aKtion Club inspires me to write

Every so often – just when it is most needed – life offers you a gift of inspiration. I received mine last night.
I had been invited to speak to a group with the Killearn Kiwanis Club that supports its special chapter called the aKtion Club. Membership in the aKtion Club is comprised of developmentally challenged adults.
They have their own officers and, as a service organization, work with members of the Kiwanis Club to set their own agenda. These are people primarily living on their own or with family members. They have jobs and earn their own money and are both very proud of that and generous with their cash.Life has presented these folks with some special roadblocks, yet they seem most willing to navigate through it. I listened as they conducted regular business.
They shared in viewing photos and a large thank-you poster from a less fortunate family for whom they helped make Christmas special by providing food for dinner. The single-parent mom and her children pasted photos of themselves onto the cardboard poster. Mom promised that by next year they would try to help the club help another family.
The club collects dues of $1 from each member at their every other week meetings. Members also collect box tops and coupons and the aluminum lids from soda cans. The money they raise goes to Gretchen Everhart School, which serves special-needs children and where some of them once went to school, and to support the Ronald McDonald House.
They asked me to come speak to them about the news business; they are well aware of the economic issues facing all of us, including the media. I gave that talk, but before I could, I had to take a few minutes to get personal with them.I told them about my five children, stopping when I got to Jessica, my 16-year-old who attends Gretchen, to say thank you. As a parent, I said, I wanted them to know their efforts for children like my daughter mean a great deal.

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