Instead of calling it “The Old Timers Banquet,” how about a new name calling the luncheon to honor North Royalton’s “Most Treasured Residents.”
Whatever name you call it, the Olde Timers Banquet is held every year during the North Royalton Community Festival. The event honors residents who helped North Royalton grow into the city that it is today.
Those who were invited to lunch on Saturday, August 19, at Royal Redeemer Lutheran Church included those North Royalton residents who are at least 70 years of age and have lived in the city for at least 30 years. The Royalton Hills Lions Club has sponsored the event for at least the last 25 years.
North Royalton Mayor Bob Stefanik said he appreciates the advice and counsel that these “treasured residents” have given him over the years.
“It’s a great sense of community. These folks made North Royalton what it is today, a great community to raise a family without a lot of shopping malls and the traffic congestion that all that brings. We still have wide-open spaces. It was because of their foresight that North Royalton is the way it is today.”
North Royalton City Council President Larry Antoskiewicz says, “it’s always fun to talk to them because you get a good perspective on the way things used to be, how things have grown since then, the changes they’ve had to make because it was a farming community back then. You can’t replace their knowledge.”
This year there were a rather large number of ‘newbies’ that came to the Olde-Timers Banquet. It’s hard to imagine North Royalton residents who are over 70 years of age and living in this area for 30 years as being ‘youngsters’ at this get together. Tom and Barbara Cwiklinski said they were looking forward to coming to the banquet for the first time.
“My sister has been coming for the last three years and talked about how much fun she had. So I couldn’t wait to join her,” said Barbara. This year marks year number 30 that Tom and Barbara have lived in North Royalton. When I asked Tom about seeing a lot of old friends at the banquet, he laughed and said “I guess it means we’re getting older.”
What brought a lot of these “treasured residents” to North Royalton? For plenty of them it was housing, for others it was the wide-open spaces that North Royalton still has.
Bob and Nancy Stasko, who’ve been North Royalton residents for over 40 years, told me of the time when they would look out into their back yard and “see their neighbor’s cow and chickens roaming about.” Bob laughed and said those animals “have been replaced by deer.”
For Dottie Boyne, a 50-year resident of North Royalton, said what attracted her and her husband Tom to North Royalton “was the house, (5 bedrooms), on a bus line (the old #35 and #79) and a Catholic Church (St. Albert). “Plus, my father told me this would be a great retirement house. And it is.”
Violet Lepa, a 50-plus year resident, remembers when THE gathering place in North Royalton was at Costa’s Supermarket (which was located at Royalton Road and West 130 Street). “You saw everybody there,” said Violet.
The Royalton Hills Lions Club would like to invite more “treasured residents” to sign up to be invited to their banquet, which takes place on the Saturday during the Community Festival. Check out their Facebook page @ Royalton Hills Lions Club or e-mailing a club member at RoyaltonHills@aol.com.
To our Treasured Residents, thanks for all you’ve done and thanks for all you still do.

By JOE JASTRZEMSKI
Contributing Writer