The Wilmington Civitan Club was chartered in 1938 and dissolved in 2019. The club’s three main tenants were Service, Knowledge, and Fellowship. Part of Civitan International, the club participated in numerous events and outreach programs while active, including but not limited to working with the Special Olympics, the Salvation Army, the Boys and Girls Home of North Carolina, and running their own scholarship projects. One notable achievement, they were largely responsible for bringing the first Iron Lung to Wilmington during the Polio epidemic years of the 1940s and 1950s.

Civitan International was founded in 1917 and started in Birmingham, Alabama. The community service organization still exists today and has more than 40,000 members in 24 countries. The word Civitan is taken from the Latin meaning “civitas” or in English, citizenship. Their mission is to make a difference in their communities while also supporting those with developmental disabilities.