Gurnee Days 2007

It is that time again. Gurnee Days Weekend is here and that means the weather is hot!! In almost 30 years of participation, I can remember only one cool and rainy parade day. Most of the others have been 90+ degrees and this woman who wilts in the sun still enjoys the festivities each year.

I hope you were able to visit Viking Park to check out the tents filled with local business interests and pick up some great giveaways, the Ribfest with the Breakfast Exchange Club, the fabulous fireworks, and the wonderfully long parade on Sunday. My family has always been involved in Gurnee Days in one form or another. My oldest won a ribbon on her first birthday in the baby contest. She was named the baby with the "Prettiest Smile" and she still does.

This year the honors for the Grand Marshal duties goes to Dr. Ben Martindale who was feted at a testimonial dinner at Midlane Country Club on Thursday night. He was chosen as the 2007 Honoree by the Gurnee Days Corporation. It was a great evening with the chance to catch-up with some old friends and to get to know some new ones.

There is a large base of home-grown Gurnee residents who have made some wonderful contributions to Lake County and I am so grateful to have gotten to know them. Not to ignore the community members like myself who have made the Gurnee area home- from the highest in public office to little old me, Gurnee has no shortage of vested individuals making a difference every day. This definitely includes Ben Martindale, who during his tenure in Gurnee has contributed way beyond his administrative role in our schools.

After 20 years in Gurnee District 56, the retired superintendent is taking the reins in Round Lake. He will have his hands full with that, I imagine. Gurnee and especially District 56 will miss him bunches. Dr. Ben I hope you enjoyed your weekend and good luck on future endeavors.

My old employer, the Lake County News-Sun, will be blogging starting on August 13th with some top secret bloggers in charge named the News Hound and News Swami. I hope it will lead to some interesting commentary. Maybe, I will even have to join into a discussion or two.

In the announcement article today, they cited 12 million people who have blogs and about 57 million adults read them. I guess we will all be in good company with that kind of readership. Of course, I am very partial to this particular blogspot and they were right about it being easy to start one. Even I can do it. Until next time...