Montezuma Lions Club ready to serve at July 4 Chicken BBQ

       Dick Gregory sprays the Montezuma Lions special sauce on a batch of chickens cooking over hot coals during a recent Let Freedom Ring Celebration. This is the 69th year that the local Lions Club will cook and serve nearly 800 half chickens with all the fixings during the annual Fourth of July festivities in Montezuma. Photo by J.O. Parker

By Roger Allen
 
      Continuing a tradition of 69 years, the Montezuma Lions Club’s chicken barbecue dinner will be an anchor event of the annual Independence Day/Let Freedom Ring celebration in Montezuma on Saturday, July 4. It fits well with the Lions’ motto: “We Serve.”
      The dinner will include the club’s renowned barbecued half-chicken along with baked beans and coleslaw, a roll, iced tea and lemonade.  There will be carry-out service as well as the option of dining inside the air-conditioned Memorial Hall. Serving is scheduled to begin in earnest at the conclusion of the celebration parade about 11 a.m. or before, and continue until 1 p.m. - or until approximately 880 chicken dinners have been dispensed.
       A meal ticket is $14 at the door on July 4 or in advance from Lions club members. Proceeds will go toward community service projects and projects to aid the sight and hearing-impaired. Bring no longer needed eyeglasses and hearing aids to the Lions at the dinner.
Lions BBQ Task Assignments
       Lions assigned to cook chickens – beginning at 3 a.m. – include William Gregory, leader; Gary Thompson, Pat Montag, Dick Gregory, Roger Iverson, Dean Teeselink, Kyle Cook, Eddie Pierson, Rick Talbert, Bill Bolen and Pat Cashman plus non-Lions volunteers.
     Food Serving and Clean Up: Leaders Linda Boeding and Nicole VerMeer; Mike Mahaffey, Gordon Alexander, Doug Ver Meer, Boyd Sparks, Bob Hamilton, Roger Cox, Kathy Cox, Bud Norman, Ted Morelock, Jerome Sheets, Paul Sneller, Ron Hensel, Karen McNaul, Jacki Bolen, Bill Schultz and Larry Huff.
Ticket sales and collection: Larry Weeks, Roger Allen and Mike Princer. 
Donations to Date in 2026
       Club members continue to volunteer in the transport of cornea tissue, covering the relay from Grinnell to the Iowa Lions Eye Bank in Coralville. 
      The club’s most recent community donation is its largest in several years: a gift of $5,000 to Montezuma Community Development for that organization’s updating of Memorial Hall. Two $300 scholarships were given to graduating seniors; also $200 was donated to the Montezuma Shooting Sports program and $300 was gifted to After Prom. Wayside Park is mowed and maintained by the Lions, supported in part by the Montezuma Mothers’ Club. Other donations were made to state and national programs supported by the Lions organization, as follows: $1,600 to Iowa Lions Foundation, $1,000 to Lions Clubs International Foundation, $200 to Camp Hertko Hollow (a camp for diabetic children), $100 to Camp Courageous, and $200 to Leader Dogs for the Blind. The Lions recently assisted a Montezuma senior citizen in obtaining hearing aids through the Iowa Lions hearing aid program.
       Entities funded by the state foundation include the Iowa Lions Eye Bank, Iowa KidSight vision screening, and the Lions Hearing Aid program. The International foundation provides emergency relief at the time of disasters, including storms and floods in Iowa and relief for families uprooted by wars.
        Montezuma Lions Club is always interested in gaining new members; if interested, communicate that to a member while you are enjoying your barbecued chicken dinner on Saturday.