Good neighbors make for great Street Fest

A summer festival without ice cream cones isn't so sweet for Ron Rudolf.

As owner of the local Palatine business Here's the Scoop, Rudolf couldn't wait to get out and serve at the village's eighth annual Street Fest this weekend.

But when last Thursday's violent storms knocked out power to his Palatine Road store, his excitement turned into sober reality: $3,000 worth of melting ice cream sitting in the freezers.

"I went outside just out of frustration," he said. "I looked across at the Brockway Chophouse, saw that their lights were on and immediately called over there."

Within minutes, he was hauling his ice cream over to the restaurant and storing it in its freezers. It stayed there overnight until his power came back on.

"It was just so fantastic," said Rudolf. "If it had all melted, I wouldn't have been at Street Fest."

Across Palatine, there are stories of close calls and neighborly good deeds that helped make Street Fest a reality even though the weather created havoc for many people.

Storms threatened Friday night's activities, so organizers called off all the events located in the grassy Town Square.

"We decided to let the non-profits that were setting up there settle down for a day so everything could dry up," said Sam Trakas, assistant village manager.

About 10 volunteers helped set the fest up Friday during the day. Usually, there are around 30 people helping out, but many village workers were elsewhere cleaning up storm damage, Trakas said.

On Friday, one of the fest's backup generators had to be loaned to a village pump station since it was without power.

Rod Lanpouthakoun, owner of Siri Thai II, also had a power outage threaten his food booth.

"We had to take some stuff home and put some in neighbors' freezers," he said.

At one point, he took all of the ice he had left -- 500 pounds -- and dumped it into the cooler to protect the food.

Lanpouthakoun, who has participated in the fest every year, said it all worked out for the best.

"If we didn't put the ice on, we could have lost everything," he said.

As it was, fest goers still had their fill of crab rangoon and pad thai.