W. Dundee resident keeps festival alive

Peggy Fahy moved to West Dundee from Chicago 22 years ago.

Looking back on the last two decades raising her three children and making a home in the community, Fahy has fond memories of all the Dickens in Dundee festivals.

“I've always brought my kids to the festivities since they've been small,” Fahy said. “They totally enjoyed it.”

The Dundee Jaycees ran the festival from 1988 until 2005, but when that group stopped, Fahy was one of the community members who stepped forward to fill the void.

Fahy and Rose Bendinelli took the lead organizing the 2006 festival with the villages of East and West Dundee. The pair has continued to do so since.

This year, a more organized group of volunteer committees has taken some of the pressure off Fahy and Bendinelli, and financial support from the village of West Dundee has kept the festival alive.

“I think it's a tradition that defines West Dundee,” Fahy said.

Fahy said she enjoys being part of the community and believes her involvement in planning Dickens in Dundee as well as Heritage Fest is a way to give back to a village she loves.

In her family, Dickens in Dundee is a chance for everyone to get involved. Her children have been in the parade and Living Windows displays over the years and her husband helps put together Santa's sleigh.

For the community, Fahy sees Dickens in Dundee as a way to get people downtown.

“In the summer you see people all the time and once it gets cold everybody is back in their house,” Fahy said. “I think it's a nice way to start out the holidays.”

Fahy is mainly in charge of recruiting volunteers to help out during the festival weekend. She said it's not too hard because West Dundee is an involved community.

There will be about 50 volunteers working the weekend's activities from gingerbread house building to the Living Windows.

Fahy draws volunteers from local churches and schools. She is a para-educator at Dundee-Highlands Elementary School and often gets parents involved as they pick up their children.

But walking around the community gives Fahy the chance to recruit as well.

“Sometimes I think people see me and run,” Fahy said, laughing.

It's volunteers who keep the festival going year after year. “There's no way this could go on with just one person,” Fahy said.

Besides the official schedule of events organized by Fahy and the group of volunteers available at dickensindundee.org many downtown businesses will be open to participate in the festival weekend as well.

A few of the arts-related Main Street businesses with special events for the weekend include Swell Gallery, which will have a Holiday Arts and Crafts market, a new art therapy studio called Artisticology, which will open on Friday, Dec. 3, to participate in living windows and Amy Ward Photography, which will be providing popcorn and pictures with Santa during the living windows display.

Anyone interested in helping with next year's Dickens in Dundee festival should contact village hall at (847) 551-3800 in October. After recovering from planning Heritage Fest, volunteers dig into the Dickens weekend in early November.