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- [S106] The Mountain Press, 17 May 2009.
SCHAS to honor Kile at annual dinner
By DEREK HODGES
dhodges@themountainpress.com
PIGEON FORGE - Sevier County native and lifelong volunteer Emily Kile will be the honoree Thursday during the Senior Citizens Home Assistance Service's eighth annual Sevier County Citizenship Award Dinner.
The event, which begins at 6:30 p.m. at the Holiday Inn in Pigeon Forge, is intended to pay tribute to Kile, who has volunteered her time with a host of local service organizations and non-profits. It also serves as one of the largest fundraisers of the year for the Senior Citizens Home Assistance Service (SCHAS), which provides low-cost or no-cost homemaker and personal care to local elderly and disabled residents.
"It's a very important evening for us and it's going to be an exciting event," SCHAS Executive Director Lena Adams says.
The celebration will include dinner, a silent auction and live entertainment from a local band. SCHAS board member Betty Madison Ogle will serve as master of ceremonies, while Teri Newman, Steve Lane and Ellen Wilhoit will offer tributes to Kile.
Though Kile has not volunteered with SCHAS, Adams says many of those given the award don't work with the agency. Rather, the honor is for those who have had the greatest impact on the community.
"This gives us an opportunity to recognize an individual for demonstrating their care for the community," Adams says. "These people we recognize most of the time don't have anything to do with SCHAS, but they do volunteer for lots of things. They're people who do what they do because they want to, not because they have to."
Adams says Kile, owner of Burchfiel-Kile Enterprises, was chosen by the SCHAS board for her involvement in "a great number of local organizations," including the Sevierville Chamber of Commerce, Walters State Community College Foundation, Thompson Cancer Survival Center Foundation, Boys & Girls Club of the Smoky Mountains, Leadership Sevier, Sevierville Rotary Club, First United Methodist Church and the Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts.
Kile also helped organize the first Relay For Life event in Sevier County and has spent a great deal of timing helping the Robert F. Thomas Foundation raise money for construction of the county's new hospital. She volunteers with the city of Sevierville and serves on municipal boards, and is a charter member of Friends of the Smokies.
For Kile, supporting the groups she works with is a matter of showing gratitude a community that has given her so much.
"I'm a native of Sevier County and my family's been here for years," she says. "I feel very fortunate to live in a place like this and to be able to give back."
Though she says she's excited about the event next Thursday, she jokes she tried to talk her way out of being the one seated on the dias.
"Honestly I tried to convince them not to pick me," she says with a laugh. "I really am thrilled, though. I feel very humbled and very honored. It's just hard to be honored sometimes."
Tickets for the event are $50 per person and sponsorships ranging from $400 to $5,000 are still available. For more information or to purchase tickets, call the SCHAS office at 453-6853.
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, d. 17 Nov 1997 (Age 80 years)