From A Pie Auction to a Pickleball Tournament
The Somonauk, IL Growing Project began 20 years ago. From the beginning, the group has hosted a large harvest celebration each fall. At first it was just one community Growing Project coming together to celebrate, but it quickly grew to include others from surrounding areas. In recent years, the celebration has included Growing Projects from Earlville, Ottawa, Barrington, Mazon and Western Springs, in addition to the Somonauk group.
The celebration is held annually at the Sandwich Fairgrounds and includes a worship service, lunch, a variety of activities for all ages and the famous pie auction fundraiser. The event has been a success, but after 20 years, the organizers have decided that this year’s celebration will be the last.
“Every event has a season and we felt our season for this event was coming to a close,” said Jerry Lundeen, who, with his wife Toni, has been instrumental in organizing the event, “We started 20 years ago, which means that our help is now 20 years older than when we started.”
“The way we’ve done this event is very labor intensive and takes a lot of setup,” said Toni. “We looked at making it smaller or simplifying it, but that wasn’t what people had come to expect, so we didn’t know if it would work. In fact, we have simplified it already by hosting it at the fairgrounds instead of asking a farmer to clear out their machine shed during harvest to host it on the farm like we used to. Ultimately, we decided to go a different direction.”
The Lundeens commented on their favorite parts of the harvest celebration “It was great to see multiple communities and churches come together and to see their impressive generosity. It was actually very humbling,” said Jerry. “It has been great to watch the kids come and have fun and to see them grow up over the years,” added Toni.
“Even though the generosity hasn’t dwindled, our attendance has dropped in recent years. People get tired of the same thing every year,” said Toni. So, while one chapter is ending, another is just beginning.
This past June the Somonauk Growing Project joined together with the Village of Somonauk, Sandwich Park District and Fox Valley Family YMCA to host their first annual pickleball tournament. “The Sandwich Park District and YMCA were heavily involved of the running of the actual tournament. We did food, advertising and sponsorships, found volunteers, a DJ and a face painter and put together some raffle baskets,” said Toni.
Entry fees were $55 per team – representative of the cost of one person finding lasting solutions to hunger with Growing Hope Globally. At the end of the tournament, when it was announced that they’d collectively helped 80 people, there was an audible gasp in the crowd. “Our goal was to reach new people and generate new interest. That gasp when we announced the impact told me we’d definitely reached new people,” said Toni.
The tournament was a success and people are already spreading the word about next year’s event and looking forward to attending. “We’re also working on finding additional events to replace to the harvest celebration,” said Toni, “We’ve considered things like a glow run or a fundraising dinner, but we’re still brainstorming.”
“We’re definitely not going to stop supporting this great cause even though the harvest celebration is done,” said Jerry. “It is important to just try something. If it doesn’t work anymore, don’t quit, just try something else.”
We are grateful for this group and many more that have continued to try new things to support Growing Hope Globally through the changing seasons.