect Casey Rogers also commented, “The Rotary Club was very appreciative of the immense community support for this event. It was great to see everyone come together to pull of such a fun event!”