Community Pulse: Family Fest is next month in Morris

We are just about a month out from one of our favorite annual Chamber events – Family Fest!

This year’s fest will be from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, April 15, at Shabbona Middle School, 725 School St. in Morris. The annual event provides free-family fun for the public and allows our local businesses and organizations to showcase their services and products to area families. Our presenting sponsor this year is Comcast.

We are offering plenty of fun and entertainment again this year for free thanks to the help of title sponsors CPV Three Rivers Energy Center and TR Miller Heating, Cooling & Plumbing and event sponsors Simple Communications, Constellation, and D’Arcy Motors. We will have games, face painting (sponsored by American Commercial Bank & Trust), balloon art (sponsored by Old National Bank), and more.

The Kids Zone will feature mascots and demonstrations again including Dave DiNaso’s Traveling World of Reptiles (sponsored by Coal City Dental) and we are excited to bring back bounce houses. Kids Zone is sponsored by Financial Plus Credit Union, LyondellBassell, Heartland Bank, Joliet Junior College, ONEOK, Procter & Gamble, The Country Farmhouse, Sherwood Oaks Waffle Cafe and the Village of Minooka. Demonstrations are featured in the performance area sponsored by SOCU.

New this year will be a Touch-A-Truck event held outside in the parking lot of the school. If your business is willing to provide a vehicle for kids to check out, please let us know.

Every year this event attracts more than 1,000 families bringing the public straight to you at our vendor show. This is an opportunity to showcase your business or organization’s services or product to someone new, someone who may not be right in your backyard and may not know what you offer.

Sponsorship opportunities and booths are available. Since this is a Family Fest, we encourage the booths to be interactive – provide a game for the kids to play while you talk to Mom or Dad about your products, give away a free consultation to a family through a coloring contest, or sponsor an activity that draws the families to this event every year!

Sponsorships of all levels include your booth, logo displays and advertisement. Individual booth options also are available. The event is open to both Chamber members and non-members. The Grundy County Chamber takes pride in offering events and opportunities for our business community to market itself in a variety of ways throughout the year and across the county.

Keep an eye out for our Family Fest insert with Shaw which will feature all of the details of Family Fest. It will be inserted in the Morris Herald-News and Joliet Herald-News in early April!

For information on Family Fest contact Events & Marketing Director Amanda Hiller at 815-942-0113 or amanda@grundychamber.com.

Other upcoming Chamber events:

connect@4 Networking Event: 4 to 6 p.m. March 23 at The Cove, 30 N. Broadway St., Suite 1, Coal City. Free to attend.

Minooka State of the Village Luncheon: 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. April 20 at Minooka Village Hall Community Room, 121 E. McEvilly Road, Minooka. Sponsored by Robinson Engineering and Alden Estates of Shorewood. $30 to attend. Registration is required in advance. Register at grundychamber.com or call 815-942-0113.

• Christina Van Yperen is the Grundy Chamber President & CEO. Community Pulse is a weekly column that provides a dedicated space for Grundy County-area nonprofits, schools and organizations to share news and information about their organization.