Thai New Year party to benefit Elgin zoo, museum
Uthaiwan Wiitanen, owner of Elgin’s Toom Toom Thai restaurant is once again opening her doors for a community fundraiser.
Wiitanen is welcoming people to a Thai New Year celebration on Thailand’s Family Day, April 15, in hopes of raising money to support the Elgin Public Museum and Lords Park Zoo.
The restaurateur wanted to share Thai culture and encourage a love of animals in local kids, so she came up with the fundraising idea. She also said she wants others to love Elgin as much as she has grown to.
“A lot of things in Elgin people don’t know or don’t pay attention to,” Wiitanen said. “I found out Lords Park Zoo is very interesting.”
The New Year’s celebration will start at 4 p.m. at 23 S. Grove Ave., with Thai dance performances at 4 and 4:45 p.m., local music in between and a buffet meal after. Residents are encouraged to donate as much as they feel comfortable with, but $10 is recommended.
Peggie Stromberg, executive director of the Elgin Public Museum, said an exhibit detailing the history of the Lords Park Zoo will open at the end of April. Donations from the weekend celebration will go toward children’s programming at the museum.
Laurie Faith Gibson, spokeswoman of Friends of Lords Park Zoo, said her group was glad to partner for the Thai New Year festivities to support the Elgin Public Museum’s upcoming exhibit as well as its continued presence in the city.
“The zoo is just across the hill and it’s literally the living exhibit part of Elgin,” Gibson said. “It’s important we preserve both of those institutions.”
A new bison pen should be completed by the end of April with one or two new bison expected to take up residence in the zoo after an inspection. Gibson said a pen dedication ceremony is planned for sometime this summer.
Wiitanen last opened up Toom Toom Thai to the community in November for a meal to raise money for flood victims in Thailand.