100 years of service: Pam Belew, Mary June Jankowiak embody spirit of Florence Pilot Club
By Chelsea Retherford | Living 50 Plus
Pam Belew admits that she didn’t always consider herself a “club person,” but after nearly 15 years of service with one of the oldest chapters of Pilot Club International, she said she wishes she had joined the club sooner.
Mary June Jankowiak joined the organization back in her hometown in Florida about 20 years ago, and she too lights up whenever she talks about her service with her former chapter and her new one.
Together, the two women embody the spirit of the Florence Pilot Club, which turns 100 years old this August. It is a spirit that is defined by compassion and creative problem-solving.
Whether it’s delivering holiday gifts to dementia patients, helping students in Florence further their education, or sponsoring opportunities for people with disabilities, Belew and Jankowiak believe community care is more than a calling.
It was that sense of community that first drew Jankowiak to the Space Coast Pilot Club in Cape Canaveral, Florida, around 2002.
“We were really active in just about everything. We did things a little differently than we do in Florence,” she recalled. “I’ve really enjoyed my time with both chapters because of the community involvement, but also, some of these projects are so crucial to the people who need them.”
Jankowiak listed initiatives the club takes to help other organizations, like the CaringPlace and The Ark of the Shoals, as well as the Alabama District’s involvement in Camp ASCCA (Alabama’s Special Camp for Children and Adults), which offers therapeutic recreation for those with physical and intellectual disabilities.
“We hold a Traumatic Brain Injury camp there, TBI Camp, and it’s a week-long event,” she said. “We have an Anchor Club, which is the high school equivalent of Pilots, and us together with the Muscle Shoals Anchor Club sent a gal to Camp ASCCA who had cerebral palsy. She was a senior in high school, and she had never been to prom. Well, the camp held a prom for her age group. The young men dressed in tuxedos, and the prom dresses were donated by the Pilot and Anchor clubs. That’s the kind of caring that the Pilot Club does.”
Belew, who joined the chapter in September 2015 at her mother-in-law’s persistence, said she’s found the same kind of fulfillment through her service with the club.
“No one in my family had ever been involved in things like this. We were involved in church, but never in other clubs or organizations,” she said. “My mother-in-law had tried for years to get me to join, but I don’t know, I just never saw myself as a club kind of person. As she got older, she’d need a ride to meetings and things. That’s when I decided to join and get involved.”
At first, Belew admits she didn’t think she’d have the time to commit to volunteering, but she said she quickly found balance in her career, her work through her church, and her service through the Pilot Club.
For her first five or six years with the organization, Belew enjoyed that time with her mother-in-law, Allene Belew, who passed away in 2022.
“She had joined back in 1970 and was very active for at least 45 years,” Belew said of her mother-in-law. “She was in assisted living and then a nursing home for the last four or five years of her life, but she remained an emeritus member up until her passing. That would have been 52 years with the club. She just loved it.”
Of the many projects and initiatives Belew has been involved in during her 15 years with the club, she said maintaining a scholarship endowment at the University of North Alabama is perhaps one she is most proud of.
“We give a scholarship to a nursing student at UNA every year,” she said. “I worked and retired from UNA, which is why it’s so important to me. Another project I feel strongly about is our involvement with the CaringPlace.”
Having seen first-hand the struggles that caregivers endure in taking care of a loved one with dementia or Alzheimer’s disease, Belew said she prioritizes the partnership with the CaringPlace of the Shoals, an adult day care facility in Florence, whenever the club takes on such a project.
She and Jankowiak said the club has delivered Christmas stockings and organized other holiday activities for Halloween for the seniors who benefit from the services at the CaringPlace.
Similarly, they’ve also hosted dinners for staff members, residents and caregivers for The Ark of the Shoals, which promotes and protects the human rights of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
“I’ve just been amazed at what they do at the CaringPlace. They have so many activities and things for the Alzheimer’s patients,” Jankowiak said. “You know, everyone needs a break, even just to go get groceries, and that’s part of what The Ark of the Shoals does too. They have a residential component, but they also have a daytime program called Hope Haven. For me, I have really found joy in the things we’ve done with those organizations.”
When Jankowiak first joined the Florence Chapter after her move to the Shoals in 2008, she said the club sponsored candidates for the Start on Success (SOS) school-to-work program, which is designed to help students with disabilities transition from high school to employment or further education.
The Florence Pilot Club used some of the proceeds from annual fundraisers to pay for the salaries of the SOS interns, she and Belew explained.
“We did that for several years. One of our members, Dr. Eva Knight, was involved in spearheading that,” Belew said.
“We’ve added a few more fundraisers,” Jankowiak chimed in. “Our fundraiser with Belk used to be our biggest one. Their spring and fall charity sales drew about $1,200 for us twice a year.”
The Florence Pilot Club continues to benefit from charity sales held by Belk and Martin’s Family Clothing. The Pilot Club members sell $5 tickets for those fundraisers, which grant ticketholders access to special discounts and other incentives through the department stores. The proceeds from those ticket sales go towards annual projects through the Pilot Club of Florence.
One of those annual projects is a partnership with Project Lifesaver, which facilitates a safety program for local law enforcement, fire and rescue teams, and caregivers designed to protect, and when necessary, locate individuals with cognitive disorders who are prone to wandering. The program works by providing tracking devices to “at risk” individuals.
“Pilot International offers matching grants for things like Project Lifesaver, which provides tracking bracelets for autistic children, people with Down syndrome, or Alzheimer’s patients,” Jankowiak said. “Those bracelets have GPS so that law enforcement can find them if they get lost. We got a $5,000 grant from Pilot International to start Project Lifesaver in this area, so Pilot International is integral to a lot of our projects.”
Each of those community service initiatives continue a legacy that started in Florence 100 years ago when the Pilot Club chapter was chartered. Those efforts have been realized through the work of members like Laura “Pearl” Sparks, who authored the Code of Ethics still used by Pilot International Clubs today.
The fact that Sparks was a Florence Pilot is a point of pride for members of the chapter, but carrying on the century-long tradition of service is no small effort.
Like many other civic organizations that depend on volunteers, the Florence Pilot Club saw membership plummet amid the COVID pandemic.
“As members started aging, and people couldn’t come, our organization dwindled down to about five active members,” Belew said. “Then one of those members passed away, and we were down to four. Mary June came up with the idea of holding a tea. We all submitted names and invited them to the tea as a way to drive membership and fundraise.”
Since the tea party, the Florence chapter grew by 14 to a total of 18. It’s a number the chapter hopes to continue expanding on.
For prospective volunteers who may be hesitant to commit to the club, just as Belew once was, she hopes to convey the same message she’s learned over the past 15 years of membership with the club — take the leap.
“Whatever time you do have can make a huge difference,” she said. “There’s not a lot of pressure to be present for everything. You can pick and choose the projects you want to be involved in. We all work together to do the things we do for our community.”
As Belew, Jankowiak, and the rest of their fellow club members look forward to their chapter’s major milestone, they’re also looking to sustain another 100 years of Piloting in the Shoals.
CELEBRATING 100 YEARS
DETAILS: The Florence Pilot Club was chartered in 1925. To celebrate the chapter’s 100th anniversary, the club will host a ceremony and serve light refreshments. The event is open to the public.
WHEN: 6 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 21
WHERE: In the River Room at First Metro Bank, 325 S. Pine St. Florence
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PILOT INTERNATIONAL
ABOUT THE CLUB: Chartered in Macon, Georgia, by Elizabeth Leonard and 40 local businesswomen, the name Pilot was inspired by the riverboat pilots of that day who represented leadership and guidance. The Pilot International Founders Fund was established in 1975 to further Pilot’s humanitarian efforts. Since that time, more than $3.5 million has been awarded to Pilot Clubs, Districts and students seeking higher education.
ESTABLISHED: Oct. 18, 1921
MOTTO: True Course Ever
MEMBERSHIP: Pilots are people who want to give back to their communities and come from all walks of life. While Pilot clubs share the same mission, no two are the same because each community has its own unique needs. Anchor clubs provide an outlet for students in high school and middle school to develop their leadership skills while participating in community projects.
PROJECTS: Alabama Traumatic Brain Injury Camp (TBI), Camp ASCCA, Project Lifesaver, Start On Success, Scholarships, BrainMinders, Pick Me Ups, and more.
CODE OF ETHICS: Laura “Pearl” Sparks, of Florence, Alabama, wrote the Pilot Code of Ethics. It was first presented in 1926 at the Fifth Annual Pilot International Convention, held in Montgomery, with 69 Pilots attending. The code, which lays out the duties expected of Pilots, is memorialized on her headstone in Florence Cemetery.
WEBSITE: https://www.pilotinternational.org/
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JOIN THE CLUB
FLORENCE PILOTS
MEETING TIMES: Second Monday of every month at 6 p.m.
WHERE: On the third floor in First Metro Bank, 325 S. Pine St. in Florence
CONTACT: Pam Belew at 256-764-0765 or visit www.alabamadistrictpilot.com