On Friday, Dec. 6, and Saturday, Dec. 7, the city of Sugar Grove held its annual Holiday in The Grove charity event, which featured a holiday celebration with activities and games for kids and families.
Many different organizations, like Kaneland’s Key Club, the Sugar Grove Fire Department’s cadet program and Kiwanis Sugar Grove Township Club, all came together to volunteer and make this event possible. It has been an important tradition for many town residents and organization members, providing a weekend to get together with the community and to help bring joy to kids throughout the town.
The event kicked off on Friday night with a visit from Santa as the community stood around the big Sugar Grove tree right across the street from the Sugar Grove BP station, awaiting its illumination. Kids and families gathered to take pictures with Santa, who arrived in a fire engine along with Sugar Grove police officers before the tree had been lit.
The big tree in Sugar Grove has been around for years, and during every holiday season, it is colorfully lit up by participants of Holiday in The Grove. The areas around the tree are taken care of and decorated as well, serving festivity and safety to the community.
“We take care of the tree and string all the lights for it.” Sugar Grove Village President Jennifer Konen said. “We do traffic control and security, and public works also puts all the wreaths on the trees on Main Street.”
After the tree was lit, the community then gathered at the Sugar Grove Community Center for cookies and hot chocolate, served by Kiwanis and Kaneland Key Club members.
Then, on Saturday morning, the Sugar Grove Fire Department made and served a pancake and sausage breakfast. Along with that, from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m., there were various activities aimed towards children and families. These activities included face painting, photos with Santa, live music, letter writing to Santa, crafts and a treat walk. They all took place in the Sugar Grove Community Center. Horse-drawn carriages were also available along with the popular Local Celebrity Pancake Flip-Off.
Holiday in The Grove has changed throughout the years, and every year, there have been more events added and more volunteers to help run them.
“This event has been around for a long time, but since the Kiwanis has taken it over, and since the village has been more involved, there’s more coordination between the tree lighting, pancake breakfast and all the activities provided,” Konen said.
Numerous community and organization members have come together year after year to help run this event, but this year, it garnered a higher amount of volunteers and helpers than in previous years.
“It started at least 22 years ago, and it has gone through different machinations,” Kiwanis member Kim Pritchard said. “We had a small group that started it and ran it for about 10 years, then a different non-profit organization ran it for about 15 years, and Kiwanis just took it on about three years ago.”
The Sugar Grove Kiwanis Organization has been a big influence in running and coordinating the event so that they could help continue it.
“We were told that Holiday in the Grove was kind of faltering because many of the members that had run it before us were losing interest,” President of Kiwanis Sugar Grove Township Club Tom Sorfleet said. “So we decided that we could take over and sponsor it to help it come back to life.”
Holiday in The Grove is an event whose main goal is to bring entertainment and joy to kids around the town during the holiday season. This largely aligns with the goals and values of the Kiwanis organization, which is why they decided to take it over.
“Kiwanis is all about kids and giving back to the kids, and what better way to do that than to bring Santa to the community and celebrate the holidays,” Pritchard said. “It really just fits well with the Kiwanis organization.”
Holiday In The Grove is mainly funded by all of the sponsorship and donations that it receives. Thanks to these donations and sponsorships, it is able to get all of the funding it needs to occur and to keep coming back every year.
“This year, we got the most sponsorships that we’ve ever had,” Pritchard said. “We raised a record amount of money from our sponsorships, so we really are a healthy organization.”
