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Bon voyage, Toni!

After more than 25 years of creating special memories, First National Bank's VIA Club is coming to an end. Your beloved tour director, Toni Koury-Daneman will retire after one last cruise in January, 2011. For bank customers with a VIA Club checking account, all of the account benefits will continue as before, but VIA Club travel will be discontinued after our final trip to the Eastern Caribbean.

Toni began her "tour of duty" with First National in June of 1985. She was hired into a brand new position at First National - VIA Club Coordinator. (VIA, of course, stands for Very Important Adult.) By September, Toni and her boundless enthusiasm had the VIA Club up and running!

The first trip for Toni and the VIA Club so long ago was a day trip to Galena. By February 1986, she and her club were ready to tackle traveling longer distances. Thus began a sojourn that crossed 6 continents, more than 40 countries worldwide, 44 states and covered ALL of the history of CHICAGO.

When asked about her favorite trip, Toni said "but it's impossible to pick one!" She continued "The people make the trip; both the folks I traveled with and the ones we met along the way."

Best estimates for the VIA Club are that they've been to Chicago 250 times and seen over 100 plays. Extended trips have taken club members to such exotic places as Kenya, China and Thailand ("so different; so far from home").

It is a bittersweet time for Toni and for First National Bank. Toni is ready to take on the next opportunity in her life with that same boundless enthusiasm she started out with. The bank won't be the same without her. But the memories she's built will last a lifetime.

If you'd like to hear more about the special times the VIA Club has had over the last 25 years, check our VIA Club page on the bank's website. Toni will be posting her "memoirs" there over the next several months. You just MIGHT find yourself there!