Community: Kiwanis President promises to make people smile

Local dentist Bruce Lilly has started out his year as president of the Burbank Kiwanis Noon Club and has appropriately chosen as his theme, “The Year of Service with a Smile.”

“Really, the strength of our club is we give service and we have fun,” Lilly said. “We give smiles with a smile. Whenever we get together, we have fun. I want us to do more of that and we will then be able to grow and serve more, too.”

It is Kiwanis’ vow to provide “Service to Youth and Children of the World,” and Lilly said he will concentrate on such local projects as supporting the vocal music associations and drama at Burbank and Burroughs high schools.

Lilly has been a Key Club adviser at the high schools for more than 20 years and this year the club is starting a Circle K club at Woodbury University and a Key Club at Monterrey High School.

Continuing projects include members delivering 20 meals a week to shut-in seniors through the Home Delivered Meals program and participating in the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life, a 24-hour walk that raises funds to fight cancer.

Lilly has been a Kiwanis member for 29 years. He was sponsored as a prospective club member by his father, the late Charles Lilly, in 1984.

“But when I was about 10 years old, I helped my dad at Easter sunrise service at the Starlight Bowl, serving coffee, hot chocolate and doughnuts,” Lilly said.

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JOYCE RUDOLPH can be contacted at rudolphjoyce10@gmail.com.