Kiwanis Club continues a New Year’s Resolution

If you made a 2024 New Year’s resolution and have successfully kept your resolution, congratulations! Most resolutions have already been abandoned. In 1915 Kiwanis International service club made a resolution to aid the children of the world. Durant Kiwanis Club proudly continues this tradition of service.

January’s Kiwanis Durant High School Senior of the Month is Joshua Hitchcock.While attending Southeastern Oklahoma State University, Hitchcock has earned a 4.0 GPA at DHS. He is a member of the National Honor Society and the Oklahoma Honor Society. This past season he served as team captain of the Lion’s football team.

Hitchcock serves his community by being a member of the Choctaw Nation Youth Advisory Board. During summer months, Hitchcock and his fellow football teammates help DISD teachers move teaching materials to a different classroom if a location change is in order. He participates in St. Catherine’s Food Drive through his church, St. Williams Catholic Church.

Hitchcock’s future includes attending Texas A&M University to major in finance and accounting. He feels his dedication to hard work will serve him well in the days ahead.

“No matter what it takes, I will always aim to succeed and help those around me aim to succeed,” Hitchcock said.

As Senior of the Month, he was awarded a certificate and a gift card and is eligible to win a $1,000 scholarship as Kiwanis DHS Senior of the Year. Joining him at the meeting were his parents Kevin and Julie Hitchcock, as well as DHS counselor Kelly Kane.

Kiwanis Bryan County Senior of the Month is Kaysun Thralls from Calera High School. While earning a 4.0 GPA, she already has nine college hours to apply to her future education. Because of her excellent scholastic record, Thralls is a member of the National Honor Society and the Oklahoma Honor Society. Most recently she was a contributing member of the Calera Girls Basketball Team, Bryan County Champions.

Her future plans include attending Southeastern Oklahoma State University to pursue a business degree. To diversify, she hopes to also attend Grayson County College to obtain a cosmetology license. Thralls still finds time to volunteer as a member of Future Farmers of America, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and 4-H.

“I have always been passionate about earning my business degree to open my own salon,” she said. “I feel I have always been a hardworking and driven student.”

She received a certificate from Kiwanis in recognition of her accomplishments as well as a gift certificate. Thralls is eligible to receive Kiwanis Bryan County Senior of the Year. Joining her at the presentation were her parents, Gregory and Sunny Thralls and her high school counselor, Macy Brant.

Typically, Kiwanis keynote speakers are not high school students. January programs began with a break in tradition. Durant High School Student Jack Burrage shared with the club his journey to become a TED-X (TED-ED) speaker. Like its “parent” TED talks, TED-X talks adhere to an extemporaneous style of public speaking. Information on a wide range of topics is disseminated to an audience in eighteen minutes or less. The venue is often YouTube or another online source.

Only two locations in Oklahoma offer young people an opportunity to experience speaking at a TED-X conference: Jenks High School, in Jenks, OK and Booker T. Washington High School in Tulsa, OK.

Burrage became interested in training for TED-X primarily through information shared at a camp and through his curiosity in how anxiety and stress affect humans physically, mentally, and emotionally. He shared that the nervous system operates on two levels: sympathically (defense or flight) and parasymatically (calm).

Disruption (anxiety or nervousness) occurs when the two systems try to operate simultaneously (flight, fright, freeze). Anxiety effects are unpredictable and mani- fests itself in different ways. Nineteen percent of adults and seven percent of children feel the effects of anxiety. Many treatment plans exist such as cognitive (behavior) therapy, medicine, serotonin, and support from family and friends. Burrage hopes his TED-X talks will help those suffering from anxiety. By raising awareness and focusing on treatment, people will see that anxiety is manageable.

Burrage is a leader in Region 4 of state Student Council, has played Lion varsity soccer for four years, and volunteers for Kicks for Durant. He plans to attend the University of Oklahoma.

Another speaker was former District Attorney and current Special District Judge Emily Redman. Judge Redman is a Durant High School graduate, Southeastern Oklahoma State University graduate as well as a graduate of Oklahoma University School of Law. Redman is happy to have grown up in a small town but is happy to see such great growth in our community.

Many people really don’t know the role of a Special District Judge. This judge sees a wide variety of misdemeanor cases, initial court appearances, and bond hearings. The judge may preside over felony pre-trial hearings. The court docket may include divorce, child custody, and/or protective order cases. Judge Redman praised the people who are trained as mediators to help parties sort out an agreement before making a formal hearing necessary.

She noted that the switch from criminal cases as District Attorney to sitting on the “other side” of the bench in civil matters has been enlightening. Her philosophy in the courtroom is to remember that all the people involved in trial proceedings are experiencing a truly big event in their lives. They need to be heard.

The next speaker began her friendship with Kiwanis Club through being a “regular customer” at Kiwanis Pancake Day. Maddison Williams earned degrees from Southeastern Oklahoma State University (Bachelor’s Degree, Political Science) and Oklahoma University ( Master’s Degree, Public Administration). Beginning in 2019, she put her degrees to work by serving as a Legislative Administrator for the Oklahoma State Legislature.

However, Bryan County “called her home.” Williams established Maddison Company. Her most recent venture has been to plan and market Westside Christmas for a newly formed community group, Westside Merchants. Over 3,000 people attended the Christmas event. Of those polled, twentyfive percent were interacting with a Westside merchant for the first time. The main purpose of this association’s meetings is to educate members. For example, liaisons have been made with the City of Durant especially to understand the timeline and expenses of city infrastructure improvements.

Williams also shares her expertise and volunteers with Durant’s Crisis Control Center. The center provides a safe place for victims of domestic violence. Services include shelter and food, clothing, crisis intervention, hospital advocacy, rape response,counseling, and social service referrals. Education about violence is emphasized through special campaigns such as a fundraising event “Living Behind the Mask” in April and Sexual Assault Awareness Month in October.

With every Kiwanis speaker comes a donation to the Kiwanis International Project Eliminate which fights neo-natal tetanus. Each contribution saves fifteen lives.

If you made a New Year’s resolution to help make the world a better place, consider becoming a Kiwanis member. Meetings are every Wednesday at noon, Roma Italian Restaurant.