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This week is the first full week in March, meaning it’s Aktion Club week, which is designated by Kiwanis.

“The international Kiwanis sends out a toolkit for them to go by,” said Jo Lowe, adviser for the Kiwanis Aktion Club. “They designate each day as different activities and give suggestions for each day.”

Monday was Show Your K in Every Way, and members were encouraged to wear their Aktion Club T-shirt, tell people about what they did and spread the word. They were also given fliers to post.

Tuesday was Kudos to Aktion.

“We made gift bags for [members], and each little thing was a different thing they can use to show our appreciation for what they’ve done over the past year,” said Audrey Ware, director of LIFE Center of Freeborn County. “And we made little certificates for them signed by us now that they have successfully completed their Aktion Club year.

Wednesday was Dare to Care day, and the club created handmade greeting cards last week. They delivered the cards to residents at Good Samaritan Society of Albert Lea. Members also took pop tabs to the Ronald McDonald house and gave a food donation to the Ecumenical Food Council as part of March’s food share month.

Thursday was Kindness in Aktion day, where members were challenged to go out into the community and perform an act of kindness.

Friday is Connect the K’s day, where members will go to the Daybreakers Kiwanis Club and tell members about how the week went and thank them for Kiwanis’ support.

The Aktion Club, sponsored by Kiwanis, does community service and is for adults with disabilities.

According to Lowe, the Albert Lea Aktion Club was chartered in 2009, and the organization had to pause their Aktion Club week due to COVID-19.

“This is the first March that we’ve been able to actually take part in it,” she said.”We wanted to spread the word maybe a little bit more and get back to action.”

Since July 2009, the club has raised over $50,000 and given back over $51,000 to organizations such as Boys’ Town, the First Presbyterian Church food shelf, Head Start and the Humane Society, among others. They have also volunteered over 4,100 hours and worked on projects including bocce ball courts, the backpack project, community clean-ups and the Ronald McDonald House, among others.

Before the Aktion Club, the organization was a chapter of The Arc, which has since changed to the LIFE Center. Arc, which previously stood for the Association of Retired Citizens, was established in the 1950s with the goal of raising awareness of what people with disabilities could do.

“Arc chapters were encouraged to have self-advocacy groups,,” she said.

Some of the chapters were sponsored by Kiwanis, while others weren’t.

Arc then made the decision to have an Aktion Club, with potential members writing letters to Kiwanis asking for support. Kiwanis and Daybreaker’s agreed.

Currently, the club has nine members, with three people considering joining.

“Back when Aktion Club was … bigger, there was probably 20 something, 30 members,” Ware said. “Once COVID hit you couldn’t be allowed to do this or do that just because of our vulnerability for our members. Now that  we’ve kind of moved on from that, when we went and delivered our greeting cards they asked if we could go and volunteer and actually help the activities coordinator go do activities with the [Good Samaritan] members [they] can’t get to.”

The organization is also considering going into group homes and spending time with seniors.

Lowe said community response to Aktion Club Week was good.

For anyone interested in working with or joining the club, Ware said they could visit their office at 407 E. William St., call 507-377-3469 or email a.ware@lifecenterfc.org.