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Foundation presents second Dot Marlow Catalyst Award at Vintage Carolina

Albert Lyons receives the Dot Marlow Philanthropic Catalyst Award from Dot Marlow's daughter, Valorie Marlow Songer, and granddaughter, Julie Songer Belman.

By Lightning Reports, Published: March 3, 2020

Albert Lyons, who has volunteered in the Etowah community for more than 30 years in the volunteer fire service, Boy Scouts and his church's food pantry, was honored Monday night with the second Dot Marlow Philanthropic Catalyst Award during the Vintage Carolina fundraiser of the Community Foundation.

"He may not be well known in Henderson County except by the needy," one volunteer said of Lyons, "but all of his clients and fellow volunteers remember him and what he says when he talks to them every Saturday morning" at his church's food pantry.

Starting in the 1980s before his move to the Etowah area, Lyons helped recruit firefighters and volunteered as assistant fire chief in South Carolina while working fulltime, later volunteered as a scoutmaster and served as an adult leader at the Boy Scouts' Philmont Ranch in New Mexico. In 2006, he saw a need to fill through his church, Etowah United Methodist, and helped expand the Fishes & Loaves food pantry.

"Under his leadership, the pantry has grown to serve 100 local families every Saturday," Foundation Chair Cindy Causby said. "He puts in more than 40 hours a week procuring enough food so that each client leaves with a full grocery cart and local children in need not only receive after-school snacks but also weekend and summer meals through the pantry and its lunchbox program."

The award was presented by Dot Marlow's daughter, Valorie Marlow Songer, and granddaughter, Julie Songer Belman.

The golf-themed Masters of Philanthropy event at the Hendersonville Country Club drew several hundred people, some in knickers, golf caps and other attire for the links, and featured eight restaurants, inns and caterers serving samples of everything from porkbelly sliders and she-crap soup to chocolates and macarons. Chaired by Merit Wolff, the event also included breweries and wineries and music by DJ Sound Extreme.

Founded in 1982 and holding more than $111 million in assets, the Community Foundation received $5.5 million in new contributions in the past year and managed more than 624 charitable funds, each with its own purpose specified by a donor.