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North County Times

January 28, 2009

Volunteers with disabilities aid others in need

By Renee Ramsey

Kenny Lewis listens as the charter for the new Aktion Club of North County is read Tuesday evening at a meeting in San Marcos. The new club, a community service organization for people with developmental disabilities who want to help others, was formed under the aegis of the Kiwanis clubs of Escondido and San Marcos. Photo: John Raifsnider, North County Times
Kenny Lewis listens as the charter for the new Aktion Club of North County is read Tuesday evening at a meeting in San Marcos. The new club, a community service organization for people with developmental disabilities who want to help others, was formed under the aegis of the Kiwanis clubs of Escondido and San Marcos. Photo: John Raifsnider, North County Times

SAN MARCOS - Fifteen North County men and women, most in wheelchairs because of lifelong disabilities, announced their new role last week as community volunteers with the creation of a club inviting others with disabilities to join their cause.

"We all need help in some way," said Tom Holman of Escondido, president of the new Aktion Club of North County, San Diego. "We all need to be loving, too. We help other people."

The club's name is "action" spelled with a "k" as a nod to its parent organization, Kiwanis International, an all-volunteer organization with a diverse membership.

Membership in Aktion clubs is limited to those with developmental disabilities - severe physical and/or mental conditions diagnosed before age 22, which is considered the developmental stage of life.

Dozens of Aktion clubs have been started around the country since the first was chartered in Florida in 1987. Holman's club, cosponsored by the Kiwanis clubs of Escondido and San Marcos, is the first in San Diego County and one of nine in California.

"When I was in high school, I would always see banners up about different clubs, but I could never get into the clubs," Holman told a packed meeting in San Marcos on Tuesday to officially charter the new organization.

"This is my first club ever," he said, smiling at the applause as he was handed a Kiwanis gavel and an engraved brass bell to use when he presides over meetings.

There was laughter, too, when Oscar Knight of San Diego, former Kiwanis governor of the California-Nevada-Hawaii district, gently teased the group for beginning its work before receiving a charter.

Club members already have participated in a winter food drive for the poor, and they sang Christmas carols for the elderly at a convalescent center in December.

Knight praised the group for "the birth of a new club that will bring new hands, new hearts to Kiwanis."

The club's members are residents of the nonprofit Mountain Shadows community of 16 group homes in Escondido and two in San Marcos. The charter meeting was held at a Mountain Shadows activities center in San Marcos.

However, the new Aktion club's vice president, Sally Dyer of Escondido, said the club was open to any developmentally disabled person. The group applauded an announcement that a Vista man already had inquired about membership.

"There are so many people out there who would love to support the community" said Linda Cook, a Kiwanis Club of Escondido member who is advising the new group. "They just haven't been offered the opportunity."

The mayors of Escondido and San Marcos also attended the charter meeting to welcome North County's newest volunteer organization.

"It's moving to see that people are willing to help and be a part of something," said San Marcos Mayor Jim Desmond.

Holman said that even though his club's members have jobs or attend day programs, they have found extra time in their schedule to be volunteers.

"For some people who say they don't have time, sometimes that's bogus," Holman said. "I say, just try to make time."

For more information about Aktion clubs, visit www.aktionclub.org