Bryan Noon Lions Club Celebrates 100 years

BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) – Thursday was a big night for the Bryan Noon Lions Club which celebrated 100 years at The Weinberg.

The celebration included a dinner, a silent auction as well as live entertainment courtesy of the Brazos Valley Chorale. Tickets were sold before the event with all proceeds from the sales as well as the auction going to charities that the club supports.

“This is an amazing night to come together with other lions in our community, members of our community who just want to come out and celebrate 100 years of service,” said Vicki Smith-Dicky, third vice president of the Bryan Noon Lions Club.

Club president, Gerald Popp said not many clubs make 100 years, so it’s a day that not only celebrates past accomplishments but ones they’ll make over the next 100 years.

“A great group out tonight, our International President from Minnesota is here, he is the keynote speaker and a lot of past district governors, people all around the state,” Popp said. “It’s just really a celebration of a really neat accomplishment for Bryan Noon Lions club.”

Over the years the club has created scholarships for Texas A&M students as well as students in Bryan ISD. They also help out with the foodbank and putting out flags on Holidays.

“We can do so much more and we can do it together when it’s a group of us doing it, its fun when we do it together we can just do so much more when we work as a team,” Popp said.

Smith-Dicky said she never realized how much the club did until she did research for the event.

“We put playground equipment at Sue Haswell Park in 1924, we have furnished coats to children in need at our local elementary school,” Smith-Dicky said. “One hundred years ago we were already putting our stamp on our community, we continue to do that today and we will continue to do that in the future.”

Popp said the turnout for the event was amazing and said Smith-Dicky did a great job putting it all together.

“The house is full, I’ve never been to The Weinberg. This is a tremendous facility. It really complements what we are doing tonight. It’s a really great showcase for that,” Popp said.

Looking toward the future, Popp and Smith-Dicky said the club will do a lot of the same things they’ve been doing such as supporting kids and the food bank, but it is also looking to grow its membership.

“We want more people to become lions,” Smith-Dicky said. “We have a strong sense of community in our group. We have many projects that we work on. If a member wanted to join our organization and they have an idea about how to serve our community better we want to hear that, we want to implement it and we want to get excited about getting that started.”

Those interested can learn more about the Bryan Noon Lions Club at this link.