Birmingham Civitans mark 100th anniversary with an event at UAB

The Civitan Club of Birmingham – which will be 100 years old on March 17 – held its centennial celebration at the Civitan International Research Center on the UAB campus on Thursday night, March 9.

About 100 people, including Civitan members and guests and CIRC staffers, attended the event.

Civitan International is headquartered in Birmingham and has nearly 1,000 clubs around the world doing all sorts of work to improve the quality of life in their communities.

And it seemed was appropriate that the centennial celebration on Thursday was held at the CIRC .

Considered the club’s flagship project, the CIRC was dedicated in 1992 and is the first institution of its kind in the United States to focus solely on researching developmental disabilities.

“This center is the grand jewel of all of our accomplishments,” said Mike Brown, former president of Civitan International and first director of the CIRC .

“We have reached $17 million of our $20 million commitment (to the CIRC), and we will keep going until we meet and exceed it,” Brown told attendees.

Brown also offered a brief history of the club, whose name he said came from the Latin word “civitas,” meaning “citizenship.”

Dr. Alan Percy, a pediatric neurologist at UAB and one of the CIRC's founding scientists, provided attendees with a brief rundown of some of the research facility’s major accomplishments.

"Scientists there have made “many discoveries in mouse models that can be translated into treatments for girls and women with Rett’s Syndrome,” Percy said.

He also cited the center’s work on developmental disabilities and its discovery of a gene that causes a neurological disorder called ataxia.

Civitan executive vice-president John Rynearson read a proclamation from Alabama Governor Robert Bentley declaring March 17 Civitan Centennial Day in the state. He then presented the plaque to club president Alan Hand.

Reynearson, who said he’s retiring from his position after the Civitan International convention to be held in Birmingham June 24-27, introduced his successor, Scarlet Thompson.

She will serve as executive vice president on an interim basis beginning in April and will assume her duties full-time on July 1, according to Terry Schrimscher, the club’s director of public relations.

About 2,000 attendees are expected at the Civitan convention, according to Schrimscher. “It should be the biggest one ever, and we are excited to show off Birmingham,” he said.

In addition to the CIRC, Civitan has funded a research clinic at UAB Highlands and some research scholarships, according to Schrimscher.

For more information about the organization, go to civitan.org.