We Are Ruritans

     Ruritan Charities of Mt. Sidney Incorporated is a nonprofit 501 (C) 3 corporation whose mission is to raise and distribute funds needed to improve community life. To this end, Ruritan Charities partners with the Mt. Sidney Ruritan Club located in Mt. Sidney, Virginia. Ruritan Charities received its certificate of incorporation from the Virginia State Corporation Commission on July 5, 2022.

     Mt. Sidney Ruritan Club has been serving the Mount Sidney community and surrounding rural areas since 1939. It is one of 23 adult Ruritan clubs in the Woodrow Wilson District of Ruritan National.

          Volunteer service projects have included volunteering at a food pantry that Mt. Sidney Ruritan Club helped start, collecting warm clothing and donating food to the Valley Mission, helping seniors by shopping for them, getting firewood, and transporting them to appointments.

     The main project on which Ruritan Charities and Mt. Sidney Ruritan Club collaborate is the maintenance and improvement of the Mt. Sidney Ruritan Club’s park grounds, buildings and equipment. The club purchased 3.85 acres for the park in 1989, dedicated playground equipment in 1991, and two years later erected a picnic shelter.

     Maintenance and improvements have been on-going. The park is always open to the public for general use. Other uses include birthday parties, graduation parties, picnics and meetings, local high school retired teachers’ luncheons, and there has even been a wedding reception. Frequent use includes monthly Ruritan Club meetings, Girl Scout meetings, use of the basketball court and playground, chicken BBQs at the pit, and yard sales free to vendors. People who work in Mt. Sidney can eat at the picnic shelter on their lunch breaks.