The Walterboro Civitan Club held its January 8th meeting at Dukes Barbecue. The meeting was called to order by the ringing of the bell. After recitation of the Civitan Creed, the Pledge of Allegiance, and the Invocation, Civitan President Tom Whitacre led the meeting with an update from Herman Hoffman on the upcoming Rice Festival’s World’s Largest Pot of Rice. Last year the group cooked 40 pots of rice to sell and are on track to repeat that quantity this year. This yearly project raises money to support Civitan projects in Colleton County.
Donald Davis, secretary of the club, gave an update on the new tent, banners and signage acquired to support Civitan Projects on location.
Whitacre presented a Civitan moment highlighting some of the projects Civitan International is working on, this includes the work being done at the Research Hospital at the University of Alabama in Brimingham. He also announces that the first meeting in February will be Clergy Week to honor the Clergy of Colleton County.
Brantley Strickland was the guest speaker for the meeting. Strickland, Director of the Colleton County Economic Alliance, spoke about his first 8 months at the Alliance and some of the projects in the future. The non-profit is working to enhance growth in Colleton County and is currently working to launch new private investment program. Strickland also took questions from the group and gave updates of the status of projects including the Mega Site, the Data Center, and the Canady’s Power Plant.
With more than 30,000 members worldwide, Civitan International is a global organization dedicated to serving the local communities of its members. Using the structure of building local clubs, Civitan equips its members to address local needs with local solutions.
Civitan is the only service organization dedicated to serving people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD). This long-standing focus began as a local project in Baltimore in the 1940s when Civitan began funding specialized teachers in schools. In 1956, Civitan membership unanimously adopted service to I/DD as the major project focus of the international organization. Today, Civitan supports the Civitan International Research Center in Birmingham, Alabama where more than 100 researchers work on diseases that impact the lives of 1 in 6 people worldwide.
