By Al Benson
Celebrating 100 years of Fox Valley service, Aurora Noon Lions Club will hold a centennial banquet Thursday, July 28.
The public is invited said Susan Koepke of Aurora, Noon Lions president.
She said the celebration will be July 28, at Gaslite Manor Banquets, 2485 Church Road in Aurora.
The event will feature a filet mignon and chicken dinner, gift basket raffles, prize drawings, a 50-50 raffle, artifact displays, a keynote address, and music by a Waubonsee Community College jazz band.
According to Koepke, the celebration will open with a social hour at 5:30 p.m.. The dinner program will follow from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m..
Tickets are a $40 donation. Reservations may be made online at auroranoonlions.org, or by sending a check for tickets to Aurora Noon Lions Club, P.O. Box 457, Aurora, IL 60507.
Deadline to make reservations is July 15.
After the banquet, 100 years of Noon Lions artifacts will be displayed at the Aurora Historical Society’s Pierce Art and History Center, 20 E. Downer Place in Aurora.
Dinner keynote speaker will be Robert “Bob” Block, past international director of Lions Clubs International. He was elected at the 102nd international convention held in Milan, Italy, in 2019. Block has more than 48 years of experience as an architectural and design engineer and project manager. Encouraged by his father to join Lions Clubs, he became a Lion in 1974 with the Calumet City Lions Club. He followed in his father’s footsteps and became club president in 1980. Other Lions offices he has held include multiple district convention chairperson, Centennial Action Committee member and host committee chairperson for the 2017 Centennial International Convention in Chicago. Block served as volunteer coordinator for the 50th anniversary Special Olympics Unified Cup in 2018 and was a moderator at the 2017 and 2018 USA/Canada Forums. In recognition of his Lions service, Block received several International President’s Awards and was named a Progressive Melvin Jones Fellow.
In the community, Block chaired the Dyer Summerfest for more than 14 years and is an active member of the Knights of Columbus. He was elected to the town council twice where he served as council president for two years. Block and his wife, Brenda, also a Lion and Melvin Jones Fellow, have three children and six grandchildren.
—Al Benson