When Jim started work with Joseph Construction at the Sevierville office, the Boys & Girls Club of the Smoky Mountains was a fledgling organization with one branch location in half of an automotive shop. There was only $15,000 in the bank and just 37 kids per day attending the Club. In November of 1992, Ms. Jane Rader asked Jim to come on the board to help the Club to find a better home. As fate would have it, the Boys & Girls Club did get a better home and a whole lot more.

Jim eagerly accepted his role as a board member and quickly made an impact. By 1995, he was the president Elect. Jim took his first stint as board president serving in 1996 and 1997. During his tenure, the Club started their first capital campaign to raise $1.5 million to build the Sevierville Branch. In the middle of the capital campaign, the Executive Director had to be replaced and Jim even served as co-Executive Director for a few weeks. Jim’s loyalty and perseverance led him to be selected as the Tennessee Board Member of the Year in 1997.

In 1998, after his second term as board president ended Jim took on a new role as property committee chairman which he has held for 20 years. In this position, Jim and Joseph Construction have completed new building projects in Sevierville in 1998, Gatlinburg in 2007 and Pigeon Forge in 2016. Jim has also renovated our Kodak Branch and new central services office. Every project Jim has worked on has been completed with the best interest of the Boys & Girls Club in mind.

In addition to building projects, Jim and his wife Judy have always been catalyst to create better opportunities for children in his home community. Jim took the lead role in the formation of the Seymour Branch in 2007 by hosting multiple fundraising events at his home. In 2018, he is leading the charge for the organization to renovate a vacated school to provide a permanent Boys & Girls Club home for Seymour children. It will open in late September.

In the 25 years Jim has served as a board member, he has never lost his passion to help children who need us most, to have a better life. Jim has attended over 15 BGCA national conferences and Tennessee Area Council meetings out of his own pocket. He is the only board member in the Smoky Mountains to serve three terms as board president. He has won several awards including Board Member of the Year in 1996 and 2007 as well as the Man & Youth Award in 2008. Jim has been a society level member of our annual campaign since its inception in 2005.

Jim Arwood’s steadfast commitment to the children of the Boys & Girls Club of the Smoky Mountains is an inspiration to staff and board members alike. He has always put the best interest of children above his own and he always will.