Nippersink Forest Preserve is Open

A few week ago I attended the dedication of the Forest Preserve's new Nippersink facility. Its on 120 between Fairfield and Bacon. I have to say its spectacular, I am very proud of all the work that was done to get this located in our area.

I have written quite a bit about this project over the years and its nice to see it finalized! I am going to explore having my Mayors 5K road race here next year as well! Hills, and no trains, what an excellent route! The picture is of us cutting the ribbon I am second from the left.

Send a Kid to Camp Golf Outing Today!

Today is the Friends of the Round Lake Area Parks Foundation Golf Outing at Renwood Golf Course The Foundation raises funds for many programs. Among them are:

• Send a Kid to Camp scholarships
• Special Olympics
• Cultural arts programs
• Outreach programs
• Community beautification

I have a great time every year! Sometimes its fun to be the Mayor! The picture is of Brian Brubaker pointing at his tee shot on a par 3 a few years ago at an outing. He is playing today as well! Hope he is this accurate tommorrow, becuase my game is non existent!

Jesse White Tumblers

Last weekend the Jesse White Tumblers performed at the Park District. Jesse invited me out to be in the conga line that people were jumping over. Carole Shook took some video of the moment and emailed it to me, and since Blogger now integrates video I thought I would try it out!

Hamburger Helper

The Round Lake Area Park District is trying to raise money for a renovation of the Hart's Wood Playground, we have an opportunity to apply for a grant from Hamburger Helper for $15,000 and they asked me to post the instructions for adding your support to the project and help raise the money for the renovation.

1. Log on to www.myhometownhelper.com.
2. Click on find a project.
3. Find by state (Illinois) click search.
4. Select Harts Woods Playground Equipment.
5. Read about the project.
6. Add a comment to show your support.
7. By the way here is a direct link to the project.
   

Just so you know this is an easy post because I have always loved Hamburger Helper, its up in the top 10 foods with macaroni and cheese, toasted cheese sandwiches, and tomato soup!

Send a Kid to Camp Golf Outing Yesterday

The lower right corner of this closest to the pin marker on the 8th hole was the highlight of the golfing portion of the day. Brian Brubaker pounded his tee shot to this exact spot on a low line, and its smacked it so hard that it dented the corner. The ball then rebounded 40 feet off the green. Best shot of the day!

The goodie bag was sensational as it always is, golf balls, tees, bubble bath, aloe hand wipes, shampoo, aloe spray for suntan relief, candy, more wipes and some more suntan relief products. I have taken a picture (above) of some of the stuff that was in the bag, some already resides in my golf bag.

Lastly the raffle prize portion was not up to my usual standards, one year I won 25 prizes out of the 45 they raffled (this is in a room of 100 golfers all owning tickets). This year I was about 5 for 45 winning a $20 gift certificate at Potestas, a giant smoker grill coveted by Brian, a giant autographed picture of Bernard Berrian jumping into the stands, 2 Cubs tickets with a Cubs hat Cubs shirt and an autographed picture of Kerry Wood, and a box of golf balls!

All for a good cause! Thanks to Al Villasenor, Brian Brubaker and Michael Blum for playing in the foursome and putting up with my poor golfing

Send a Kid to Camp Golf Outing

Hansel and Gretel Come to Town!

Hansel and Gretel find themselves lost in an enchanted forest at the Round Lake Area Park District Community and Studio of Dance Presentation. Performances are Friday March 23 at 7:30 and on Saturday March 24th at 2:00 and 7:30, and then on Sunday March 25th at 2:00. The presentation is at the Round Lake High School Theater.

There are many more plays in production, among them are "Beauty and the Beast", "Enchanted Sleeping Beauty", and "The Wizard of Oz". Check your quarterly Park District Brochure for more detail.

Rumors that they are doing a special adaptation of my life are unfounded by the way! By the way the picture is of the Witch in the play, who does not look like this!

Wine Tasting Last Night

Had a very nice time last night at the wine tasting fund raiser, there were about 120 couples and they raised about $4,000 dollars towards the construction on a new park. I would have some pictures of the actual event here, but my cell phone battery went dead on the way to the event, killing any chance of that happening! I walked out of there having ordered a case of assorted wines for myself, so all in all a good night! Saw to many people to mention here, but lots of Round Lakers were here!

Don't Forget the Wine Tasting is Saturday!

Don't forget this Saturday is the Wine-tasting that benefits a playground at the Park District. The event is being held by the Park District Foundation on Saturday at the 814 Hart Road from 6-10pm. Tickets are still available by calling 847-546-8558 they are $30.

Frosty Footrace Today will be Truly Frosty

I am not sure there will be a race today. However I have decided not to run but rather to walk. Not sure what running the route today would do for me or to me!

The Round Lake Area Chamber of Commerce held its annual Installation of Officers last night, so I was there and there was a good turnout despite the snow. Trustee's Michael Blum, Sherry Perkowitz and Brian Brubaker, along with Village Clerk Jeanne Kristan all turned out. from the village.

Round Lake Area Park District-- Wine Tasting Fundraiser

"A Taste of the Grape" wine tasting fundraiser is going to be held on Saturday, March 10 from 6:30-10:00 pm at the Rolek Community Center. Tickets are $30 per person and are on sale at the Registration desk at the Rolek Community Center, 814 Hart Rd. Round Lake, and the Sports Center 2005 Municipal Way, Round Lake Beach. This event is the first in a series of fundraisers to raise money to renovate the Hart's Woods playground. Bring your friends.

The format is simple, everyone gets a glass and can move around 4-5 tables sampling, and deciding on which wines they want to "load up" by ordering for home use. In addition there will be a beer table as well for beer samples!

Save The Date-- Wine Tasting Fundraiser

A few weeks ago I talked about attending the SEDOL wine tasting fund-raiser. I also asked if people in this community would attend a wine and cheese tasting fund raiser for the Round Lake Area Park District Foundation. The response was quite favorable, and in fact the foundation has set a date for the fund raiser on March 10, 2007 at 6:30pm in the evening. So mark the date down in your calendars and get your taste buds ready for a wine tasting! It will benefit a new playground in Hart Woods, and will be held at the Rolek Center on Hart Road. So the benefit goes to us for something inside the village of Round Lake, which is even better!

Contest Winners

The winners of the Annual Mayoral Giveaway program from the the free stuff that I get for sponsoring stuff from the Round Lake Area Park District are as follows:

• Family Pool Pass (31 entries) was won by the Bukowski family! Oddly enough they were the last entry submitted yesterday no less.
• One Year Fitness Membership Pass (25 entries) was won by Kurt Rodwald, who should have also won for best email response to me entering the contest. I will not repeat what he said to protect the innocent.

I used my exclusive patented double blind system of selection, first I sorted emails by time stamp, then I went to a site that generates random numbers between 1 and 25 or 1 and 31, the site told me the number 7 and 31 in this case and I merely counted down!

The Spirit of Giving...or Free Stuff from the Mayor!

Every year the village is a sponsor of the winter fireworks with the Park District at Holiday Fest. We have a long tradition of sponsoring fireworks in the village, both the Fourth of July Version and the Christmas version as well!
However sponsorship does have its privileges! I get free stuff from the Park District, and you know what free stuff means on this blog! Giveaways! So here we go with the free stuff I was sent this year.

• One year Fitness Center Membership at the Round Lake Area park District's Fitness Center. ($254 value)
• Family Pool Pass for the entire 2007 season at the Round Lake Area park District Pool. ($200 value)

The rules are simple, email me at mayor@eroundlake.com, entries will be open for a week (11:59pm on December 17th). YOU MUST TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT FITNESS OR POOL PASS. I will take all the entries and use some form of random number selection process that I will concoct on the spot and apply them by using the time stamps on your emails arrival in my in box.

You need to be a resident of Round Lake! You also better have kids if you expect the pool pass, the more the merrier! If you won earlier this year, you can't win the same prize!

Round Lake Park District Holiday Festival is Today

From 2pm to 5pm today is the Round Lake Area Park District Holiday Festival at the Hart Road Location. The festival has got something for every age group. My age group is covered by fireworks at around 5pm. The Village is one of the sponsors of this program and has been for years.

I have been going for years! Years before I was Mayor as well, because I have a daughter who loved this stuff, hayrides, the Jesse White Tumblers, a moonwalk and much much more!

Wine Tasting Questionnaire?

I was asked a question today via email about if residents here in the area would enjoy a wine tasting fund raiser for the Round Lake Area Park District Foundation so I have decided to ask the question since this is election season in the form of a poll. So vote away! One too a customer however. Also if you are interested email me I will forward your name to the Park District if they decide to do it.

Free polls from Pollhost.com

If the Round Lake Park District Foundation held a Wine Tasting Fundraiser would you attend?

Yes No

Free polls from Pollhost.com

If you answered yes, how much would you pay per person to attend, knowing it was for a good cause?

$25-$49 $50-$74 $75-$99 $100 or higher

SEDOL Winetasting Fundraiser Last Night

Late post today! Why? Well I went to the annual SEDOL Foundation winetasting fundraiser. You can imagine why I did not get up at my usual bright eyed and bushy tailed hour I am sure from those clues. There were two types of wine tasting, the "private cellar" and the "public rooms" the private rooms were avoided by my party, because wines were over $25 and in some cases WAY over. The temptation to purchase would have been way to strong. My purchases were confined to the $10-25 range and I quickly found a caseful of goodies for my wine rack.

SEDOL is the Special Education District of Lake County, a cooperative educational system working with 36 local school districts to serve their physically, mentally, and emotionally challenged students. They serve all the districts in Round Lake (all 9 of them) so its a very important organization educationally here in the area.

I saw a few people of interest John Burnett who is SEDOL board member and former president, and is building the Goddard school off of Townline road in Round Lake. Along with an old friend State Representative Kathy Ryg. Also Park District Board member, and Round Lake Planning commissioner Barb Daudelin and her husband Dave were there as well.

Round Lake 5K Yesterday-- Huge Medal Haul for Village Officials

We shoveled some serious hardware out of the Round Lake Park District 5K on Sunday morning. From left to right, Village Engineer Erika Frable holding her gold medal won her age division and finished 13th overall. Michael Blum holding his silver medal for his age group, Al Villasenor holding bronze for his third place and his 17th place finish, lastly me clutching my silver medal in my age group, which is one color better then last years bronze medal.

It was wet and chilly, and I was slow, but still smiling at the end as you can see. As always the Park District did a nice job!

Round Lake 5K Coming Soon

Just a friendly reminder that the Round Lake Area Park District has its 6th annual 5k Run/Walk coming up on September 10th at 8am. It's tons of fun and I will be back to defend my 45-50 age group third place medal (see picture). By the way that's former Trustee Dale Multerer Current Police Commission President and Round Lake Park District Foundation Board Member in the background. Hopefully I can better the time of 30:47 that I had last year! Proceeds from the race benefit Special Olympics for the Round Lake Area as well. So it's for a good cause as well!

The Frosty 5K on the same course earlier this year was not very good for me, as I was soundly whipped by the entire distaff line (all 3 of them) of Trustee Bob Del Prato's family.

If you are interested in registering for the Run/Walk here is the link to a PDF of the entry form. A few hours later there is a doggie walk as well! I will write more on that later.

Corn and Brat Day is Almost Upon Us!

Saturday August 26th is the Round Lake Spartans annual Corn & Brat Day! It starts at 8am and goes until about 5pm. A full day of football and cheerleading. Everyone is invited. It is at Hart Hill football field across from the main park district blg on Hart Rd. The Actual address is 761 Hart Rd.

They could use volunteers for just about everything. Grilling working the chain gang, raffles, someone to run the brand new scoreboard, someone to do announcing and play by play on the brand new sound system, dunk tank operator, concessions, set up, clean up. The list goes on and on.

Or just come out and sit on the hill and watch these boys and girls show you what they have learned in a few short weeks! You can also watch for Round Lake Trustee Brian Brubaker who is very active in the organization and currently serves as President.

Kick off starts at 8am and games run about every 1.5 hours until 5pm Hope to see you out there. If anyone is interested in volunteering email them at info@rlspartans.org.