CHICAGO— A fundraising dinner in honor of the memory of the late Theodore G. Spyropoulos (1939-2014) will be held on Friday September 23. The Keep the Dream Alive Benefit will raise funds for the United Hellenic American Community of Greater Chicago. Benefactor Spyropoulos bought and renovated the Milwaukee Avenue building then gave it to the Hellenic-American Community of Chicago in support of the existing diaspora organizations that did not have buildings of their own.

His vision was to transform the building into a center for meetings on issues of interest to the Greek community with lectures, seminars, courses, workshops, conferences, exhibitions, theatrical performances, and film screenings held at the building. The benefit will help keep Spyropoulos’ dream alive.

Born in Kalavryta, Greece, he immigrated to Chicago in 1964 where he became a successful businessman and a leader of many organizations promoting Hellenism. A tireless champion of Greek causes, Spyropoulos was the Vice chairman of the Board of the American Hellenic Institute Foundation (AHIF), US Regional Coordinator of the World Council of Hellenes Abroad (SAE), the first president of the Hellenic American National Council (HANC), and founder of the Hellenic American Chamber of Commerce.

He also founded the Spyropoulos Scholarship for Hellenic-American Students in Greece and the US. His death on September 25, 2014 was a tremendous loss to his family, wife Erika and daughter Mariyana, and the community as well. His contributions to the community were recognized with the renaming of Halsted Street as Theodore Spyropoulos Street in the heart of Chicago’s Greektown in November 2014.

In 2015, friends and admirers erected a statue in his honor in the Kalavryta Forest, near his birthplace, that has benefited from the reforestation efforts of “Plant Your Roots in Greece, Inc.,” which he founded. The base of the statue bears an inscription in Greek which calls him “The Ever-Present Benefactor.”

Tickets can be ordered via phone 773-447-0642 or via email [email protected] and [email protected] for a $100 donation. The cocktail hour begins at 6:30 PM and dinner at 7:30 PM. A raffle will also be held with a grand prize of $3,000. Proceeds from the event will go towards the expenses of the building and Hellenic-American Community of Chicago programs.