Hoffman Estates plans 60th anniversary picnic

Hoffman Estates will celebrate its 60th anniversary with a family-friendly community picnic from 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 21, at the Sears Centre Arena.

Karen Mills, the village board's senior trustee, served as chair of the anniversary committee this year and said an event everyone could enjoy equally was preferred over any kind of formal dinner or the like.

"We treated it as an important milestone, but we tried to keep it low key," Mills said. "We're trying to make it a family day."

Featuring free admission, parking and activities, the picnic will include door prizes and the band Leaders of the Pack playing songs from around the time of the village's 1959 incorporation.

The Hoffman Estates High School band is expected to play "Happy Birthday."

Kids will have plenty to occupy their attention, including bounce houses, games, prizes, face painters, balloon artists and "touch-a-truck" opportunities with police, fire and public works vehicles.

A raffle will be held every hour, leading up to a larger grand prize at 3:30 p.m., and a grand finale will be the 60th anniversary ball drop, with stress balls that kids can redeem for prizes.

Attendees also can bid on custom-decorated 60th anniversary bag games through a silent auction. All proceeds from the sale of these one-of-a-kind souvenirs will be donated to the village's Self-Help Fund to assist residents in need. Carpenters Local Union 839 donated the wood and built the bag games for others in the community to decorate.

Food and beverages will be sold at a reduced rate, and September's water bills include a 50-cent-off coupon, which also is available at the village hall.

Commemorative T-shirts already are on sale at the village hall for $8 or $10, depending on size, for those wishing to wear them to the picnic.

Yet to come during this 60th anniversary year is the release of the second volume of the village's history book, which will pick up the story from the early '90s. The recently completed tome has just gone to the publishers, Mills said.