Winfield’s historical society to reward kids in passport program
Children didn’t need a passport to visit museums this summer in DuPage and Kane counties, but those who used one can collect a reward this weekend at Winfield’s Good Old Days.
The annual celebration pays tribute to the community’s past and seems a fitting location to reward children who learned a bit of history by taking part in the museum passport program, said Adrienne Rose, president of the Winfield Historical Society.
Children ages 6 to 18 were encouraged to get a passport through the Kane-DuPage Regional Museum Association and get it stamped as they visited any of the 60 participating area museums between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Children and teens who collected seven stamps can trade their passports for certificates and $5.
The program encourages children to seek out a wide range of historical perspectives, Rose said.
“They are so varied that they give the children a broader educational background,” she said. “Rather than sitting at home on the couch or texting on their iPhones, it gives them a lot more knowledge.”
The rewards will be handed out Saturday, Sept. 10, during Winfield’s Good Old Days. The festival opens Thursday, Sept. 8, with live music and a beer garden and then launches into a jam-packed weekend that includes a library book sale, a classic car show, parade and even minnow races before closing Sunday, Sept. 11.
The historical society also will host an open house and a good old-fashioned shoe-kicking contest, which tests how far women can kick their shoes. The contest goes back to the past and the Good Old Days’ roots in old-town fun.
“It was a small-town, hometown type of thing,” Rose said. “It started with just the corn boils and then it became more sophisticated with carnivals, and it got a little bit beyond the old-time flavor. It has now evolved into an affair that incorporates most of the organizations in town.”
The museum passport rewards will be handed out at Hedges Station, a site that has a pretty interesting history itself.
The building is the town’s oldest, and the historical society battled to protect it when village officials wanted to move it from its original location where the police department parking lot now sits.
Although they were forced to move in 1981 north of Central DuPage Hospital, they did manage to save the building, one of the historical society’s many successes, Rose said.
During Good Old Days, she said she hopes more people take an interest in her organization because the town’s history can provide some pretty big lessons.
“It’s the culture right now,” she said. “It is so insular. It’s important (residents) learn where we have come from and how far we have advanced.”
If you go
What: Winfield Good Old Days
When: 5 to 10 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 8; 4 to 11 p.m. Friday, Sept. 9; 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 10; 8:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 11
Where: Downtown Winfield
Cost: Free admission, fees for some activities
Info: winfieldchamber.biz