A week before Valentine's Day, decorated hearts were red-hot sellers.

One framed design went for $750 at the second annual Heart Auction to benefit the Aktion Club of Eastern Carolina. The auction, held Thursday night at Rock Springs Center, raised about $7,500 for the club, a community service organization for adults with disabilities.

Rhett Butler/The Daily Reflector (ENLARGE)

Billy Clark auctions off prints during the Aktion Club of Eastern Carolina's annual Heart Auction at Rock Springs Center on Thursday. Aktion Club is a community service organization for adults with disabilities.

Aktion Club, which began in Florida in 1987, became an official sponsored program of Kiwanis International in 2000. The local club, founded in February 2005, has grown to 45 members.

"When (people with disabilities) turn 18, there's not many programs available," Todd Siebels, past lieutenant governor of Kiwanis, said. "Aktion Club has been given the opportunity to serve in the same exact fashion as the Kiwanis Club."

Aktion Club members elect officers, host guest speakers, take trips, and fund and participate in community service projects. The local Aktion Club has held food drives, visited nursing homes, walked in the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life and volunteered with Give2TheTroops.

Thursday's auction, which carried the theme "Put Your Heart into Aktion," is the club's primary fundraiser for the year. All funds raised benefit causes the club supports, rather than the club itself.

"We aren't a cause. We're a civic group that supports charitable causes," said Aktion Advisory Council member June Richardson, whose son, Tyler, is an Aktion Club member.

Club members pay $1 in dues and donate at least one canned good at each of their monthly meetings. These donations, coupled with the annual auction and the sale of note cards designed by club members, have helped fund donations to REAL Crisis Center, the Greenville Community Shelters and the Boys and Girls Club of Pitt County.

"With all the needs that they (the members) have, it's amazing," said Kiki Siebels, who serves with her husband, Todd, on the club's advisory council. "It's inspirational."

Club members often take on projects designed to help children with developmental disabilities. Last year, the club provided scholarships for special-needs children to attend camp, and gave a donation to Rocking Horse Ranch. Kelley Kaplan, past president of the club, told people gathered for the auction about a special chair the club helped buy for a developmentally challenged boy.

"Most of our members of Aktion Club have had many volunteers in their lives but have never been able to return the favor of volunteering themselves," Kaplan said. "Aktion Club has made that possible for all of us, and we are so proud to be able to."

For this year's auction, Aktion Club members teamed up to create 14 original designs, decorating red foam hearts with everything from feathers to flags. East Carolina Vocational Center donated framing for the 14 prints, which also included a photo of the artists and brief statement about their involvement in Aktion Club.

Todd Siebels said the Aktion Club members themselves were the inspiration for the fundraiser.

"When you met them, you truly saw their heart," he said "This heart auction was originated from that idea.

"When you see these hearts they did it from the heart."