SCHAS to honor Carlene Robinson as Citizen of the Year

A lifetime member of Woodlawn United Methodist Church, she attended Tanner School for first through fifth grade. She went on to attend Newport Grammar School for sixth through eighth grade and graduated from Cocke County High School in 1974.

She furthered her education at Walters State Community College then transferred to the University of Tennessee, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1981.

After graduating from UT, Robinson worked as a bank teller for a few years before moving to Atlanta, GA. She worked in Atlanta for five years before moving back to Knoxville where she held jobs in home health, at the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame, American Eagle Airlines and Knox County Senior Centers.

In 2007, she started working with the Cocke County Office on Aging/Senior Center. After having seen what the Knox County Senior Centers in Halls, Corryton and South Knoxville offered to its members and the local residents, she had hoped to see the Cocke County Senior Center do the same for local residents. She had no idea what a job that would be, and with the senior center having many needs, she got to work.

The building had a leaky roof and it ended up needing a major renovation and rebuilding project after they were displaced by an F-1 tornado. The center was displaced for a decade before the Tanner Building was renovated and reopened. Robinson never gave up, and continued to focus on her goal of reviving the Cocke County Senior Center. For 15 years her life has been touched by some of the county’s great senior citizens.

With strong support from the community and the help of volunteers throughout her journey, she has created a senior center the community appreciates. When Robinson got started 15 years ago, senior services were not well known in the county, and her first order of business was to increase awareness of the center and its services, and to ensure seniors could readily access information about the senior center. She accomplished her goal, realizing that until someone is in need of services, they usually are not looking for them.

Robinson attributes the senior center’s success to a lot of help from volunteers and the community’s support. She became aware of SCHAS and the services that they provide early on in her career. Cocke County does not have the number of agency services that many surrounding counties have available, but does have some top-notch agencies that are offering quality services.

SCHAS strives to provide excellent services to the community. For SCHAS’ fiscal year July 1, 2021- June 30, 2022, SCHAS Cocke served 114 clients and provided 9,662 hours of caregiving services. SCHAS has helped these clients to remain in their homes and given their family peace of mind knowing their loved one is being cared for while they take care of personal responsibilities. The office serving Cocke County office is located in Dandridge. To learn about SCHAS services in Cocke County, call (865) 940-1545.

Tickets for the Citizenship Award Banquet are $45 each. Doors open at 11:45 a.m. with the event getting underway at noon. Tickets are available online at SCHAS.org/events.