When Rotary Club President Larry Saint and the club’s sergeant-at-arms, Dale Steffensmeier, stopped by Wesley Brown’s house on Dec. 6, he asked them if they needed to borrow something.

“They’ve gotten a grill and other things for Rotary before,” said Brown, a longtime member of Smithfield’s Kiwanis Club who often loans items for community events.

But to his surprise, they didn’t want anything. Rather, they had something for him.

Since 1971, the town’s Rotary and Ruritan clubs have annually recognized an outstanding area resident as Smithfield’s Citizen of the Year. Dec. 6 marked the date Brown learned he was this year’s honoree.

“I was totally surprised,” Brown said.

Brown joined Kiwanis in 1989 when Carter Williams, who would later become Smithfield’s mayor and 2022’s Citizen of the Year, invited Brown and his late wife, Darlene, on a Spirit of Norfolk cruise the club held that year as part of its membership drive.

“We had a wonderful time meeting so many great volunteers and decided to join the club,” Brown said. “I’ve been a member since. Right after I joined, I was asked to co-chair the Kiwanis Toy Store along with Carter and Steve Bowler. I’ve been volunteering ever since with many service projects and fundraisers to improve the lives of the local kids and community.”

Kiwanis International is a 1915-founded global service organization dedicated to supporting the health, nutrition, education and literacy of children – from infancy to early adulthood – in each of its more than 14,000 adult and youth clubs worldwide. Its Smithfield chapter has existed since 1976.

The Christmas Toy Store Brown was asked to lead immediately upon joining is held every December in the Smithfield Center and provides toys and books for over 200 children in Isle of Wight County Department of Social Services’ system.

Ten years later Brown became president of Smithfield Kiwanis. In 2000, then-Kiwanis Capital District Lt. Gov. C.D. Elliott asked Brown to organize what would become the club’s annual Kiwanis Fishing Clinic, which teaches inner-city children from Hampton Roads and beyond how to fish.

He held the first clinic at the James River Fishing Pier in Newport News in 2001.

“We had 32 kids that day; it was a learning experience to say the least,” Brown said.

The event, now in its 23rd year, is held each July at the Buckroe Beach pier in Hampton. It now draws over 300 children from localities as far away as Petersburg and Franklin.

“The goal of the clinic is giving kids at risk – all kids are at risk – the opportunity to learn how to fish, enjoy being outdoors with others,” Brown said. “We encourage the parents to attend and spend valuable time bonding with the kids. We teach them water safety, identify the local fish species and give them a chance to continue to fish with the fishing pole and tackle we give to them after the event is over.”

In 2018, Brown founded the Carrollton Kiwanis Club and at that time was a member of that club, the Smithfield club and the Greater Hilton Kiwanis Club in Newport News. He’s also a past lieutenant governor of Kiwanis for two separate divisions, but in recent years has scaled back his involvement due to his role as caregiver for Darlene, who died earlier this year.

Brown is also a longtime small-business owner. His father, Quincy, started Brown’s Iron & Wood Works in 1948. It became Brown Brothers Inc. in 1982 and has been known as Brown’s Automotive since 1991 when Wesley and Darlene purchased the family business.

“I’ve not totally retired yet; I still go in and do welding, state inspections, some repairs on vehicles, maintenance work and whatever needs my attention,” Brown said. “I have a hard time sitting around.”

Brown will be honored with a dinner, which in past years has been held at The Smithfield Center in April.