Carole has been a member of the Redlands Morning Kiwanis Club for 22 years and was elected by leaders of the 14 Kiwanis clubs in Division 36 as 2016-17 Lt. Governor, California-Nevada-Hawaii District of Kiwanis International. Carole joined Kiwanis because of her devotion and commitment to the betterment of the lives of children and indigent families worldwide. Over the years she has recruited more than 25 Kiwanians and continues working to bring in more to meet this purpose.
Because of her deep commitment to community service and children, Carole has received numerous honors for her work in Kiwanis and in the community. She is a George F. Hixson Fellow, William A. Dunlap Fellow and Walter Zeller Fellow and a recipient of the Cal-Nev-Ha Kiwanis Foundation’s Tablet of Honor. She has received the Distinguished Service Award and is the holder of an Eliminate Project Medallion, a Kiwanis International Foundation and UNICEF project that finances the elimination of neonatal tetanus throughout parts of the world.
She also serves as an award-winning newsletter editor for Division 36 and has been honored as a distinguished club president, secretary, and her club’s Kiwanian of the Year. She served two years on Kiwanis International’s Committee on Inclusiveness under two Kiwanis International presidents.
By appointment of the Redlands City Council, Carole served four years on the city’s Human Relations Commission and as an official ambassador for the City of Redlands by appointment of the city manager. A past president of the Redlands Area Democratic Club, Carole currently serves as club treasurer and newsletter editor.
Carole grew up in southern West Virginia and completed her education at West Virginia State College, her family’s alma mater. Her late parents, an attorney and an educator, were both involved in social justice, political, and community activities and service. They instilled in her, by example, a passion for serving others and being a voice for the voiceless. As a high school senior at the age of 16, she met then- Sen. John F. Kennedy at a political event and later worked in his presidential campaign alongside her father, whose recorded interview with a Kennedy staffer about JFK’s vision for southern West Virginia was later placed in the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston.
Carole has lived in Redlands for 29 years and is married John Coley. Together they share a blended family of nine children, 14 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
Nominated by Nancy White of Redlands.