Civitan Club comes to Bells Corners

Posted Feb 23, 2012 By EMC News

EMC News -Bells Corners will soon be the home of the first Civitan Club in Ottawa in nearly 15 years.

The newly formed organization will host its first information meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 29, at 7 p.m. at the Bells Corners United Church, 3955 Richmond Rd.

Civitan International is an association of community service clubs founded in 1917. The organization aims to build good citizenship by providing a volunteer organization of clubs dedicated to serving individual and community needs with an emphasis on helping people with developmental disabilities.

The organization includes 40,000 members (referred to as Civitans) in almost 1,000 clubs around the world.

Our Canadian District East Civitan Clubs are located in Aylmer, Carleton Place, Almonte, Pakenham, Cobden, Pembroke, Petawawa, Lanark, Perth, Smiths Falls, Kingston, Napanee, Brockville, Chateauguay and Montreal.

Anyone over the age of 18 is encouraged to learn more about the club.

While individual clubs are free to pursue their own projects, on an international level Civitan is focused on service to the developmentally disabled. This emphasis was adopted in 1956, with Civitans becoming some of the first to provide special training for teachers of developmentally disabled children.

Civitan continues to focus on assisting those with developmental disabilities. In 1990, the Civitan International Research Center was established on the campus of the University of Alabama at Birmingham with a $20 million grant from the Civitan International Foundation.

The Civitan International Research Center was the first institution of its kind in the United States to be focused solely on the research of developmental disabilities. Medical professionals from all over the world also come to the center for training on developmental disabilities.

Information meetings about the Civitan Club in Bells Corners will be held on March 7, 14, 21 and 28, at 7 p.m. at the Bells Corners United Church, 3955 Richmond Rd.

For more information about Civitan membership, please call Bonnie Jessup at 613-820-1251 or Bryan Wiltsie 613-271-8903 ext. 245. Visit our Facebook page for updates or www.civitancanadaeast.org.