Chickamauga Lions Club presents Lions of the Year

From left are Chickamauga Lions Club 1st Vice President Eddie Upshaw and Lions of the Year Randy Compton, newly inducted club president, and Harry Kythas, newly inducted treasurer.
From left are Chickamauga Lions Club 1st Vice President Eddie Upshaw and Lions of the Year Randy Compton, newly inducted club president, and Harry Kythas, newly inducted treasurer.

For the first time ever, the Chickamauga Lions Club is congratulating not one, but two Lions of the Year: Randy Compton and Harry Kythas.

"Harry and Randy went over and above to serve the community," said club 1st Vice President Eddie Upshaw. "They stayed late and worked hard at events. They have been a great help to the community, and great club members. That was the first time we've given the award to two people. We voted secretly and it came out to a tie."

Compton, who is the newly inducted club president, owns Compton Surveying in Chickamauga. He became a Lion three years ago.

"Since we are a small organization, everyone is involved in the Cash Giveaway, Down Home Days and the Supermarket Sweep. Everyone does whatever is asked of them," Compton said. "We want to build the youth participation up in the club. As president, I want new ideas and ways of communicating through Twitter and Facebook."

Kythas joined the club four years ago. He also serves as vice president/branch manager of SouthCrest Bank, formerly the Bank of Chickamauga, where he began working 27 years ago.

"We've worked the Cash Giveaway, the Lions Club Golf Tournament, the Supermarket Sweep and Down Home Days," said Kythas. "Lions Club means helping your community. We all work better when we work together. We need new members. We welcome all people to join."

Compton noted that this year's Supermarket Sweep tickets are being sold now. The winning ticket will be drawn Sept. 1. On Sept. 3, the winner will run the aisles of ShopRite in Chickamauga to see how many groceries he or she can toss into his or her basket in the time allowed.

"The winner has five minutes to run the store and gather as much groceries as the winner can and the winner automatically gets $50 worth of meat," Compton explained. "After we finish that we do the $10,000 Cash Giveaway Nov. 5. The first ticket drawn at the giveaway gets $100 and the midway ticket drawn gets $100. And the third from last drawn is $1,000 and second from last drawn is $1,000. And if your ticket is drawn last you get $10,000. All participants at the Cash Giveaway eat a steak dinner. Cash Giveaway tickets are $100 each."

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