Festival raises cash for service groups
To a list of Thanksgiving traditions that includes watching the Lions lose and drinking too much wine, I must add my annual visit to Huntley's Turkey Testicle Festival.
The festival was already in full swing when I visited the Parkside Pub on the day before Thanksgiving, when the festival is held every year.
This year's festival wasn't much different from previous years' - with the exception of a new lineup of bands, rocking out to crowd-pleasers like "The Devil Went Down to Georgia."
The festival always brings out a fair number of characters, who require little prompting to wax poetic about their beloved testes.
"Hot nuts, cold beer. That's the main reason I come," said Lake in the Hills resident Pete Cortopassi, one of the veterans I met at the festival this year. "You ain't tried this, you ain't lived yet," he said.
But the festival isn't just a quaint tradition that stinks up Huntley's downtown for a day. It's also a fundraiser for local community service groups.
Mark McDonald, co-owner of the pub, told me he'd be thrilled if the festival raised more than $10,000 but disappointed if the event raised less.
The festival wasn't able to approach the fundraising haul of previous years, but McDonald didn't sound disappointed when I spoke to him after the festival.
"We've had better years of raising money, but it gets more expensive to do this every year," McDonald said.
The pub co-owner cited the cost of paying police to provide security and the rising price of paying bands and renting tents.
The pub plans to donate $6,000 to the Odd Fellows, $2,500 to the Huntley Jaycees and $500 to the Huntley Lions.
"At least we were able to do something," McDonald said.
Like last year, the festival ran out of its signature delicacies by 9:30 p.m., even though the pub bought 80 more pounds of turkey testicles this year. It takes a lot of testicles to satisfy 3,900 people.
The Parkside Pub was still recovering from the hangover this week, taking down tents and selling apparel from the 26th annual festival at a 50-percent discount.
Planning starts for next year's event in January.
School design wins award: Students at Gary D. Wright Elementary School in Hampshire can now say they attend classes in an award-winning building.
The design for the elementary school, which opened last year, was among three buildings to win an Award of Merit last month in the 2008 Invitational Exhibition of Educational Environments.
The exhibition, sponsored by the IASB Service Associates, recognizes the best examples of school design in Illinois.
Wright was designed by Elgin-based Burnidge Cassell Associates, which has served as the architect for District 300's referendum projects, including neighboring Hampshire High School.
"It's always a good feeling to be recognized by your peers, and we are very appreciative of the opportunity to work for (District) 300," Burnidge Cassell principal Charles Burnidge said in a news release.