The Bowling Green Kiwanis Club bestowed the director of the National Corvette Museum its highest honor Wednesday.
Wendell Strode received the Kiwanis International Foundation's Tablet of Honor at First Christian Church during the local chapter's weekly lunch meeting.
The award was established in 1965 to memorialize individuals and organizations for outstanding service to their community and the world's largest civic club. It also signifies that $2,000 has been made to the international club's endowment fund on behalf of the individual or organization.
Strode said the club has made Bowling Green and Warren County a better place for children and families. The award, he said, was a team effort that he accepted on behalf of the "Corvette family."
In addition to the award, he was presented with an aerial photo of the Corvette Museum by the Bowling Green Area Convention & Visitors Bureau.
"I will probably put that in my office. We will need to redo this (photo)," Strode joked, referring to a 47,000-square-foot addition to the museum set for completion in 2009.
The addition will contain a 400-seat conference room, a dedicated area for personalized Corvette deliveries, an expanded gift shop and library archives.
"The thing that's unique about the (Corvette) is how it facilitates such a feeling of family and camaraderie worldwide," Strode said.
Kiwanis Club President Brian Packard credited Strode and staff with increasing Bowling Green's population.
"We've had many people move here because of the National Corvette Museum and the interest it brings," he said.
The Tablet of Honor has been awarded to a select few Bowling Green club members in its 42-year history: Mike Murphy, Rick Wilson and Mary Campbell, who accepted it on behalf of her late husband, Sam Campbell.
Campbell has continued a "teddy bear project" that she and her husband started in which children are given teddies to calm their fears during hospital stays, Packard said.