A family winery and vineyard is simply unfergedable
Forreston invites you to ‘Come for the kraut, stay for the fun’
Local theater is rolling out the red carpet to bring a little glitz and glam to their gala
History is in the driver’s seat, and cockpit, at a Poplar Grove museum
A group playing for the Lake Carroll Golf Course added a bit of prestige to their putts by becoming a first in the Lincoln Highway Tournament’s history books page 4
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Lake Carroll was represented in men’s golf competition in the Lincoln Highway amateur golf tournaments for the first time, with eight members of Lake Carroll Golf Course fielding a team in the senior men’s event on May 7-8. Participating were (from left) Marty DeCrane, Andy Thompson, Tom Frieske, Mike Lindsey, Ron Hennings, Bill Green, Don Vock, and Beaver Miller. The group finished in sixth place in the nine-team field.
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or a group of eight Lake Carroll Golf Course members, this year saw their names added to the voluminous history book of northern Illinois’ premier amateur golf tournament.
It was also a bit of history in the making for their lakefront community.
The octet of Marty DeCrane, Tom Frieske, Bill Green, Ron Hennings, Mike Lindsey, Beaver Miller, Andy Thompson and Don Vock became the first men from Lake Carroll to participate in any version of the Lincoln Highway Tournament, an event that dates back more than 100 years, when they competed in the senior men’s event on May 7-8. The tournament consist of a men’s, women’s and a senior men’s events.
The two-day event was split between play at the nine-hole Indian Oaks Golf Club in Shabbona on May 7 and the 18-hole Emerald Hill Golf Course in Sterling the following day. Indian Oaks used a first-day best-against-bogey score of +104 to catapult it to +176, 30 strokes better than runner-up Sunset Hills of Mount Morris (+146).
Lake Carroll finished in sixth place out of the nine-team field with +92. Scoring is different than the national mainstream professional tournaments. Instead of the widely known stroke play concept, the tournament uses the bestagainst-bogey format to help erase some of the moments where certain holes may take their toll on golfers — in other words, the scoring isn’t as bad if it takes an egregious number of strokes to finish. Two points were awarded for a birdie, one point for a par and zero points for a bogey; a double bogey or worse was a one-point deduction.
Although there are eight golfers on a team, the six best scores are used to tally team standings. Individual awards are given for best gross score, best against-bogey score among the field, and best against-bogey score among golfers in each of eight flights which pits teams’ No. 1 golfers against each other, No. 2s, 3s and so on. Each golfer was grouped on the course with other golfers from other teams.
DeCrane had the best score among Lake Carroll’s group of eight in both days of the event; he shot +18 (72 gross) on the first day and +9 (82) on the second day to tally +27 (154). Frieske turned in an improved round on the second day (+11, 79) than what he shot on the first (+10, 80) to finish second-best among Lake Carroll golfers with +21 (159).
Vock and Thompson also finished with double-digit figures against bogey; Vock finished with +18 (162) and Thompson carded +14 (166). Green finished with +7 (173), followed by Lindsey (+4, 175), Hennings (-3, 178) and Miller (-13, no gross score kept).
Emerald Hill (+137), Deer Valley of Rock Falls (+129), Shady Oaks of Amboy (+117), Fairways of Rochelle (+73), Timber Creek of Dixon (+72), and Lost Nation of Dixon (+56) also participated. Along with Lake Carroll, Fairways also was a first-year participant. Flight winners, in order, were Emerald Hill’s John Miller (+33), Sunset’s Jeff Johnson (+30), Indian Oaks’ Haag, Shady Oaks’ John Klausen (+22), Deer Valley’s Mike Batten (+19), Sunset’s Cary Bennett (+15), Indian Oak’s Walker, and Sunset’s Bill Wohrley (+14).
Golfers who are 70 or older also compete against others in their age group, and a trophy is given to the top best-against-bogey individual; Indian Oaks’ Pete Barenie (+34) was this year’s top “super senior.”
The primary men’s and women’s tournaments began in 1923, and is named after the historic northern Illinois highway, itself named after Abraham Lincoln. Teams representing around 8 to 10 golf courses in the region participate annually; some are longtime members while others have only been in it for a few years.
Participation in the longtime tournament gives golfers and golf courses a place in what has become a storied history of competition, and bragging rights among one another. Some of those who have taken a swing at it have gone on to achieve more mainstream success in later years, while a select few managed to make a name for themselves before winning their first Lincoln Highway.
About 2,000 men and women in each of the tournament’s three forms over the years — senior men included — have not only tried their hand at making a name for themselves in the tournament’s prestigious history, but also etching their names on the trophies and plaques they hope to bring home.
On the professional scope, there is both the standard PGA Tour and the PGA Tour Champions, which is meant for competition among golfers 50 or older. The older men who have made the Lincoln Highway rounds for many years developed a similar structure in 2021, giving rise to the first senior men’s event.
Next year’s Senior Men’s Lincoln Highway Tournament is tentatively scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, May 17-18, and Indian Oaks will again be a host site, for the second day, while Lost Nation Golf Course in Dixon will host for the first day.
Lake Carroll does not field a team in the regular men’s tournament, but its women will take part in the event for the fourth consecutive year. The women’s tournament, which is the oldest women’s golf event in the United States, will take place July 12-13 at Sunset Hills in Mount Morris. Lake Carroll hosted last year’s event, which was won by Timber Creek in both team and individual play; Lake Carroll will look to improve upon a fourthplace showing from a year ago.
DeCrane and Melville recently joined their wives as being Lake Carroll’s first representatives to the Lincoln Highway history books. Tracy DeCrane and Jaime Melville were members of Lake Carroll’s first women’s team to compete in the tournament in 2021, and they’re part of a long history of players.
Whether one is in their 70s, fresh out of middle school, or anywhere in between, the Lincoln Highway tournament is a mix of many different cultures, lifestyles and personalities, each with their own goal in mind, whether it’s taking home a trophy, earning bragging rights, or just improving their game — and this year, some more Lake Carroll players can add to their bragging rights by being part of the prestigious tournament.
Cody Cutter can be reached at 815-632-2532 or ccutter@shawmedia.com.
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he verdant hills of Jo Daviess County offer incredible views, from atop its apexes to the bottoms of its rolling ridges.
But there’s more than meets the eye in Jo Daviess County. Lying beneath the lay of the land is soil that makes for great grapes, and that makes for great wine.
How great? Try it for yourself and see. Just head for Hanover and follow the signs to a place with a name that’s easy to remember and scenery that’s hard to forget. It’s there that the Bruno family invites you to stop by Fergedaboudit Vineyard and Winery to unwind, soak in the scenery, and enjoy a glass or two.
Or as they like to say “Sit back, relax, and Fergedaboudit!”
Rosario Bruno (right) turned a passion for vinification into a family legacy. Among the family members joining him at Fergedaboudit Vineyard and Winery are his daughters, Veronica Madsen and Vicki Olson (inset at right).
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That rich soil has also helped something else grow: a family legacy. Rosario Bruno, a retired electrical contractor, started Fergedaboudit
Vineyard and Winery as a hobby after moving from Chicago in 2000. Since then, it’s grown into a fullfledged family operation, with wife Sandra, daughters
Vicki Olson and Veronica Madsen and sons-in-law Jim and Ben pitching in, helping turn his passion into a business that started welcoming wine lovers 10 years ago to its tasting room, outdoor overlooks, and event space for private parties and celebrations, as well as weekly concerts when the weather’s nice.
Veronica and Jim’s children, Chandler and ReAnna, have also helped out since they were kids. Now
college-aged, Chandler has become Jim’s right-hand man in the vineyard: pruning and caring for the vines. ReAnna has taken an interest in the chemistry of winemaking, taking her talents to the tasting room where she helps customers choose the right wine.
Vicki and Ben’s young children, twins Adelena and Brock, have also started lending a hand, helping pick grapes — and even eating a few.
While the grapes give the wine its flavor, Vicky and Veronica have helped give the business its flavor. Veronica has brought a taste of Italy to the surroundings, designing it to look like a slice of Tuscany, and Vicki promotes it and arranges for the entertainment.
Warm and welcoming surroundings invite customers to enjoy glasses or flights of wine, along with finger foods, at tables inside, outside in the gazebo, or on the patio, where the gentle sounds of a waterfall drift through the air, set against the bucolic backdrop of The Driftless Area.
“We call it our little slice of heaven, and we like to share it with everybody,” Vicki said. “Our gazebo out there is something special — people can sit out there and we’ve heard a lot of compliments about the peacefulness and the serenity, or it making them feel like they are in Tuscany or in some other part of Europe.
“It’s all about taking people away from their worries are.”
Around 20 different kinds of wines are offered at any time, about two-thirds are fine reds and the others are whites and rosés. The wine roster includes those made with grapes grown in their vineyard, as well as some with grapes from Chile and Lodi, California.
Some of the several reds on the menu include dries Sangiovese, Cabernet Franc, Carméneré, Ba-Da Bing, and Rosario’s Private Reserve; and sweet red Ba-Da Boom. Whites include Chardonnay, Charcato, Moscato, and Three Blondes, named after the color of Sandy, Vicky and Veronica’s hair. Menus available both at the front counter and online give detailed descriptions of each bottle, as well as what foods they best pair with.
Just want a sample? Tastings, one ounce each of up to six varieties are offered — but not on Saturdays, and not when there’s a lot of customer traffic at the winery.
Grapes are harvested around Labor Day weekend, crushed right away, and new bottles come out around mid-June; and some new flavors for vintage 2023 will be announced before the calendar turns to July.
“We have something for everybody’s palate,” Vicki said. “We’re excited to be releasing some new wines this season, and some new designs and labels.”
There’s also a port-styled dessert-flavored wine, Poppi’s Dolce Vino, a light, sweet and medium dry with hints of chocolate; it’s an after-dinner variety that pairs well with cheeses or chocolate brownies.
Wines can be paired with a variety of different finger foods as well. The antipasto platter has artichoke hearts, roasted red peppers and olives along with meats, cheeses and crackers; and there’s a cheese platter with three kinds of cheeses. Chocolate flights and flavored popcorns also are available, as well as 10-inch pizzas on Saturdays.
Wine isn’t just found in glasses — it can also be found on Fergedaboudit’s plates, in wine-infused fudge and cookies. Veronica’s Vino Drizzle, with the alcohol cooked out of it, can serve as a wine topping, dressing or glaze for sweet and savory foods such as pancakes, crepes, cakes or ice creams.
CODY CUTTER/CCUTTER@SHAWMEDIA.COM
Fergedaboudit also offers a variety of finger foods to go along with their wines, including a cheese tray, seen here being served by Jaime Schmidt. Other items include an antipasto platter, meats, crackers, chocolate flights, flavored popcorns, and pizza on Saturdays. Want to cool off? Try a wine slushie (right).
“It is one of our biggest sellers,” Vicki said. “People just eat that stuff up; you can put it on just about anything from pork tenderloins to cooked peaches to cheeses, other meats and ice cream. It’s delicious. We get people that email us or call us and tell us that they had just tried it on anything.”
Not the kind of person who warms up to wine? You can still get a bit of the vine in a Freezie di Vino wine slushie, which can be made with any wine. Domestic beers and blends from the Potosi Brewing Co. are sold, as well as Potosi’s non-alcoholic root beer.
A wine connoisseur? Join the club or rather family. Fergedaboudit has a three-tiered wine club, each tier with its own number of bottles, perks and benefits.
“There are so many customers who are repeats who have been coming back to us forever, and we just consider them part of our family,” Vicki said. “That’s also how we grow our staff and our team.”
In recent years, the Brunos have been working to expand Fergedaboudit’s footprint, making it as much of a destination as a winery and vineyard. From 1:30 to 5 p.m. on Saturdays from May to October, it hosts free concerts with genres ranging from acoustic rock to easy listening. Independence Day weekend, July 6-7, will feature two acoustic concerts, with Johnnie Walker playing on Saturday, and Steve McIntyre on Sunday. Rounding out July’s free concert schedule are Scott Wilcox on July 13, Taking the Pear on July 20 and Danny Parker on July 27. August and September each have five Saturdays with more free concerts, as well as the first three weeks of October.
In addition to the free Saturday concerts, premium concerts — with dinner included as part of the ticket price — are on tap. The first was June 15 with The Tony Ocean Show playing music of the Rat Pack, disco and rock. The next premium concert is at 6:30 p.m. July 27 with Vince Amore and Daniela Crocco performing songs from artists such as Tony Bennett, Elvis, Etta James and Donna Summer. Fall’s premium concerts are on Sept. 21 with pop-opera duet Jeorge Holmes and Diva Montell, and on Oct. 5 with a Rat Pack-style concert featuring Tony Ocean, Vince Amore, Elliot Wimbush and Bill Serritella; both fall concerts also start at 6:30 p.m. Go to fergedaboudit. com to buy tickets or for more information about either series of concerts.
Fergedaboudit’s tasting room offers a taste of a Tuscan winery, a nod to owner Rosario Bruno’s upbringing in the Little Italy neighborhood in Chicago.
Sit back and relax outside at Fergedaboudit with a glass of wine and the soothing sounds of a waterfall.
“It’s beautiful entertainment,” Vicki said. “There are great dinners, and it’s an evening that people can keep coming back for. We get a lot of people who ask when [the acts] are coming back. We also have people who don’t know about us, so we’re trying to get the word out that we’re here.”
Rosario grew up in the Little Italy neighborhood of Chicago, where winemaking was popular among residents. When he was young, many winemakers gathered at the train stations eagerly awaiting shipments of grapes, Vicki said, and by the time Rosario was making his own from his basement, the Italian markets around him had plenty in stock for him.
At first, making wine was just a hobby for Rosario while his job as electrician paid the bills. As retirement approached, the seeds of the next chapter in his life were planted. Someone told him about how the hills of the Galena area were prime land for grapes. It wasn’t long before he found a spot for sale, and immediately fell in love with it, Vicki said.
“He just has a true passion for it,” Vicki said. “Someone told him about the beautiful rolling hills outside of Galena, and how it allows for growing fantastic grapes on the perfect slopes that we now have. He went out here and bought this piece of property.”
Rosario even lends his talents as an artist to the business, creating Fergedaboudit’s logo and designing wine labels.
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Looking for a souvenir of your trip to Fergedaboudit, a gift for a fellow wine lover, or a bag to take your wine home in? How about an “All wines are welcome here” welcome mat? You’ll find them, along with clothes, caps, bags and glasses and other merchandise in the vineyard’s gift shop. Gift certificates are also available.
The vineyard predates the actual business by 13 years. At first it was simply a place where he grew grapes and shared his wine with friends and family, but as Rosario grew older, he wanted his passion, like the vines he tended, to keep growing, and remain in the family. He and his family talked and together they decided to turn his hobby into a business.
“For the first 13 years, it was a labor of love and a gigantic hobby,” Vicki said. “We weren’t selling wine or having customers, but he would invite his friends over and sit on the porch and pour them some of his homemade wines. Dad said it was his legacy and that it will always be in the family, and we then decided to open. It just keeps flourishing.”
And the business isn’t done flourishing yet. The next generation of Brunos have plans to keep to keep it going, and growing.
“This year I’m hoping to bring it to the next level,” Bruno said. “My dad’s 85, and I want him to see the full success of it, and how such a special place can bring together so many people.”
Though the business is a bit off the beaten path, located along a winding gravel road, that’s just how the Brunos like it. Patrons won’t be distracted by traffic rumbling and rolling by, interrupting the ambiance of the serene surroundings. A sign points travelers down Speer Road from the outskirts of Hanover to get there, and they’ll know they’re close to their destination when they see the acres of vines off in the distance and down a short hill.
It’s the perfect spot for people to raise a glass and lower their stress, set their troubles aside and, well, just fergedaboudit. Cody Cutter can be reached at 815-632-2532 or ccutter@shawmedia.com.
Enjoy the fruits of their labor ...
Fergedaboudit Vineyard and Winery, 4595 W. Speer Road in Hanover, is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday and Wednesday through Friday, and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday. Find it on Facebook and Instagram (@fergedabouditvineyard), go to fergedaboudit. com or call 815-591-2126 for event reservations, concert ticket purchases or for more information.
he first weekend of August brings a little more hustle and bustle to Forreston. The village in the northwest corner of Ogle County that bills itself as “a place to call home” rolls out the welcome mat to both locals and visitors alike, people of all ages who come out to an annual festival to enjoy food, fun and games, and more. There’s laughter in streets and music in the air.
There’s something else in the air, too: the smell of cabbage.
Each year, as the days of summer’s sunset draw closer, Forreston sets aside time to celebrate all the things it prides itself on — family, friends, volunteers, small-town hospitality — during Sauerkraut Days, the village’s centerpiece celebration. It’s four days that brings one of northern Illinois’ largest small-town festivals to the village’s streets where hundreds enjoy good company, good times, and sauerkraut … lots of sauerkraut.
But you don’t need to be a fan of the cooked cabbage dish to enjoy Sauerkraut Days; there’s something for everyone at the event.
“It’s a great community event that brings a bunch of great organizations together to celebrate Forreston,” said Jane Koeller. “We strive to make sure there’s something for everybody, whether it’s for the really young or the youngat-heart. It’s so cool seeing all those people, especially when Mother Nature has been
Koeller, co-owner of Koeller Hardware in downtown Forreston, is just one of the small army of volunteers who enlist each year to help bring the celebration — and people — together. Keeping the event fun and fresh each year is the job of a committee of local residents and business owners who meet each month from February to December to line up entertainment, set up activities and bring new attractions to the fold. Koeller chairs the committee and leads a dedicated team to make the festival a top-notch attraction in this village of about 1,500.
The event attracts both fans of sauerkraut and people trying it for the first time, along with people who just love a good time, whether that’s riding a mechanical bull, climbing a rock wall, running a race, or winning bragging rights in music trivia.
Bringing new activities to Sauerkraut Days each year helps keep things fun and fresh, and brings in new faces and returning visitors alike, committee member Holly Bawinkel said. New this year are a music trivia contest and video game tournament.
“We’re good at looking at what other towns are doing for events, and what seems to be going over well,” Bawinkel said. “We have added music trivia, and that was something Pearl City had for a fundraiser that was very well attended. So we’re adding that because it seems to be really popular.”
The first Sauerkraut Days in Forreston, on October. 2, 1913, date back to when Kaiser Wilhelm II was Emperor of Germany, though its history includes both a long absence and a rebirth.
The idea came from local resident Justus DeGraff, who attended a similar celebration in Ackley, Iowa. He pitched the idea to Forreston’s city council to have something similar — a community lunch event with sauerkraut, wieners, rye bread and coffee, and live entertainment. The event continued to grow — as many as 20,000 people poured into the village by the late 1930s — but it took a break during World War I when anti-German sentiment transformed it into Barbecue Days in 1919, and it was postponed from 1942 to 1946 due to World War II.
The event’s second chapter began in 1947 and included the crowning of royalty: a Sauerkraut Queen. Festivities picked up right where they left off, and exposure in radio and television helped boost annual attendance to around 35,000 by 1949, when an estimated two tons of sauerkraut and another ton of wieners were served — but all that growth was sweet and sour. The event became so big that there wasn’t enough money or manpower to handle it, and Sauerkraut Days took a long break beginning in 1960. When the first weekend of October 1961 arrived, downtown streets were a lot quieter. Forreston didn’t take sauerkraut off its menu, though. The local Legion continued to host sauerkraut lunches. The town would later see another multi-day festival, Hometown Days, start nearly 40 years after the last Sauerkraut Days, taking place in late July. Cabbage made a comeback in 2018 when Hometown Days was retooled into Sauerkraut Days, with the Legion lunches now part of the fold.
Sauerkraut Days even served as the inspiration for another large-scale event celebrated biannually, this one in Monroe, Wisconsin: Cheese Days. A group of Monroe businessmen attended the 1914 Sauerkraut Days and enjoyed it enough to start a celebration of food in their own hometown. (This year’s Cheese Days runs Sept. 22-24.) CODY
You know when Forreston’s about to go krazy for kraut when this little fella starts popping up around town.
Although known as part of German cuisine, the first dishes of sauerkraut — translated as “sour cabbage” in English — have been traced back to eastern Europe, to the 13th or 14th centuries. Dutch immigrants to Pennsylvania during the American Revolution brought sauerkraut to the New World; they made a tradition of having sauerkraut and pork dinners on New Year’s Eve with the feeling that it would bring them good luck is the coming year.
It’s not all just good luck and good times, though. Sauerkraut has its health benefits too, and they were actively promoted by doctors throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries. French pharmacist Louis Pasteur, well known for his pasteurization method of food processing, once boasted that sauerkraut “was the most useful and healthful vegetable dish on earth.” The 1922 edition of the American Journal of Clinical Medicine cites “a leading [medical] authority in Germany” as going on record for saying “Sauerkraut, especially the juice, is an invaluable food treatment for stomach, bowels and blood; there is nothing better for impure blood.”
Behind the sour taste and distinctive smell, sauerkraut is rich in vitamins, minerals, iron and calcium — and Sauerkraut Days organizers hope four days of family fun is good for the soul too.
Making it all happen takes a dedicated group of volunteers who do their best to ensure this part of their hometown history survives and thrives, and that the young and young-at-heart have a great time, committee member Maria Whitehead said.
“It’s about community,” she said. “It’s not just about people coming, but it’s also the people who are volunteering and helping to make it happen. As we grow, we wonder what we can do to make everyone come out, not just certain age groups, but we try to get kids involved, teens involved, older people.”
While Sauerkraut Days is a four-day event — with the evening of Aug. 1 and morning of Aug. 4 bookending the celebration — the majority of the activities take place Friday and Saturday, Aug. 2-3. The intersection of East Cherry Street and South Walnut Avenue on the southeast edge of downtown is the site of the festival’s Event Tent on Aug. 2-3, where most of the outdoor events will take place.
The fun begins around 9 p.m. Aug. 1, with fireworks over Forreston, lit off at the high school on the east side of town. Need some snacks to enjoy while the pyrotechnics are in progress? A concession stand will be set up that day at the high school with food and drink to enjoy.
Friday’s fun runs from 5-11 p.m. with plenty of activities. Food vendors with a variety of offerings — including sauerkraut, of course — will set up. For those who want to get a grip on things, they can mount a mechanical bull or test their skill on a climbing wall. Additional Family Fun Night activities, as well as a dunk tank, also will be set up at the Event Tent that night.
New this year: Think you’re a music expert? A music trivia contest will be at the Event Tent from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. Registration begins at 7 p.m.
of
dives in to her slice of watermelon en route to winning her age division during last year’s Forreston Sauerkraut Days’ watermelon eating contest.
The first of the festivity’s two races takes place Friday with the Cabbage Patch Kids Fun Run at 5:45 p.m. (registration from 5 to 5:30). Kids who want to show off their artistic skills can bring some color and creativity to sidewalks at Memorial Park from 6 to 8 p.m. (sign up at the Event Tent). Bingo will be at Memorial Park from 6 to 10 p.m., and an ice cream bar will also be there from 6:30 to 8:30. More fun for the kids continues at 8:45 p.m. on the Forreston Grade School grounds, where the film “Kung Fu Panda” will be shown outdoors and a concession stand will be set up.
If you thought Friday was fun, you should really enjoy Saturday’s itinerary — and that’s when you can dig in to some sauerkraut too.
The festival’s flagship event, the Sauerkraut Lunch, is from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Memorial Park. Members of American Legion Post No. 308 of Forreston will handle the big spoons and man the crocks filled with Frank’s Kraut — a name that’s become ubiquitous with sauerkraut, in its familiar green cans since 1905 — to serve to eager eaters.
Saturday’s activities begin at 7 a.m. with a breakfast tent serving until 9 a.m. at Memorial Park. Registration for the festival’s second race, the Kraut Days 5K Run/Walk, also begins at 7 a.m. at the park, with the race beginning at 8 a.m.
Other items on Saturday’s lineup include ...
• The Legion will host a car and motorcycle show from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the grade school.
• Basketball players can show off their skills in 3-on-3 competition at the Drew Crase Memorial Tournament, starting at 8 a.m. on the outdoor courts at the high school.
• Local artisans will show off their talents at a vendor show from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Memorial Park.
• Faith Lutheran Church of Forreston will host a bake sale from 9 a.m. to noon, also at Memorial Park.
• Inflatable bounce houses for the kids will be set up from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. also at Memorial Park.
• Cornhole (“bags”) players have a chance to best others at the game during a tournament outside the Event Tent; registration is at 10 a.m. with play starting at 11 a.m.
• Sauerkraut takes a back seat to watermelon for a brief time, with a watermelon eating contest at 2 p.m., also at Memorial Park.
• The Sauerkraut Days Parade will stretch from the grade school through downtown Forreston and end at Main Street and Locust Avenue; it begins at 4 p.m.
• New event this year: Those who want to show off their skills at playing video games will have their chance during a video game tournament from 5 to 10 p.m. at the Event Tent.
• Back Country Roads will perform country music from 8 to 11 p.m. at the Event Tent.
• The Forreston Fire Department will raffle off a 2024 Polaris Ranger Premium 1000 UTV at 9 p.m., also at the Event Tent.
Some of Friday’s activities will also carry over into Saturday at the same locations, including Bingo (10 a.m.-10 p.m.), the dunk tank (10 a.m.-10 p.m.), mechanical bull rides (starting at 5 p.m.), and the climbing wall (5-10 p.m.); food vendors will set up from 11 a.m. to 11:30 p.m.
A beer garden — called a Biergarten, a nod to the event’s German heritage — also will be part of the Friday and Saturday festivities: Friday’s from 5 to 11 p.m. and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 11:30 p.m.
Rounding out the festival’s events, the fire department will host breakfast at the fire station from 7:30 to 11:30 a.m. Sunday, and a church service will begin at 9:30 a.m. at Memorial Park.
Timber Lake Playhouse executive director
Dan Danielowski and gala committee chairwoman Laura Kashner.
Cody Cutter/ccutter@shawmedia.com
ollywood isn’t the only place that can put on a good awards show. There’s another “wood” a lot closer to home that can bring out a bit of the glitz and glam of a night on the red carpet. It’s at none other than the “Theater in the Woods,” Timber Lake Playhouse, just a short distance from Lake Carroll.
And while you won’t see TMZ on the red carpet, you’ll see a lot of TLP, when the local theater celebrates its talent Aug. 24, during Timber Lake’s annual fundraising gala. This year’s theme will give the event a celebrity “awards night” feel.
The gala promises to be a night of fun for all that will showcase what Timber Lake is all about, as well as an opportunity to meet the cast and crews of its performances.
Dan Danielowski is Timber Lake’s executive director, and one of his roles is to make sure the theater has it what it needs so it’ll never have to face a final curtain call — and that includes keeping the bottom line in top shape, providing the resources and facilities for top-notch entertainment and educational offerings. The gala plays a big role in that, and he’s hoping it’ll raise around $90,000 this year.
Danielowski and Timber Lake’s artistic director, Tommy Ranieri, are emceeing the festivities.
“It’s our biggest fundraiser event of the year,” Danielowski said. “We’ve had years where it’s been $75,000, and we’ve had years where it’s been $35,000. Right now our No. 1 need is operating funds. Our wood costs, labor costs, food costs, everything has gone up so much and our fundraising has not kept up with that.”
As for the red carpet theme, TLP’s gala committee, led by Laura Kashner of Lake Carroll, are the stars of that production. This year’s gala is the theater’s 17th; past themes have included a Diamond Jubilee for the theater’s 60th anniversary in 2021, as well as a Sherlock Holmes-style Baskerville theme in 2018.
Kashner has come to enjoy the kind of entertainment Timber Lake offers, the caliber of which is usually seen in much larger communities, and she hopes others in Lake Carroll will enjoy it too.
“Most of Lake Carroll is someone’s second home, where they come here for a week with their family, and some don’t realize they can drive 10 minutes down the road to see talent that is just as good as where they live in Chicago, and with the charm of northwest Illinois,” Kashner said. “They’re already coming out to Lake Carroll for that quiet, slower pace, and they can also come here for a Wednesday matinee.”
Danielowski says the gala is a great way to showcase the theater and campus, and introduce people to what’s new there. Among the improvements this year are a gift shop building and new entrance doors to the theater, and Danielowski is leading a crew that’s working on refurbishing the back decks just in time to host the gala’s opening and closing events.
“My hope is that we have many people come to this type of event,” Danielowski said. “The people who come a lot to the shows, they’ll come because they want to get that intimate look at who the company is and get a chance to talk with them afterwards. For people who typically don’t come, I want them to come out and see what we have — really, in one night, everything. You get a chance to see what it’s like. We design the evening to make people feel really connected and have a really special relationship with the theater.”
Tickets for the gala, which includes dinner, are $75 each or $600 for a table of eight and can be purchased at Timber Lake’s website or through its box office. In keeping with the red carpet theme, attendees are encouraged to dress up for the event in red and black. (Who knows: Maybe someone will even ask: “Who are you wearing?”).
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The fun begins at 5:30 with the Pre-Gala Party on the decks overlooking the actual Timber Lake. Guests will be treated to a red carpet experience similar to a Hollywood premiere — arriving in style, the flash of the paparazzi, being stopped for a brief moment by “entertainment reporters” for a question or two.
After the trek down the red carpet, a cocktail hour will see guests mingle and visit with one another over hors d’oeuvres, wine and cocktails. Live entertainment will be provided on the Lake Stage and a photo booth with additional opportunities to present oneself on the red carpet also will be available. Also during the cocktail hour, guests can place bids on silent auction items — gift baskets, home decor, show tickets and more — with proceeds helping the theater’s Fund The Need initiative, which addresses immediate needs in the theater’s overall functions. The ceremony also will have a live auction for larger prizes, one of which includes an opportunity to be a performer for a day during one of its shows.
There’s more to win, too, like a Golden Ticket raffle for a $2,500 American Airlines Cruises gift certificate. Tickets are $100, with only 300 available, and can be purchased in advance at the theater’s box office.
The gala’s next hour, starting at 6:30, transitions from a red carpet to a crimson-colored setting for dinner in the rehearsal pavilion, provided by Lake Carroll’s very own Lessman Catering (read more about Donna and Troy’s business in June’s Lake Lifestyle). The setting includes pristine linens and gleaming silverware under festoon lights strung across the ceiling, along with background music.
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Top: Guests at the 2023 gala enjoy a glass of wine and some company before the show. Left: Members of Timber Lake’s Resident Company snack on some hor d’oeuvres during the 2023 gala.
At 7:30, the big reveal of Timber Lake’s 2025 show lineup will be revealed with a little pzazz in the theater. The theater’s resident company will perform select highlights from some of the shows from the 2024 season, as well as preview upcoming shows, and a tribute to the current season’s performers.
Finally, at 9 p.m., the gala returns to the outdoor lakeside decks for more drinks and snacks (freshly made S’mores), hobnobbing and camaraderie under the stars, with other guests as well as resident company members. The gala concludes with a final toast and handouts of next year’s season and donation information.
The theater has been a place where several performers have honed their skills before becoming nationally known. Before she starred in “Miami Vice,” Saundra Santiago was a company member in the late 1970s, Jennifer Garner was an intern in the early 1990s, and Michael Gross, who starred opposite Michael J. Fox in “Family Ties,” also performed there early in his career. The theater also has been a stepping stone for aspiring local actors; one of whom was Frank Harts of Rock Falls; among his credits are recurring roles in “Leftovers,” “Billions,” “The Path,” and “Prodigal Son,” and parts in other series, along with roles on Broadway and in movies.
Who knows, perhaps someone from the current resident company will go on to show business stardom, and the people they met at the gala will have their own brush-with-fame story to tell one day.
“What people enjoy about the gala is getting to meet the resident cast,” Kashner said. “They’re in four to five shows a summer, and every time you come to a new show, you’re seeing the same faces on stage; and then during the gala, you really get to see them be themselves. It’s a way to celebrate them. When they leave, they’ll go all over the country and world doing their next shows, and people love to follow them.”
During its 62 years, Timber Lake has hosted nearly 400 plays and musicals, totaling more than 4,500 different performances. In addition to theatrical performances from its resident company and education program students, it also hosts concerts, kids movie nights and other special events. The theater’s summer Mainstage Season of plays began May 30 with performances of “The Nerd, “Footloose” and “Anything Goes;” and continues with “The Wizard of Oz” from July 11-28, “Clue: On Stage” from Aug. 1-11, and “Jekyll & Hyde” from Aug. 15-25. Go to timberlakeplayhouse.org/mainstageseason-2024 for more information on each play and to purchase tickets.
The resident company includes around 40 performers, technicians and musicians comprised of both aspiring and experienced performers from throughout the nation, many of whom assist with the theater’s educational workshops when they’re not preparing and perfecting their roles or doing other duties.
After some setbacks in recent years due to the coronavirus, Timber Lake’s team is poised to get back to pre-pandemic levels and have their most successful year yet, Danielowski said. Along with Fund The Need, four additional avenues of giving — the Annual Fund, Wishing Well, Retire the Debt, and Pave the Way — are available. Volunteers to help at events are always welcome, too, assisting with various tasks, which helps keep theater staff from having to pull double-duty on performance nights.
Past galas have drawn up to 200 people who’ve come to see what Timber Lake has to offer. Along with performing arts lovers, Kashner also hopes to see some of her Lake Carroll neighbors there as well, and share with them what makes the theater special.
“We know that there are a lot of people out at Lake Carroll who need to know about Timber Lake,” Kashner said. “We hope they fall in love with it and become subscribers. It’s a gem in northwest Illinois for people to find out about.”
Cody Cutter can be reached at 815-6322532 or ccutter@shawmedia.com.
Among the items on display at the The Poplar Grove Vintage Wings and Wheels Museum ...
etting from here to there has come a long way since the first horseless buggies began rumbling down dirt roads and things started looking up for air travel, and in recent years car manufacturers and plane makers have really hit the gas pedal when it comes to technology. Computers have become as much of a part of cars and planes as wheels and wings. Planes can fly on auto pilot, and cars are starting to do the same.
That wasn’t always the case, though it might be hard for a generation weaned on GPS and talking cars to understand that — but if they want to see the evolution of man and motion, they can take a trip to a Boone County museum and see it up close.
The hangar full of history at The Poplar Grove Vintage Wings and Wheels Museum tells a chapter in America’s transportation history, with a focus on cars and planes — though they do offer their two cents’ worth on the old pennyfarthing bicycles (the ones with the big front wheel and small rear one). The museum, located near the Poplar Grove Airport, is about halfway between the namesake village and Belvidere; about an hour’s drive east of Lake Carroll.
Visitors won’t find a Jet Blue plane or a Tesla Cybertruck among the museum’s collection. Instead, they’ll see a collection of bygone transportation, including a 1905 Cadillac with the steering wheel on the right side of the open-cab car, and a 1931 American Eaglet plane with a design that reflects the financial challenges of the Great Depression.
Museum docent Betty Davis has shared the interesting stories of the museum’s once modern marvels for nearly a decade, with people of all ages, from those who’ve never seen classics like the ones at the museum to those who’ve driven them back in the day.
“We have a variety of items and exhibits that you don’t get to see in other places,” Davis said. “You’re going to learn something about history here.”
Airplanes are parked on alongside the cars and trucks or hung from the hangar. Elsewhere, a petroliana collection of gas cans, pumps and other items are on display, along with bicycle lanterns, flight crew uniforms and airline travel brochures. Another exhibit, a working Wright Cyclone R-1820 engine from the 1930s can be started with the push of a button.
The largest piece of history, though, is the hangar itself. Even thought the museum is next door to an airport, the hangar never housed its planes; it’s a reclaimed Art Deco, Lannon stone building originally built in 1937 at the county airport in Waukesha, Wisconsin, as a Works Progress Administration project. The Waukesha Hangar, which also was home to military pilot training during World War II, fell into
disrepair by the late 1990s but was saved from destruction by the museum’s organizers, who had it dismantled and hauled to Poplar Grove.
Once reconstructed in 2001, the museum moved its first exhibits into the hangar and opened to the public.
“It got to the point where it needed some pretty good renovation,” Davis said. “They just decided to just get rid of it and demolish it. The owner [of the airport] wanted to go there and take a look at it, and he did, they made an agreement, and they brought it back on flatbeds. Power lines had to come down so that they could get the flatbeds through.
“It was quite a procedure. They put it all back together, and it’s been here ever since. How it has sustained all these years, it doesn’t look like it was built in 1937; it really is in good standing.”
In an interesting coincidence, Davis was born and raised in Waukesha, but never had a connection with the hangar, or saw it much when she was there. “I think it’s interesting to see things get to where they are,” she said.
Like the museum itself, each machine in it has a story to tell, but the one that garners the most attention from visitors, Davis said, is the museum’s replica 1918 JN4-D Curtiss Jenny, a model once used as a military training aircraft for American pilots who flew in World War I. Work on the replica was completed by the museum and the nearby airport’s Experimental Aircraft Association in 2021, and it’s flown at regional air shows since then.
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After the then-called Great War, the Jenny served as an aerobatic show plane and was used to deliver air mail. They have a 43’7” wingspan, with a top speed of 80 mph. Nearly 7,500 were manufactured from 1916 to 1921, and fewer than five are flying in some capacity today.
“It’s a fun plane to watch in the air,” Davis said. “It’s a really famous plane in our history. That was built here from scratch. It trained 95 percent of our pilots in the [first] World War — 95 percent, think about it. It was not a safe plane, really; there was something not quite right with the engine, and they wouldn’t let it be in the fighting part of the war.”
Davis and fellow staff members can also give guided tours of the exhibits, providing information and telling stories that all ages can learn from. Kids tend to ask the most questions: In regard to the 1905 Cadillac on loan to the museum, Davis had a young girl ask her why there were doors to the back seats but not the front ones. She told her that cars back then were often driven by chauffeurs, and the passengers sat in the back; the chauffeur would open the doors to let out the passengers so that they wouldn’t have to open it themselves.
The chauffeurs had a lot to handle while driving them, too.
“Most of them were chauffeur driven,” Davis said. “When you drive this car, you have a lot to do; there are several levers that control the brakes, the clutches and whatever it is on those cars. When they come to a stop, they had their
hands full grabbing everything.”
Special events, including barbecue cookouts and a lecture series on historic transportation, take place once a month. The museum also has a vast library of books and research material available to visitors.
Exhibits aren’t limited to the hangar: Its campus also has a smaller hangar once used at the airport in Springfield, Illinois; a vintage Sunoco gas station and two pumps originally from Dayton, Ohio; and a 1930s prefab steel auto shop from Green Lake, Wisconsin.
The first exhibit visitors get to see is something that actually still serves an infrastructure purpose: the driveway to the museum has a 1937 pony truss bridge over a man-made lake; it was originally on a road near Lawrence in northwestern McHenry County.
Just outside the Waukesha Hangar is a 16-foot bronze statue of aviation pioneer Elrey Jeppesen. As an airmail pilot for Boeing Air Transport in 1930, Jeppesen documented topographical features from high above and outlined them in what would become the Jeppesen Pocket Airway Manual, which helped pilots find safe passage throughout the country in a time well before computer navigation.
It’s stories like that which both fascinate and entertain visitors.
“We want them to come and enjoy history,” Davis said, “that’s what we really want.”
Cars and aircraft play a prominent role in Boone County’s economy. Poplar Grove Airport has a pilot training program, and also is home to the BelAir Estates residential fly-in subdivision. According to a recent post on the museum’s Facebook page, Poplar Grove is one of the nation’s most densely-populated areas for pilots, with more than 18,000 of them and around 8,000 registered aircraft all within a two-hour drive. As for the cars, nearby Belvidere is home to a 5.3 million square foot Stellantis assembly plant, which had long manufactured vehicles under the Dodge umbrella, such as the Neon and Jeep Cherokee. The plant currently is not being used for manufacturing, but Stellantis (formerly Fiat-Chrysler) has plans to reopen it next year with the possibility of Ram trucks being made there.
With so much transportation around them, the area is a good home for the museum and Davis hopes people stop by to see the history of transportation that brought a nation, and the world, closer together, from getting our kicks on Route 66 to flying the friendly skies.
“When you look at the history of things, it amazes me when I see the mail truck, or the [Cadillac] car, in how we’ve progressed,” Davis said. “How simple things were, and how we’ve gotten so technical now. When you look at the history, you see the progression of it.”
Cody Cutter can be reached at 815-632-2532 or ccutter@shawmedia.com.
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