Organizers of canceled Algonquin fest regroup to fundraise for flood victims

After severe flooding along the Fox River forced the cancellation of Algonquin Founders' Days, festival organizers are shifting their focus toward raising money for flood victims.

Algonquin residents, staff and first responders have been fighting record flooding for more than a week as storms and heavy rainfall repeatedly swept through the area.

With municipal resources stretched thin and many properties still underwater, Founders' Days board members decided last weekend to call off the four-day festival for the first time in its 57-year history. The event, which was slated to begin Thursday, had already been moved away from the river.

Event organizers are now redirecting their attention toward helping residents and business owners fund flooding recovery efforts, Founders' Days President Dan Barton said. Festival board members, along with the Algonquin Rotary Club, have launched a "Fight the Flood" fundraiser, which includes online donations and a possible subsequent event.

"We're a bunch of community people, and we care a lot about Algonquin," Barton said. "We feel really bad for all those people down there. It's the right thing to do."

As of Monday afternoon, an online Crowdrise fundraiser had raised nearly $500 of a $100,000 goal. The Crowdrise page asks community members to contribute however much money they likely would've spent at Founders' Days.

Algonquin officials are expected to provide organizers with a list of affected residents, to whom the money collected would be distributed, Barton said. Property owners directly on the river are likely to receive the bulk of the funds.

"Those are really the ones that are the hardest hit. They're the ones that have lost the most," he said.

Meanwhile, Founders' Days board members have begun organizing a smaller-scale festival to be held later this year, Barton said. The event, which would serve as a fundraiser for flood victims, would also incorporate some live entertainment and other elements originally planned for Founders' Days.

"If we can use that toward helping the community, we might as well," he said.