Though not always the case, the Exchange Club of Killeen honored one of its own members Saturday evening during its annual Golden Deeds Banquet.
Having served with the club for 62 years, the club honored Don Sutton with the award at the Killeen Civic and Conference Center.
“I’m very humbled to get this award,” Sutton said Saturday evening. “I didn’t think I deserved it, but I’m very thankful for it.”
Sutton joked that he figured he won the award because for 62 years of dedicated service, he has eaten 744 meals at the Exchange Club — one per month.
After a round of laughter from those in the crowd, Sutton said it has been an honor to serve in the club and serve with the people he has had the opportunity to serve with.
“We need to honor our own members,” said Dawn Richardson, president-elect of the club. “When you talk about 60 years of service … the whole world knows about it — what this man has done year after year.”
Since 1957, the club has dedicated one night each year to recognize an individual for their “golden” unsolicited, uncompensated and unselfish deeds in the community.
Sutton became a member of the Exchange Club of Killeen on Sept. 1, 1961. He served as president of the club in 1965 and has been vice president and bingo chairman since 2015.
He has served on several committees in the Exchange Club of Killeen since 2011.
His vast array of volunteer work includes supporting the high school, middle school and elementary Exchange Clubs; adopting a family and purchasing toys for children at Christmas; taking elderly people to doctor appointments in Temple; and checking in on current and past members of the club.
Professionally, Sutton was president of Killeen Savings and Loans until 1977. He worked in real estate sales and appraisals until 2015.
“The Golden Deed is something that it takes your heart to do,” said Ebony Jones, the club’s treasurer. “And it’s something that you do – willingly and unconsciously.”
Jones recognized four past recipients of the Golden Deeds Award.
Speaking to the teenagers in the room from the local high schools, Jones said: “You’ve got a lot in this room that you can aspire to and be inspired … because it’s within their hearts to show you what it is to make this community the best that it can ever be. It’s something that you can’t find by sitting behind a computer, by sitting and looking at a telephone all day. It’s something you have to get up, get out, latch on and find somebody.”
The Exchange Club has been a service club in Killeen since 1955, with three main tenets: Americanism, community service and youth programs. Its main focus is on child abuse prevention, Richardson explained.
“Anything that’s in the community, our resources stay within the community, so we support things that are happening in our community,” she said.
