A time to celebrate

The sails are up, the flags are flying, and the spirit of A’ROR’N Days 2025 is catching a strong summer breeze as this year’s celebration sets sail on a weekend filled with fun, friendship, and festive pirate flair. 
If you’re reading this with suitcase in hand and memories in tow, we’re especially glad to have you here. Whether you graduated five years ago or 50, there’s something deeply meaningful about returning to your hometown during this beloved annual tradition.
This weekend’s pirate theme is a fitting one. After all, a treasure chest full of memories and connections awaits. A’ROR’N Days is Aurora’s way of welcoming home her alumni, inviting current and former residents alike to walk familiar streets, share stories, and create new memories alongside old friends. From the laughter echoing off the courthouse square to the sight of little buccaneers in eye patches and face paint, there will magic in the air that can only happen in a place where you’re known by name.
There’s so much to enjoy this year. Thursday’s family night on the square kicks things off with inflatables, science experiments, dunk tanks, music and more. Friday brings the ever-popular Show and Shine car show, an exciting new pickleball tournament and early heats in the street vault. Saturday, as always, is packed from sunrise to well past sunset, beginning with pancakes and fun runs, culminating in cookouts, competitions and a parade of pure small-town joy.
To those of you coming home for class reunions or simply reliving your roots, we encourage you to take a closer look around town. Aurora is growing, thoughtfully and intentionally, with several new housing subdivisions taking shape, new businesses breaking ground and economic development efforts continuing to gain momentum. Whether it’s the Mission Critical Subdivision along Highway 14, the expansion at Northridge, or the game-changing Streeter Subdivision west of 1st Street, the signs of progress are easy to spot and they tell the story of a community that’s investing in its future while honoring its past.
And as you take in all the weekend has to offer, we encourage you to tip your hats (or your pirate bandanas) to the many volunteers who pour their energy, creativity and heart into making A’ROR’N Days what it is. Their behind-the-scenes efforts are the true compass steering this celebration, and we are grateful.
A’ROR’N Days is more than a celebration. It’s a homecoming, a reunion, a reset. It reminds us of who we are and where we come from. It offers a glimpse of how far we’ve come and it invites us all to keep building something special, together.
So welcome home, alumni. Join the fun, find old friends, make new memories and maybe even win the photo scavenger hunt while you’re at it. We hope the winds are fair, the laughter loud and the memories lasting.
Here’s to A’ROR’N Days 2025, a weekend worth its weight in gold!
-- Kurt Johnson