The Aktion Club of Elmira is sponsored by the
Kiwanis Club of Elmira NY. and is the one original Aktion Club of the
Southern Tier and Chemung County New York.
The mission of Aktion Club is:
- To provide adults with disabilities an
opportunity to develop initiative and leadership skills.
- To serve their community.
- To be integrated into society.
- 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.
An Aktion Club can benefit its members in many ways through service
and recreational events. These activities enable the members to:
- Participate in the active life of the
community.
- Provide an opportunity to contribute to the
community.
- Develop mechanical, creative, and
intellectual abilities.
- Social interaction awareness.
- Improve self-esteem.
- Develop leadership skills.
- Achieve personal and service goals.
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The First Meetings:
Aktion Club is the newest member of the Sponsored Organizations and
Programs at Kiwanis International. Aktion Club is a community-service
group for adult citizens who live with a disability. The Aktion Club
of Elmira NY is based in the Chemung District of Kiwanis
International and of the first in this district.
On April 18 2007, the first meeting of the Elmira Kiwanis opened to
the public to invite them as potential members to the newly forming
area Aktion Club. During the next few meetings, we discussed what the
idea and mission of an Aktion Club could do for its members, and what
the members could do for the organization as well. In June of 2007 we
elected board members and initiated the process of creating by-laws.
Then on our meeting of July 18 2007, we had everything we needed to
complete our charting process and its paperwork.
The Web Site:
On July 3 2007 our first temporary web site was created by one of our
charter members. He also is our current webmaster and hosts the web
site using his account on a major hosting company. At out July
meeting we decided upon a domain name for our web site and then our
webmaster ordered it from one of the best domain registry companies.
This allowed us to have our web site up and running as AktionClub-Elmira.Org during the
first week of August 2007. This site started as a one page web site,
then a two page site when a photo page added to it. Now it is in its
current form. This site is still under construction, and may/will
have errors or spelling mistakes as it evolves. Our current webmaster
has a "condition" called Dyslexia which makes these errors and
mistakes harder to find.
The Chartering Dinner:
On October 11 2007 the Aktion Club of Elmira was officially
chartered. By that date, we had about 40 charter members. We
celebrated the completion of the charting process with a dinner at
Hill Top Inn, where Mayor John S. Tonello declared that date to be
known as Aktion Club of Elmira Day. Our celebration including members
from Aktion Club of Elmira, Elmira Kiwanis, Sponsoring Agencies, plus
some guests. The room was packed and we had a good time.
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