Plans are underway in La Grange Park to celebrate the village’s 125th anniversary with programs and events throughout 2017.
Several committees have been meeting since August in La Grange Park to make plans for events that will mark the founding of the village in 1892. The committees are the historic committee, the community art committee, the birthday party committee, sponsorship and planning groups.
“This is not Village Board directed,” said Deanne Curelo, executive secretary. “It’s people in the community directing this.”
She said about 30 people so far have been involved in the planning that also includes community organizations.
Many of the details of the programs have not yet been finalized. The first scheduled is from 5-6:30 p.m. Jan. 13 at the La Grange Park Library, 555 N. La Grange Road.
“We want residents to come and talk about the village and talk about what has changed,” Curelo said.
Residents are invited to drop in and share their memories of living in the village.
“We’re going to collect local histories and we hope to archive them digitally,” said Susan Fagan, marketing and communications coordinator for the library.
The village’s main celebration will be on the afternoon and evening of July 15 at Memorial Park. There will be three bands, a picnic and other family-oriented activities such as story telling.
The La Grange Historical Society is pitching in to help mark the anniversary. Although dates have not yet been finalized, they are planning to do a walking tour and exhibit of village history.
A time capsule will be buried, probably some time in the summer, Curelo said.
“We’re still thinking about what will go into it,” she said. “We’d like to have photos of the birthday party in it.”
The village and library also are planning to put in place an interactive website that residents can access to put in information about their own houses.
“The end goal is to get a history of the houses, and stories about the houses, whether it’s the oldest house in village or designed by a famous architect,” Curelo said. “We want to hear stories about what people remember about La Grange Park.”
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Fagan said the map will also highlight interesting sites and buildings in the village.
Curelo said there will be a link on the village’s website that will direct residents to the interactive website.
The community art committee is planning some type of community art project.
The form or media the project will take has not yet been decided.
“It will be a testament to the lifestyle of the village,” Curelo said. “It will be for any age group to participate in it.”
The village has a sponsorship committee that is working to raise donations to defray the costs of the celebration. It also has a planning group that has members of all the other committees to ensure there is no duplication of efforts and generally oversee events.
“They just discuss what we’re doing and where we’re at,” Curelo said.
The village also has created a special logo for the 125th anniversary that is being used on all documents and many emails that go out from the village.
“It’s an adaptation of our regular logo, but it’s more festive,” Curelo said.
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