Mauldin Civitan Club History
The Mauldin Civitan club was one of the goals of Belita Broadus, President of the Greenville Civitan Club when elected President. The search for a place for the new club began with the Hope Academy in Simpsonville, SC. However because of HIPPA laws and other circumstances, Susan Sach, HOPE Academy’s CEO suggested that Civitan has done a lot of work in the Mauldin area and perhaps that would be a place to start a new club.
Belita Broadus invited Sam Bennett, and Lura Boggs to join in a meeting to appeal to the Mayor of Mauldin for his influence to form a new club. Dennis Raines, Mayor of Mauldin was contacted and presented with the idea of a Mauldin Civitan Club. Mayor Raines embraced the idea and arranged to have 10 key contacts from the Mauldin community attend an organizational meeting at the Mauldin Cultural Center.
The Greenville Civitan Club approved the new club sponsorship on February 19, 2016. From this meeting Anna Smith joined the club builder team, of Lura Boggs, Sam Bennett and Belita Broadus for club builder training and the making of a Mauldin Civitan Club.
Our first organizational meeting was at the Mauldin Cultural center with 10 prospective members from the Mauldin community, all arranged by Mayor Dennis Raines.
Rodney Neely took the lead in completing the club’s first project, which was a graduation celebration for the special needs class at Mauldin High School. The next project was a partnering with the Greenville Civitan Club to serve lunch for the Mauldin Miracle League teams and their families. Miracle League is a softball team for special needs children.
Organizational meetings emphasized the message and work of Civitan for eight consecutive weeks. With encouragement from District Governor, Bill Tolleson; Regional Director, Lura Boggs, and Field Director Mike Taylor we gradually grew to charter size, and on May 31, 2016 the Mauldin Civitan Club Charter was officially filed.
The first officers elected were, Jimmy DuRante, President; Sharon Thomas, President-Elect; Allen Chavis, Treasurer; Leona “Lee” Gray, Secretary. Elected to the Board of Directors were Terry Merritt, Rodney Neely, Curtis Pressley and Joe Simmons.
Charter Members of Mauldin Civitan Club
| Bennett, Sam | |
| Boggs, Lura | Hill, Jannie |
| Broadus, Belita | Neely, Rodney |
| Chavis, Allen | Powers, Jeff |
| Chavis, Joyce | Pressley, Curtis |
| Dessaure, Bernice Rhodes | Pulley, Ricky |
| DuRante, Betty | Simmons, Joe |
| DuRante, Jimmy | Smith, Anna |
| Gray, Lee | Thomas, Sharon |