Community Involvement
Sunset Bay residents participate in various community activities ranging from volunteer opportunities, charitable donation opportunities and scholarships for Union County High School seniors. Below are some of the various opportunities available to us as residents. If you have an additional opportunity you would like to share, please contact us.
Charitable Donations
- Social Events Committee (SEC) collects Halloween candy for Sharps Chapel Elementary Trunk or Treat, held each year at Halloween. Donated wrapped candy can be dropped off at the clubhouse for this event. Check the Sunset Bay Calendar for details.
- Sharps Chapel Giving Tree: Each November, needy families are identified by Sharps Chapel Elementary School staff. The Sunset Bay SEC start the Christmas "adoption" process to provide the families with Christmas gifts and gift certificates from Food City for groceries and gas. Gift tags are created and are placed on the clubhouse Christmas tree. Sunset Bay property owners quickly pull the tags from the tree and return with gifts to fill the wish list from each family.
- Union County Food Pantry - Volunteers are always welcome. To volunteer call Kitty Lewis at 865-992-4335. To donate send checks to Food Pantry c/o Tracy Maples, 926 Beard Valley Rd, Maynardville, TN 37807. Donations are tax deductible.
- Union County Humane Society collects 13 and 39 gallon garbage bags, paper towels, bleach/detergent, Dawn
-
Family Resource Director, Martha Warwick, collects items for students/families in need. Please reach out to Martha at 865-640-0997 for current needs.
- Sharps Chapel Elementary School appreciates it when we link our Food City and Ingles shopping cards to their school. Our contact person at Sharps Chapel Elementary is Martha Keller; contact her if you have any questions 865-278-3294.
- Samaritan's Purse: Operation Christmas Child; for more information call 865-278-3806.
Norris Lake Cleanups
Norris Lake Protection Alliance coordinates lake cleanup days at least twice each year. Please see their website for the most recent cleanup information as well as other projects they are working on.
Scholarships (updated 5/19/2025)
The Scholarship Committee prepares documents, reviews applications, interviews applicants, and recommends awardees to the Board of Directors.
Scholarship applicants will be given a copy of the guidelines and they will complete the Sunset Bay Scholarship Application and Teacher Recommendation forms.
Senior Centers
1) Sharps Chapel Senior Center - 1542 Sharps Chapel Road, Sharps Chapel, TN 37866
2) Union County Senior Center, Union County Senior Center on FaceBook
Veteran Opportunties
The United Veterans Council of East TN provides opportunities to get involved as well as support for veterans.
Volunteer Opportunities (updated 1/9/2026)
FCE is a nationwide organization. The Union County clubs, organized under the direction of the University of Tennessee, are dedicated to the purpose of helping people become better homemakers and community members. Home economics activities are carried out through monthly FCE meetings, special interest activities, workshops, mass media, and individual contacts. All clubs, activities and events are open to everyone regardless of race, color, national origin, sex, age or disability. For more information, call the UT Extension Office in Maynardville, TN at 865-992-8038.
Fresh Wagon of Union County, Tennessee (added 7/2/2025)
The Fresh Wagon is a mobile food pantry partnership in Union County among St. Teresa of Kolkata Catholic parish, Union County Health Department, University of Tennessee Extension Office, American Cancer Society, the Union County government and Union County school system. The distribution takes place on the third Tuesday of each month from May through October; the location of the Fresh Wagon varies each month. If you'd like to volunteer please contact Shannon DeWitt at (865) 992-8038 or sdewitt@utk.edu to be added to the email distribution list.
The Sunset Bay community has two "adopted roads", Big Valley Road and Russell Brothers Road. We are responsible for litter pickup at least quarterly along these roads. We have also ventured out to clean up other roads as needed. Volunteers are provided with bags, safety vests and pickers. BYO gloves. Jen Rugg is our point of contact.
- Nursing Home - Maynardville
-
The Norris Lake Project Team is a 501c3 Charitable Organization organized to preserve the natural beauty and conserve the natural resources of the Norris Lake Watershed area for the benefit of the residents and visitors to the area while assisting the local governments combat the deterioration of natural resources in the surrounding communities. Norris Lake is spread across 34,000 surface acres and surrounded by over 800 miles of shoreline nestled in the mountains of East Tennessee making it the perfect year round vacation destination. It is described as the cleanest lake in the Tennessee Valley Authority’s system but if you look closer, you will see some misplaced garbage. That is why the Norris Lake Project team has been conducting bi-annual Norris Lake Cleanups in all five counties that contain Norris Lake since 2009.
- Sharps Chapel Volunteer Fire Department
Station 51 is located at 1520 Sharps Chapel Road in Sharps Chapel, Tennessee. Anyone interested in joining as a firefighter, junior firefighter or auxiliary member may contact the station at 865-278-3231 or come by a regular meeting that is held the first Monday of each month at 7 P.M.The Sharps Chapel Volunteer Fire Department currently has medically trained personnel on staff to assist Union County EMS with a First Responder Program.
The Food Pantry of Union County, Tennessee, serves between 150 and 200 families every other week. Most of the food is purchased at Second Harvest of East TN, with donations coming mostly from Food City in Maynardville. If you would be interested in donating, volunteering, or have any questions about what is done, please contact Kitty Lewis at 865-992-4335.
Volunteers unload the delivery truck and prepare 150-200 bags every 2nd and 4th Monday of the month between 9:00am and 1:00pm, and the food is distributed between 1:00pm and 5:00pm.
The Food Pantry is located behind the Cedar Grove Community Center at 553 Fall Creek Rd., Maynardville (at the corner of Hickory Valley Rd. and Fall Creek Rd.). Any donations can be mailed to Food Pantry of Union County, TN, c/o Tracy Maples, 926 Beard Valley Rd., Maynardville, TN 37807.
- Upper Room Ministries (updated 1/9/2026)
On the second Saturday of each month, the Upper Room Ministries in New Tazewell, Tennessee, provides 96 boxes of food to Tennessee families in need. The food is provided by resources from the Second Harvest of East Tennessee and Upper Room Ministries. On the Wednesday before, the boxes of food are prepared. The links provided will tell you how you can donate and contains the 2026 dates to volunteer.