Working Together to Make Our Communities Better

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Kiwanis Aktion Club Meets The Horses, And They're Off.......  

The local Aktion Club sponsored by the Stroudsburg Kiwanis Club will be at the Bit-By-Bit Horse Farm on Saturday November 15, 2003 at 4PM.  Local Kiwanis members from area Kiwanis Clubs in Division 17 (Northampton and Monroe Counties) will be volunteering their time with the members of the Aktion Club.  An Aktion Club is a community-service group for adult citizens who live with a disability.  This newly formed program will help these citizens develop more self-confidence and raise their self-esteem by working with large animals.  Working with horses on a farm-like setting improves relationships with disabled persons and is considered to be therapeutic. At the first meeting Aktion Club members had the opportunity to interact with the horses.  They learned about the care and feeding of the horses and learned how to properly saddle them and had a chance to ride the horses.  Monthly outings are being arranged for more Aktion Club members to join in and interact with the horses.  At the end of the event there will be refreshments for the Aktion and Kiwanis members. 

This new program is a community project of Division 17 Kiwanis Clubs and is spearheaded by Ken Marino of the Palmer Kiwanis Club and Sue Folk of the Stroudsburg Kiwanis Club.  Additional Kiwanis volunteers have been trained and will be assisting the stable employees to work with the Aktion Club members as guides and mentors around the horses. 

This monthly event will be continued even through the winter using the indoor riding rink at the stable.

Members feel sense of belonging

By OLIVIA GONZALEZ HOWE
Des Moines Register Staff Writer
11/06/2003

Dixie Randolph attends Aktion Club meetings and spends time volunteering with the new organization, she said, because it gives her a purpose. It gives her motivation. And more importantly, it gets her out of the house to interact with other people.

Randolph and 15 others, who are all in some way developmentally disabled, are members of central Iowa's Kiwanis Club exclusively for the developmentally disabled. The Aktion Club of Des Moines was officially recognized as a Kiwanis charter in October.

"There are so many individuals who have abilities that are untapped," said Chad Terry, a West Des Moines Kiwanis member and group sponsor. "And there really hasn't been an outlet for that. It was a new opportunity and just the right thing to do."

Most of the club's members were referred from Community Support Advocates, a county-sponsored program that lends assistance to individuals with disabilities.

For many, being a member of the Aktion Club brings a sense of belonging and a way to give back to the community.

"It's where development has no disability," Terry said. "We try not to recognize the disabilities, but the strengths they do have."

Since the club began meeting in July, it sponsored a peanut day where members collected donations and gave out peanuts at a local grocery store as a fund-raiser for Special Olympics. They collected more than $200 in two hours.

Members also helped serve at a pancake festival last month, and most plan to help with the Drake Basketball Jamboree later this month.

Tony George, the Aktion Club secretary, said the club's activities give him something to look forward to and a chance to work with other adults and children.

"I've always loved to work with others, especially kids, through church," George said. "This is one more thing I can do to get involved."

Terry has heard the same positive feedback from most of the other members.

"It's a motivational point for a lot of them," Terry said. "A bright spot in their life. It's a reason to get out and help someone else."