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Geneva park shows off memorial for first president

If you want someone to be remembered through a memorial planting, small structure or plaque, it is best to make sure others can see it.

That wasn't the case for a period of time at Wheeler Park in Geneva.

The Geneva Park District did a nice job of recently clearing out some brush and tall grass that had been blocking the view of a memorial stone placed in the park in recognition of a former president.

The stone for G. Russell Steininger, the park district's first president from 1953 to 1959, has been in the park for several years, but surely hasn't been noticed by many people.

Now a nice bed of mulch, plants and a border of rocks has been built that will help the stone, with its somewhat faded nameplate, stand out much better.

The men and women who were among the first to dedicate their lives to bringing park and recreation services to their communities are often feted in this way. We remember them through some type of structure or plaque, or maybe their names on a park.

The stone in honor of G. Russell Steininger may not be the most flamboyant tribute, but my guess is that he would be well pleased in knowing that it's front-and-center now in a nice part of the park.

A sweet run:

Something like this could get me to enjoy running. But the event does say "run or walk," so I would certainly choose the latter.

But Graham's Fine Chocolates and Ice Cream, on Third Street in Geneva, is hosting its fifth annual Sundae 5K Run/Walk starting at Gunnar Anderson Forest Preserve at 8 a.m. Sunday and finishing at that site when participants complete the 3.1-mile event.

You know where I am going with this. An ice cream social completes things at the finish line. A portion of the proceeds goes to the Mikey Wunderlich Foundation for the City of Hope.

Mikey Wunderlich succumbed to cervical cancer in 2011, and while the foundation appears to have more notice in other regions of the suburbs, there is a strong connection to Graham's.

Wunderlich was the mother-in-law of Jayni Wunderlich, the daughter of Graham's owners Robert and Beckie Untiedt.

Those interested in the event who have not signed up need to do that today at getmeregistered.com. Signup cutoff on that site is at 7:30 a.m. Aug. 11.

Some wine and paint:

If this new business is still on target to open on the date its window sign had posted, area residents can expect another "paint and wine" experience in the Tri-Cities next week.

The Painted Vine Cellar was shooting for an Aug. 15 opening in the Fox Island Square location near the Wine Exchange. Patrons can expect some good beer here as well.

It appears Fox Island Square is humming along nicely. The Charleston on the River restaurant has been a busy place. (We have been there three times already and enjoyed it each time.) And, of course, The Wine Exchange and Kimmer's Ice Cream have plenty of loyal followers.

Another PechaKucha:

A previous commitment will make me miss the PechaKucha event in Batavia for the first time, but here's the plug anyway for those who maybe haven't attended one yet to watch speakers tackle interesting topics with 20 slides for 20 seconds each.

It takes place at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Batavia VFW Post 1197. This session, the fourth in the series for Batavia, has another great lineup of eight speakers, and one of the most interesting fellows in our area, Arcada Theatre frontman Ron Onesti, is scheduled to talk.

Corn and football:

It seems logical that most teachers are now saying this about the summer: "That was fast."

The high schools are promoting their corn boils already, and that means the start of school, and football Friday nights, is right around the corner.

Don't know what the corn boil is? You will as soon as your kids are old enough to be in high school. But the basic kick-off plans for school and football include 6 p.m. corn boils Aug. 19 at Batavia High and Aug. 24 at Geneva High School.

St. Charles East has its annual Black and Orange scrimmage, while St. Charles North hosts the Black and Blue scrimmage for varsity, both at 8 p.m. Aug. 19.

For those who like to know about good matchups early, Geneva and Kaneland will play each other this year for the first time since Geneva joined the Upstate Eight six years ago now. The Vikings travel to Kaneland Friday, Sept. 2.

dheun@sbcglobal.net

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