After serving 40 years with the Boys and Girls Club of the Santa Maria Valley, Bill Libbon recently retired as the club’s executive director.
The club and its Board of Directors will play host to a retirement party in his honor on Nov. 5 at the Santa Maria Elks Lodge. No-host cocktails begin at 5:30 p.m. with dinner and a program to follow at 6:30 p.m.
Libbon started his tenure with the club in January of 1975, after graduating from CSU Long Beach. At that time, the Santa Maria club consisted of a single location on West Main Street.
Since then, the club has moved to its current spot on North Railroad and added the Evans Park and Guadalupe clubs. Female membership was added in 1985, and the operating budget has increased from $40,000 in 1975 to $1.3 million today.
Tickets are $30 per person or $360 for a full table of 12. An RSVP is required by Oct. 31. Tickets can be purchased online at bgcsmv.org or by calling 922-7163. The Elks Club is located at 1309 N. Bradley Road in Santa Maria.
This article appears in Oct 9-16, 2014.
