- April 28, 2024
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Bobbie Cheh believes you get what you give. If you join an activity or a club, you should give it all you can.
"If you put your heart into it, you'll get so much more," Cheh said.
The Ormond-by-the-Sea resident has been active in the community for decades. In 1980, she became a charter member for the National Association of Women in Construction and remained active until the chapter closed in 2008.
That's when the Ormond-by-the-Sea Lions became a part of her life.
"I didn't know much about Lions," Cheh said. "I just knew they did service activities, and of course, they weren't very active, being small."
That's not quite the case anymore. The Ormond-by-the-Sea Lions' membership has increased over the years and is now one of the most active Lions Clubs in District 35-0. Cheh would know — not only has she served as district secretary for three years, but she's currently a global service team coordinator, meaning she monitors all the clubs in the district for reporting their service activities. She's also the Ormond-by-the-Sea Lions first vice president.
Lions Club International is one of the largest service organizations in the world, boasting a membership of over 1.4 million people.
The Ormond-by-the-Sea Lions are always doing something. Cheh said it seems like there's a club activity every week.
The meetings and camaraderie that come with them are great, she added. But what she really loves is the service activities — picking up trash on the beach and along A1A, ringing bells for Salvation Army donations during the holidays, offering free blood sugar screenings at community events and helping the homeless, to name a few.
"We like to keep busy," Cheh said. "And it keeps the momentum going."
Recently, the Lions honored Cheh with a lifetime membership to the club.
Cheh, who grew up in New Jersey, had been vacationing in Ormond Beach with her parents since she was 5 years old. In 1975, her parents planned to retire in Ormond Beach.
Cheh had been working as a secretary at the time, and when a promotion that had been promised to her was given to someone else, she decided to move to Ormond too. She moved first and lived in the house her parents bought until they were able to retire later that year.
Once she moved, she went to an employment agency to find a new job. A worker there told Cheh she had the "perfect job" for her.
Bobbie, as she is better known, has been active in many organizations here in the Ormond Beach area. She is the happiest when she is helping someone else who is in need." — MARY YOCHUM, 2023 STANDING O
Because her last job was secretarial work in the medical industry, she thought she would do something similar in Florida.
"No, she sends me to a construction company," Cheh said. "How that ever played out in her mind, I'll never know."
That was 49 years ago and Cheh is still working in the construction industry as the office manager for Peck & Associates Construction, Inc., where she's worked for the past 32 years.
Cheh's friend Mary Yochum had been encouraging her to join the Lions Club for many years. But Cheh was busy with her church — she's a member of St. Brendan Catholic Church — as well as with the National Association of Women in Construction, in which she served a term as president. When NAWIC closed, Cheh then found herself busy being a caregiver for her mother, who in 2008 had to undergo a double leg amputation due to health complications caused by smoking. When her mother died, Cheh told Yochum, that's when she would join the club.
"Even my mom said, 'I know I'm keeping you from doing things that you like,'" Cheh recalled. "And I said, 'family comes first. I'll do whatever is necessary.' ... That was a really rough time, but we made it through and everything was fine."
In her 15 years of service with the Lions Club, Cheh has collected a lot of pins, medals and patches. They make her vest so heavy, she's looking to put some away for safekeeping.
The two she's most proud of are presidential medals, one of which is for advertising. Cheh handles the public relations for the club too.
Each of the pins, medals and patches on her vest has a story. There's the one from the Lions Club International's 100-year anniversary, the pin recognizing the Lion's volunteer work during the Special Olympic games in Orlando and the one marking Cheh as a life member for the Florida Lions Foundation for the Blind.
Other pins and patches recognize Cheh's accomplishments: Lion of the Year, a recipient of the Melvin Jones Fellowshop, past president of the Ormond-by-the-Sea Lions Club.
"It's nice to be recognized, but you don't do it for that reason," Cheh said. "You just feel good doing this stuff. Give me paperwork — I love to do paperwork."
Cheh still uses shorthand for her notes. She used to joke with two other secretaries in town that they were the "dinosaurs," seeing as they still used it for note-taking.
When the Lions offer free blood screenings, she's likely doing the paperwork. In February, the Ormond-by-the-Sea Lions will travel to Immokalee to provide screenings for migrant workers. Last year, she estimates they helped about 300 people during the time they were down there.
"It's just a good feeling of helping others," Cheh said. "You never know if you're going to be in that circumstance. I want to be treated the way I treat other people, and I figure if I treat other people nice, they'll treat me nice."
And when she's not at work or with the Lions, Cheh's probably making crafts.
