More than 1,500 people came out to Waubonsee Community College’s Sugar Grove campus on Saturday to celebrate the college’s 60th anniversary, Waubonsee officials said.
The four-hour celebration Saturday included live music, kids’ activities including a petting zoo and a children’s zone, alumni festivities, giveaways, a car show and more.
The event was held 60 years to the day of the first Waubonsee board meeting on Aug. 22, 1966.
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“For 60 years, we have served the community and provided educational opportunities and access,” said Waubonsee Community College President Brian Knetl in a press release about the celebration. “I’m so excited for the next 60 years of Waubonsee Community College.”
The event also included the dedication of the new RISE Reflection Pond, created in honor of the 60th anniversary and as a nod to the college’s RISE 2030 strategic plan, officials said.
“Located adjacent to the Student Center on the main quad, the pond features picturesque landscaping, running water and benches. The space was designed to provide students and employees with a welcoming place to relax, reflect, connect with nature and support mental health and wellness,” the release said.
Clayton Muhammad, vice president of community engagement and external affairs for Waubonsee Community College, said Monday morning he was still energized following Saturday’s events.
“There was absolutely an amazing turnout. This is the first time the college has even done anything like this district-wide and so we saw the 60th anniversary – a new era at Waubonsee,” he said. “We wanted to do something from a back-to-school perspective and how do we unify and make us the community’s college? We decided to do this 60th anniversary and it really turned out well.”
Muhammad said the crowd of more than 1,500 people included “alumni from all ages as well as original board members’ families and legendary Waubonsee names.”
“We had the gamut of people coming and great energy. A lot of family-focused things,” he said.
The crowd was treated to the music of the 1960s in honor of the era when the college was founded, Muhammad said, “including a tribute to Motown as well as the Beatles and other pop music.”
“We also wanted to tell our story over the past 60 years and how we’ve grown in diversity,” he said, noting that the Mexican traditional dance group Ballet Folklorico opened the celebration on Saturday.
There were also plenty of food trucks that were busy all night, Muhammad said.
“We didn’t stop selling for four hours straight and we offered free popcorn and free lemonade and we wanted to make sure our alumni had special shirts with our first shield from 1966 and handed out hundreds of those,” he said.
Back-to-school for kids was celebrated with a Kids’ Zone and petting zoo at the event, along with “professors at tables that turned their lessons into kids’ activities,” according to Muhammad.
“Another thing that was really special was that all of our athletes played sports with the kids so they could decide if they wanted to shoot hoops with the basketball players or bump balls with the volleyball players,” he said.
A cruise night event with 196 vintage vehicles was also part of the celebration.
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.