The Hope Lions Club held its first meeting of 2026 Monday, featuring a presentation by Sheila Malone, Park Interpreter for the William Jefferson Clinton Birthplace Home National Historic Site. Past District Governor Don Freel introduced Malone and highlighted the historical parallel between the club’s founding and President Clinton’s birth in Hope, both occurring within the same two-year period. Clinton was born August 19, 1946 and the Hope Lions in March of 1947.
Malone thanked the club for the invitation, saying, “On behalf of all of this with the National Park Service, I want to extend our deepest thanks to Dr. Freel and to all of you for having us here today. We are very, very thankful for this invite, because getting to be a part of our community is something that is lacking, and we definitely want to have a more attentive role in that.”
She noted the club’s milestone, remarking, “If I understand it right, it’s your Lions club started at the same time that President Clinton was born here. Then that means you guys are about to celebrate your 80th birthday, as well being his 80th this summer. So congratulations.”
Malone introduced photos of the members her team, which she showed on a projected PowerPoint display, explaining, “We have a lot of high school volunteers coming out to the park, and it’s great because they have to get their hours, but it’s great for us because having volunteers helps us know what’s going on in the community, and it gives us a chance to kind of give back.” She announced, “This summer, we’re going to start a career awareness challenge with our volunteers, so once a month, we’re going to have a tailored setting for them to work on their resumes, to learn about public speaking.”
Malone discussed the park’s Junior Ranger programs, open to all ages: “We do Junior Ranger programs once a month, and it’s to specialize in either learning about the outdoors or learning about our community.” She added, “Not everything revolves around the president that we are the site for. We also try to hit those national park themes, like in February, we’ll do bird feeders, so if kids or grownups come, you will be given all the tools and all the materials to make an organic bird feeder for your backyard, for the national bird count that happens the second week of February every year.”
On the topic of increased attendance, Malone stated, “In 2024 we had a total of 4,568 visitors, and that number went up almost by 2,500 and the reason is we were going out to more events and engaging with people.” She also described the site’s flexible approach to tours: “When I got there, they had a bell on the door, and when someone would come in through the bell, the rangers would come out from the way back where their office spaces are, and greet the people… We changed their tours so that it was every 30 minutes. But if people came in and said, ‘I only have five minutes,’ we are going to give that because we’re here to serve visitors, not keep them to our timetable, because we’re small, we should be a little bit more flexible.”
Malone acknowledged new outreach challenges: “Our current guidelines right this minute is that social media in the National Park Service kind of got a little loose, and lots of parks were posting fun, fluffy things, and the new administration is not really a fan of that. So… across all 432 units, across all of the United States, continental and our territories, [we will] have a more consistent way of doing things. We’re still working on that,” she added regarding future outreach efforts by social media.
Malone concluded by focusing on the park’s efforts this year: “We’re going to engage with the community. That is our number one goal this year. Number two is to show up for lots of events in and out of uniform.” She expressed hope that the park’s work would “help our next generation be better prepared for the work that lies ahead.”
Microsoft Co-pilot AI was used in the production of this article.
