Freshening up the Parade of Snowmen
North Aurora isn't waiting around for the first snow to celebrate the season.
The village's beautification committee is working overtime getting the annual Parade of Snowmen ready and they are happily putting the finishing touches on the long-awaited North Aurora Veterans Memorial set to be dedicated at 1 p.m. Sunday.
"The bubbler fountain is all hooked up and ready to go," said committee member Harry Patterson. "We'll turn it on for the dedication and then we'll have to drain it so it doesn't freeze over the winter."
The Batavia VFW color guard will raise the memorial flags and dedicate the site with a formal 21-gun salute on Veterans Day at the intersection of Fairview Drive and Willow Way, about 500 feet south of the Willow Way and Oak Street intersection.
Last weekend the village invited residents to grab a paint brush and a can of paint and decorate a plywood snowman Saturday morning at the public works garage.
"We paint over the cut out snow people each year after the holidays," said Brenda Werner of the public works department. "We supply the buckets of paint and brushes and put plastic on the floor to make it as clean as possible."
Patterson said that about 150 people showed up early Saturday and continued to come in throughout the morning to paint the plywood snowmen.
"Girl Scouts from up and down the valley came in all morning to paint snowmen," Patterson said.
The village also asked that children 5 and younger stay home during the snowman painting blitz.
The North Aurora Mothers Club didn't want its young children left out of the fun so they bought their own snow mom and snow kid and had their own painting party at member Cristy Petitjean's basement.
"We had five adults and six children working on the painting. We painted the mom with a blue dress and blue hat with a pink ribbon painted on it," she said. "The kids worked on the pink baby and put a black top hat on it."
Despite getting some paint on her basement floor, Petitjean said the event was a success and she wants the Mothers Club to make it an annual event for the little ones.
The Mothers Club will turn over the decorated snowmen to the city to display at the gazebo with all the others.
Other families bought the snowmen and will keep the decorated ones to display at their home.
Businesses on Route 31 and throughout the village also purchased snow people to display in front of their stores or offices. Share and Care decorated its own snowman this year and Polka Dot Dragon Preschool, Park Family Eye Care, Fox Valley Veterinary Clinic and Blessed Sacrament Church and many other businesses will all have snowmen decorating their front yards this year.
The public works department will let the paint dry on the decorated snow families and then distribute designated ones to area businesses and place the rest of them next to village hall.
The snowmen will be spread out in North Island Park south of the bridge on Nov. 26 before being officially honored at the annual Walk of the Snowmen tree decorating and caroling event at 1 p.m. Dec. 2.
"I'll be leading the singing again this year," Patterson said. "We will provide hot chocolate for the carolers and we expect a lot Girl Scouts to show up with cookies and ornaments to hang on the tree for squirrels and birds."
Patterson said that many families like to wait for the first snowfall and head on down to the gazebo to take their families' Christmas card photo with the snowmen.