“The Aktion and Self Advocates meetings are fun, educational and creative. I am always amazed by the members ideas and energy. — Norm Montaigne, Kiwanis Liaison

AKtion Club of Rutland County – Serving Citizens in our Community
by Jane Frank, Co-Advisor

The AKtion Club of Rutland County, a Kiwanis family member, is a group of adults living with disabilities, and the are supported by ARC Rutland Area.

We would like to thank our AKtion Club Members, and all of our friends and families in our community for all of their help and donations that contributed to us having a very successful program.

All of our yearly goals were met. We have a number of ways that we have fun working together to give back to our community. We would like to share some of the things we do. We have food drives, pet food drives, our garden that we work in to donate our produce. These are all donated to the food shelves in Rutland such as : BROC, Community Cupboard, Salvation Army, etc. We have at least two fundraisers a year as well. We have a bake sale and a car wash. Our proceeds go into an account for the club, and at the end of the year we adopt a family for Christmas.
Even though we have such a good time doing all that we do for our community, we take time out to have some time for fun for ourselves as well. We played Bingo every month at the Bardwell with the residents, we try to get together each summer for a special cookout with our Self Advocacy group, we have a special Christmas party and we also go to all the ARC dinner dances throughout the year.

What is an Aktion Club?

An Aktion Club is a community–service group for adult citizens living with disabilities. The mission of the Aktion Club is to provide adults with disabilities and opportunity to develop initiative and leadership, to serve their community, to be integrated into society, and to demonstrate the dignity and value of citizens living with disabilities. Aktion Club members strive to return to their communities the benefits, help, and caring they have received, as well as develop important skills in the process.

What are the benefits of Aktion Club?

Individuals who live with disabilities often have many talents but little opportunity to develop or apply them. These special citizens have few chances to interact socially and sometimes little opportunity to function in society. Too often they are isolated and dependent when they could be making valuable contributions to themselves and to the world around them. Agencies that serve those who live with disabilities do their best to help clients reach their potential. Many of these agencies, however, do not have the funding or staff to provide the community-based social and recreational activities that their clients need. The volunteer effort of local Kiwanis sponsors can address these and many other concerns through Aktion Club. Aktion Club enables members to:

Participate in the active life of community
Contribute to the community
Develop mechanical, creative, and intellectual abilities
Participate in social interaction awareness
Improve self-esteem
Develop leadership skills
Achieve personal and service goals

Who sponsors an Aktion Club?

Our Aktion Club is sponsored by a Kiwanis club and ARC-Rutland Area, a local agency supporting citizens who live with disabilities. An Aktion Club also can be sponsored by a group of clubs or a division (Kiwanis clubs with an area), or a Kiwanis club may wish to co-sponsor an Aktion Club with a Key Club (high school students) and/or Circle K (college students).

Here is a link to the new AKtion Club of Rutland County website, where we will be posting events and updates on events for the public.