Photo courtesy of Robbie Lee.
Bergen Wilkinson, a sophomore at Mountain Brook High School, and Robbie Lee, director of partnerships and outreach, at the Exceptional Foundation.
Robbie Lee’s plan was to become a teacher — he loved the idea of investing in children’s lives.
But a class he took in graduate school at the University of Alabama at Birmingham changed that trajectory a little.
“One of the first classes I took was an exceptional learners course, and we were asked to do 20 service hours as part of the coursework,” he said.
A Homewood native, Lee knew about the Exceptional Foundation, a nonprofit organization that provides social and recreational services for children and adults with special needs.
“I started doing service hours there, and it just clicked from the beginning,” he said. “The more people I met, the more welcome they made me feel. It’s such a warm, happy place.”
Fast forward 15 years, and Lee is now the organization’s director of partnerships and outreach. Not only that, he’s an advocate for the well being of children in other ways — he was recently installed as president of the Kiwanis Club of Homewood-Mountain Brook.
“It’s a great club,” he said. “Kiwanis, whether local or international, the main focus is to improve the lives of children.”
Kiwanis International works to improve children’s health and nutrition, education and literacy and youth leadership development around the world.
“We try to support the organizations around town through volunteer work or financial support,” Lee said.
He said the club provides scholarships for Key Club members at Homewood and Mountain Brook high schools and supports organizations such as the Bell Center and Children’s of Alabama.
“We are also supporting new organizations this year like Christopher Kids and Magic Moments,” he said.
While attendance at civic clubs across the board has reportedly dwindled over the years — especially as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic — the Kiwanis Club of Homewood-Mountain Brook has stayed the course, Lee said.
“I couldn’t be prouder of where we sit and the people who have made efforts to make our club as strong as ever,” he said.
The club meets on Wednesdays at noon at Homewood Public Library, and Lee said they welcome guests from Homewood and Mountain Brook to connect with them and hear great guest speakers every week.
One of the club’s biggest fundraisers is its annual pancake breakfast, which is the second Saturday in March.
Lee said one of the funny things for him personally about being in the club and now serving as its president is the “irony to so many people who have known me.”
“I got in a lot of trouble when I was young, and when I first joined the club, my eighth grade principal was in the club,” he said. “My friends still get a kick out of the fact that I went from being in his office every day to being in the club with him.”
Lee said he’s now channeling all that energy into helping people have better lives through his roles at the Exceptional Foundation and the Kiwanis Club, and also as a member of the Homewood Rotary Club.
“It’s been a lot of fun, and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it,” he said.
For more information about the Kiwanis Club of Homewood-Mountain Brook, visit homewood-mtbrook-al.kiwanisone.org.
