Through service and events, Levelland’s clubs and organizations support citizens and improve quality of life throughout the community. Each organization helps provide a sense of community and opportunities to love, serve and get involved.
“When you’re serving your community, it’s very important that you don’t feel alone,” Noon Rotary President Amber Wisdom said. “I can want to help my community all day long, but I’m going to give myself away to the point that I can’t do it anymore. When you have organization in that, it does a good job of identifying community needs without expending everything.”
The Breakfast and Noon Rotary clubs work through Rotary International, whose focus is eradicating polio.
The Breakfast Rotary meets at 7 a.m. every Friday at Taqueria Guadalajara. The Noon Rotary club meets the first and third Tuesday of the month at noon at the Levelland Country Club.
“One of the key things we do within our community is try to do as much as we can to support community,” Breakfast Rotary President Albert Garcia said. “Ultimately we have the same mission statement to support our communities and do certain things internationally as well.”
The Breakfast Rotary helps Bill’s Backpacks, Meals on Wheels, and South Plains Community action as well as supporting SPC students with scholarships. During the school year they do the Ride with Rotary program to provide elementary students with bicycles. The Breakfast Rotary is currently working to team up with the Wallace Theater this Fall for Levelland’s Got Talent.
“Our symbol is that cog,” Aryn Corley said, “That cog doesn’t work unless it’s with other ones. It’s about service to the community, making it a better place and helping other people. We’re helping to be the machinery of community service for a healthy community.”
The Noon Rotary’s main fundraiser is an annual chili supper for scholarships. They also do Bill’s Backpack’s collection at United on the second Saturday of every month. They recently used District grants through Rotary International to supply garden boxes to Hickory Place and Lynwood nursing home and give books and a poster printer to local elementary schools.
“Service is service no matter how small,” Wisdom said, “It has a big impact. It takes a lot of sacrifice to serve a community, but it is so worth it.”
Love Levelland started during COVID through a group of First Baptist church members and turned into a nonprofit organization that works to give whatever is needed including meeting needs that other organizations cannot. Their biggest project is the annual Christmas adoption program where people adopt families in need so they can have Christmas gifts and food. Love Levelland, like many organizations, also holds an annual golf tournament.
“The cool thing that I love about Love Levelland is that every dollar that someone gives to Love Levelland is a dollar that goes back out to Levelland,” founder Dallas Pena said.
“What we covet more than anything from our community is hands and feet: getting involved and asking how you can help. We are actively looking for people that have that heart and want to serve and love in that way.”
The Lions Club, a civic club through Lions Club International, helps cook for and sponsor many local events. Their main events are an annual pancake supper and the Trunk-or Treat, but they also collect eyeglass donations for recycling, give valentines to nursing home residents, recognize students of the month and more. The noon Lions Club meets every Thursday at the country club, and there is an evening Lions Club too.
“Lions Club’s motto is ‘We Serve,’ and we have fundraisers to support Lions Club’s local, state and international projects,” outgoing Lion Boss Todd Paxton said. “We want to serve the community that we can and have fun while we’re doing it.”
Founded in 1976, the Marigolds of Levelland are a women’s nonprofit who meet on the second Thursday of every month. They assist in beautification projects like flower baskets on the square and Keep Levelland Beautiful cleanups. They also hold at least two blood drives a year, help with Bill’s Backpacks and assist in running events on the square.
“We are very active,” Marigolds member Tammy Franklin said. “The main thing is we are a support for the Chamber of Commerce and the Main Street because you can’t just do it with one person. It takes a community effort to get things going and keep them going.”
The Levelland Progressive Women’s Club is a group of 25 women who do charitable work and support good causes around town. Every year, they host a Christmas House tour to help fund SPC scholarships, Bill’s Backpacks donations, meals on wheels contributions and more.
While each works toward individual goals, these clubs and organizations also team up with each other and organizations like the police department, the Wallace Theater and LISD to make Levelland a better place.
“A mosaic is only visible when all the pieces are in place,” Corley said. “If you have just one, you don’t know what it is, but what makes all that work is the mortar that holds it together. If it doesn’t work, then all those pieces fall out, and there’s no mosaic anymore. So that’s what we get to be. We get to be part of the mortar that holds that mosaic together.”
More information about membership, events and contact can be found on each organization’s Facebook page. Many are continually looking to expand and welcome new members who are, as Wisdom said, “willing to roll up your sleeves and go to work.”