Have a drink and save Mt. Prospect school building
Weather permitting, the Mount Prospect Historical Society will be holding its rescheduled Central School fundraiser tonight at Bogie's Ale House, 303 E. Kensington Road, Mount Prospect.
The historical society is hoping to raise funds to move the Central School building, a former one-room schoolhouse built in 1896, to its new home at 103 S. Maple St., near the society.
The event, titled the We Survived the Storm Party, takes place from 6 p.m. to midnight. It will include a pizza buffet and music provided by a DJ. Twenty percent of food and drink purchases will be donated to the Central School project.
The evening's highlight will be a silent auction featuring a collection of autographed cards collected by the Mount Prospect Historical Society and the Mount Prospect Library Foundation.
"We have amassed quite a collection ranging from presidential candidate John McCain to movie star Kevin Costner, and from game show host Bob Barker to documentary filmmaker Ken Burns," said Gavin Kleespies, executive director of the Mount Prospect Historical Society. "In fact, we have a complete, signed set of Ken Burns' groundbreaking 'Civil War' documentary."
In addition, more than 100 items of sports memorabilia, including signed White Sox and Cubs jerseys, footballs signed by the Bears and signed Wolves hockey pucks, will be offered.
Rounding out the auction will be an auction of school chairs that have been decorated by local artists and village notables. The village's public works department has designed a chair with street signs, and the police department has also participated.
The event was original scheduled for Aug. 24, but the big storm washed it out.
The storm did not spare the historical society, but, fortunately, nothing historic was lost. The damage was limited to office supplies and third-grade text books, written by the historical society. "We can always have them reprinted if we want to, but that's a loss," Kleespies said.
The event should be a relief from the storm and its aftermath, he said. "It's been probably a relatively stressful couple of weeks for a lot of people, and it will be nice for them to take a break and have some pizza, have a beer and help a good cause."