FRIARS POINT — The Friars Point Action Club came together this holiday season and put together 200 fruit baskets for the needy and elderly.
The club, established in 1989, also helps kids in the community and is involved with all the different activities in Friars Point throughout the year.
“We calculate how many citizens are in Friars Point,” said club member Charles Fair, who is the club president and oversaw the fruit basket giveaway. “Right now, we’ve got about 200-plus citizens, but we try to give everybody one in Friars Point. We don’t try to skip nobody.
“Christmas time, everybody is looking for something to give. We want to make somebody joyful during Christmas time. It isn’t the size of the gift. It’s the thought of giving to somebody. We’re a small community. Some of the elders don’t get out and don’t have transportation.”
Friars Point mayor James Washington praised the fruit basket giveaway.
“Anytime you’ve got citizens involved and leadership and cooperation and concern about their fellow man, that makes it a delight to see it going on in your community,” he said. “Today is a great day. This is a great effort. The cause is certainly superior.
“What we see here is no exception. This is a daily thing. I look around this room and you’ve got a lot of good people here. I remember their mothers, their fathers, their parents.”
Washington said the parents’ goodness was passed on to their children and he would support these types of efforts.
Fair said the Friars Point Action Club does many of the same things the Chamber of Commerce does for Clarksdale. He said both organizations plan activities.
Fair said making sure the baskets go to individuals they are intended for has not been a problem.
“Living in a small town, you know everybody,” he said. “It’s not like a big city. We know everybody around here.”
This is the second year fruit baskets were given away during the holiday season, but other community service events have occurred.
“We give food to the college (Coahoma Community College) band, the Tutwiler band,” Fair said.
Fair said the club also decorates floats on Friars Point Day.
Other Friars Point Action Club members are Andline Williams, Lula Word, Janice Snerling, the Rev. Joe Sawyer, Trinda Kemp, Eula Davenport, Vivian Smith, Jeffery Haynes, Addie Maxwell-Jones, James Martin, Johnnie Mae Bass and Dennis Duckworth.
