Museum Gala

Tickets for the OPRF Museum Gala and “Heart of Our Villages” Award Ceremony on March 13, 2025 are now available! Join us for our annual fundraising gala at the Nineteenth Century Club, 178 Forest Ave.

The event kicks off with entertainment, hors d'oeurves, and beverages at 6:30 p.m., and the awards ceremony begins at 7:30 p.m. Proceeds benefit the operations of The Historical Society of Oak Park and River Forest. Reserve your tickets today on our website or by calling 708-848-6755!

Cocktail attire suggested. Beer, wine, and soft drinks are complimentary with a cash bar for cocktails. Menu includes heavy passed hors d'oeurves and a carving station. Seating is not assigned. 

We will be honoring two remarkable community members--Bob Trezevant and Laura Maychruk--with the 2025 “Heart of Our Villages” award.

We also have other opportunities for you to show your support for this event and our awardees, by taking out an ad or a note of congratulations in our program book. Please follow this link to find out more information.

Laura Maychruk may be most well-known for the Buzz Café at 905 S. Lombard Ave., which she and her husband, Andrew, opened in 1998 and operated for 25 years. While owning the Buzz, she helped to establish the Arts District and served as president of the district’s business association. 
The café was filled with work of local artists and her early efforts to bolster the community didn’t go unnoticed. In 2016, Buzz Café was named the Most Philanthropic Business of the Year. She continues supporting the Arts District by operating her own real estate brokerage company there. She also volunteers with the OPRF Imagine Foundation.
She has taken on a number of renovation projects, including her own home which she has graciously opened up for several house walks. Three renovation projects at her home earned her awards from River Forest Historic Preservation Commission.  
 

Bob Trezevant has been involved in many Oak Park organizations, first becoming active in Oak Park Festival Theater shortly after he moved here in 1977. He was also a member of the Civic Arts Council, the Oak Park Civic Symphony Chorus, a founding investor for the Wednesday Journal, and a founding member of the Oak Park Concert Choral. 
In 1989, he was one of 20 founding members of the Oak Park Lesbian and Gay Association (OPALGA+). He led tours at the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio as well as Unity Temple and in 2020, he joined the Nineteenth Century Club. 
Professionally, "Mr. T" taught at Longfellow School in Oak Park from 1983 until his retirement in 1998. 
After 38 years of marriage, Katherine Gervais Trezevant died Dec. 24, 2004. He met his partner, Jerry Ehernberger, at an OPALGA potluck in 2007.