This new club fundraiser features 36 “themed” baskets. The auction begins at 8 a.m., Friday, June 4 and ends at 6 p.m. on Sunday, June 13. The auction can be reached at  https://www.32auctions.com/aurorakiwanis. Some item bids start as low as $10 and baskets valued as high as $250. Most of the baskets are Longaberger. For any auction questions, email aurorakiwanis@gmail.com.

The idea of including a Basket Auction developed after a close friend, Kathleen Rees, of club members Kim Groom and Cheryl Vonhoff passed away in August 2019.  As a Longaberger basket collector, there were too many baskets to pass along to relatives, so Groom, Vonhoff, and three other friends were asked to take some baskets in memory of their friend.

Upon seeing just how many baskets were available, an idea was born (waiting to birth after the 2020 pandemic shutdown). The auction proceeds are being donated to the Kiwanis Club of Aurora and to the American Cancer Society, in memory of their friend.

Groom and Vonhoff began by asking the members of the Kiwanis Club of Aurora for donations to be included in these handmade baskets and the members began donating food items, wine and other beverages, children’s games, coloring books and many more things, too many to mention.

Founded on Sept. 9, 1916, the Aurora Kiwanis club was the first club in the Illinois-Eastern Iowa District and the twenty-first club chartered in the world.

The club is responsive to worthwhile community projects that help make Aurora an excellent community in which to live, work, and play. They have partnered with the area food pantries, with the Aurora Public Library, as well as other organizations within our community. The club sponsors Kiwanis-affiliated youth service clubs at local schools and Aurora University. Each year, the club also awards college scholarships to area students. The club is also the sponsor of two new Kiwanis clubs, Sugar Grove Township and Greater Fox Valley Area.