Yard sign pollution causing confusion

You see it after election season: old yard signs from this "honest" candidate, "Vote Yes" signs from that friends of a referendum group, yadda-yada-yadda, whatever.

Well, I don't know if its me, but its starting to happen in Elgin.

And it's not election season either.

For at least a week after the Elgin Green Expo, the roadside signs were still all over town.

Some thrifty (or cheap) entrepreneurs even recycled the signs in their own way, taping a sheet of paper with their own message over the yellow signs.

Then there were signs around downtown advertising the Harvest Market, which is on Thursdays from now through October. The problem was this sign is that it said "today" - on a Tuesday.

I realize that I am nitpicking a bit.

But more attention needs to be paid to these kind of things.

The city has been working hard to bring people to downtown.

Why irritate folks by sending them to a phantom farmer's market or have signs up promoting an event that is over?

Hunger has no season: Elginites and the nation in general came up big for the 18th annual "Stamp Out Hunger" food drive in May.

Americans donated a record 77.1 million pounds of food for the annual Letter Carriers National Food Drive, breaking the record set last year of 73.4 million pounds.

Overall, the contributions in the largest national food drive in the country passed the 1 billion mark. Food items, which postal workers pick up from outside or below people's mailboxes, are donated to local pantries.

In Elgin, donations were up 46 percent from last year.

Sean Hargadon, post office spokesman, said Elgin letter carriers collected 19,000 pounds of food compared to 13,000 last year.

Elgin service award: Luis and Judy Cabrera have been chosen as the recipients of the 68th Elgin Cosmopolitan Club Distinguished Service Award for their contributions to the community.

Luis is a retired principal and Judy is a retired bilingual diagnostician and a dinner was held in their honor May 25 at the Elgin Country Club.

The Cabreras have probably logged thousands of hours helping the community in many ways and space does not permit to list them all here.

Luis currently is chairman of the Club Guadalupano Scholarship Committee, serves as treasurer of Centro de Informacion and has been recognized with the Dr. Martin Luther King Humanitarian Award.

Judy has served 32 years on the scholarship committee and serves on the United Way board of directors.

Congrats to the Cabreras!