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Health & Fitness

For a Good Time Join the Jaycees and Work the Fourth of July Festival

If you are up for a good time, want to the help the community then join the Palatine Jaycees and work the Fourth of July Festival.

If you are up for a good time, want to the help the community then join the Palatine Jaycees and work the Fourth of July Festival. Just show up at the Festival and ask a Jaycee how you can join.  They'll be glad to help you sign up and then put you to work.

The Jaycees need a significant amount of help during a festival.  During the festival, the Jaycees sell tickets for beer and soda, set up & run the parade as well as arts & crafts, work with the fireworks and food vendors, manage the bands and clean up the park.  During last year’s festival, the Jaycees, associates, friends and family worked over 3,000 man hours.

“Fun is the underling theme of Fourth of July,” said Adam Anderson, Co-Chair of the 2011 Festival.  “Many of the Jaycees will put in upwards of 50 hours during a five day festival.  We work hard, but during our off hours we like to play.  You can always find a number of Jaycees in the rest area talking, walking through the Arts & Crafts booths or on rides in the carnival.  Every year a number of people join the Jaycees during the Festival so they can have fun with us working the Festival.”

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In addition to the Jaycees and associates that work the Fest, a number of parents of Jaycees come out to work.  “My parents drove from Iowa each year to work in the arts & crafts fair,” said Palatine Jaycee associate Gerard Iannuzzelli.  “They always had such a good time working with my brother and I, the other Jaycees as well as the other parents of Jaycees that they looked forward to their visit each year.”

Work on the Festival officially begins in December before the festival with the establishment of a 20 to 30 member committee who meet a dozen times before the festival even begins.  The reality of the project, though, is that work begins as the proceeding year festival winds down.  At the end of each festival, organizers always talk to the food vendors and parade entertainment to see who is available for the following year.  Since there are so many suburban festivals, many vendors and entertainment acts in the parade are booked a year in advance and often work two festivals at a time.

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The Palatine Chapter of the Jaycees, one of the nearly 100 local chapters throughout Illinois, has over 100 members and is one of the largest chapters in Illinois.  The Jaycees provide individuals between the age of 21 and 40 the opportunity to develop personal and leadership skills while serving their community.

 

 

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