Please welcome Kristin Fleming as one of our newest members to the Gallatin Rotary Club.

Kristin is a native of California, but Tennessee has been home and has been from a fairly early age.

“I got here a week before my 18^th birthday,” she said.

Why Tennessee?

“It’s a long way away from California,” she said. “I grew up in foster care, so I wanted a new start. I knew one person who lived in Sparta and so I went to Sparta and lived there for 12 years and moved to Lebanon in 2011.”

Kristin now lives in the LaGuardo area.

She started out in banking as a part-time bank teller and said, “I just kind of took to it like a fish to water.”

“It came very naturally to take care of people and their money,” Fleming said. “Eventually – after a couple of years – I had held every position in a bank branch.”

That includes her current position of branch manager at Macon Bank & Trust here in Gallatin.

“This is my third branch management role, and I really, really love what I do,” Fleming said. (At first), I just wanted to be able to take my kids to the doctor when they need to go to the doctor. It was just a way to pay my rent, but I loved it and I guess (management) liked they way I do it because because they just kept giving more responsibility. They have to run me out of here now…I forget it’s time to go home.”

Don’t worry; Kristin does have a life outside of work.

“Home is good, too,” she said. “I have three girls (they are 15, 14, and seven) and two dogs and a garden.”

Kristin is a transfer from the Lebanon Rotary Club, but she is also engaged in other worthwhile causes.

“I like to work with the child advocacy center and CASA,” she said.

While she doesn’t go to court for CASA, she helps out in other ways, and that is how she learned about Rotary.

“(A lady from CASA) in Lebanon invited me to Rotary. I didn’t know what it was, but once I got to know what it was – the fact that it’s locally-focused and an international organization where we work in our community and we work in our region and we work in our nation and we work around the globe.

“When I really heard about what Rotary does and the history of Rotary…I’ve been a member of other business groups where it’s really about business and good works are a side bet, (but) this is about good works and business is on the side.”

The principles of Rotary have become a standard in Kristin’s home.

“They know the ‘Four Way Test,’” she said of her daughters. “It’s just a great foundation for living.”

Now, she’s excited to be a part of the Gallatin Rotary Club.

“I knew that when I started working in Gallatin it’s really important for me to be involved in the community,” Fleming said. “I don’t want to just earn my living here and then go home; I want to give back to the community that gives to me. Since I was already a Rotarian, it was natural to me to go check it out.

“I talked myself into it for four or five weeks before I finally went. So, I went the first time, and it was such a friendly, fun club. I just knew within five or 10 minutes (it was a fit). People were just cutting up with each other and laughing and having a good time…

“I’m really excited to be part of the club; the Gallatin Club is doing lots of good in the community – in particular – the Christmas with the kids. Having grown up in foster care and so impoverished, taking care of kids who don’t always get a fair shake – I’m always going to have a soft spot for that.”

If you have not met Kristin yet, please introduce yourself to her; she is a treasure.