It was a beautiful day for the 43rd annual neighborhood festival in Graceland West (photos below). The 2023 Graceland West Neighborhood Fest was only possible because of many volunteers and many sponsors. A very special thank you to Sarah, Brad, Kristi and Liza who led the planning for the amazing event.
4100 North Greenview between Belle Plaine & Warner
Join us for Graceland West’s largest fundraiser of the year! Come out and meet-up with your neighbors while supporting our special neighborhood. All are invited including those outside GWCA.
Day-Of Volunteers Needed: contact Sarah Maxwell at sarah.maxwell@gmail.com for more information. Click here to sign-up today to volunteer and/or contribute. Fest Contributions Helpful: silent auction donations (gift certificate, goods, or services) donation or lending of item(s) to be used during Fest including chairs for Euchre tournament Fest Sponsor Donations Sought: The George Pullman ($100), The Ernie Banks ($250), The Ruth Page ($500), The Conrad Sulzer ($750), The Daniel Burnham ($1000)
DJ ☀ Miniature Golf ☀ Bounce House ☀ Magic by Randy
Kids Create Studio Activity ☀ Tie Dye ☀ Spin Art ☀ Juggler
Euchre Tournament ☀ 3:15-4:45 ☀ 3 rounds of round robin, $30 buy-in per player with cash prizes. Contact Paul Monzella at pmonzella@gmail.com to sign-up by 9/8
Sign-Up for Experience Parties ☀ We’re hosting 3 fun parties this fall & winter to hang out with your neighbors. Be sure to check out the sign-ups for “Gals of GWCA”, “Guys of GWCA” and “Next Gen of GWCA” at the Fest
Magic By Randy ☀ 3:30-4:00
Silent Auction ☀ Featuring items from The Long Room, ClimbZone, Lakeview Taproom, Cubs game tickets, Namaskar Yoga, Interstellar Records & more!
Create Custom Tie Dye T-Shirts & Spin Art ☀ 4:00-6:00
Kids Create Studio Activity ☀ 4:00-6:00 ☀ Kids Create Studio on Southport will be on hand for a fun take-home art project
Kids Musical Chairs ☀ 4:30-5:00
Big Star Taco Truck & Margaritas ☀ 4:30-6:30
Juggler ☀ 6:00-7:00
Off Color Brewing Beer, plus Wine & Craft Cocktails
Although the kids are heading back to school, we still have a month left of our 2023 summer.
Looking back, we kicked off the summer with a very successful and engaging meeting. Special thanks to Rachel Kuipers and Jack Pizzo for sharing their knowledge with the group. Also a warm welcome to Chad Rathmann and Linda Welsh who were welcomed to the GWCA council. All meeting minutes are uploaded to our Archives page.
In July we had an amazing 41st annual GWCA Garden Walk. A very special thanks to all of the gardeners who welcomed the community into their enchanted spaces and to Ben Conley, Chad Rathmann and Linda Welsh for leading the organization of the walk.
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail spotted during the 41st Annual GWCA Garden Walk
Looking ahead…
On September 10 we will have our annual neighborhood festival on Greenview between Belle Plaine and Warner. Hopefully this year mother nature will spare us the gale-force winds.
On September 23rd we’ll reconvene in the beautiful Warner Park and Gardens for our Q3 meeting and to vote on important matters related to a business on Irving Park.
Be on the lookout for detailed information about these upcoming events and subscribe to our calendar at the bottom of https://gracelandwest.org/calendar/. As always, feel free to drop a note to info@gracelandwest.org about any neighborhood-related curiosities.
Join us for Graceland West’s largest fundraiser of the year! Come out and meet-up with your neighbors while supporting our special neighborhood. All are invited including those outside GWCA.
Day-Of Volunteers Needed: contact Sarah Maxwell at sarah.maxwell@gmail.com for more information Fest Contributions Helpful: silent auction donations (gift certificate, goods, or services) donation or lending of item(s) to be used during Fest including tables and chairs for Euchre tournament Fest Sponsor Donations Sought: The George Pullman ($100), The Ernie Banks ($250), The Ruth Page ($500), The Conrad Sulzer ($750), The Daniel Burnham ($1000)
DJ ☀ Miniature Golf ☀ Bounce House ☀ Magic by Randy
Kids Create Studio Activity ☀ Tie Dye ☀ Spin Art ☀ Juggler
Euchre Tournament ☀ 3:15-4:45 ☀ 3 rounds of round robin, $30 buy-in per player with cash prizes. Contact Paul Monzella at pmonzella@gmail.com to sign-up by 9/8
Sign-Up for Experience Parties ☀ We’re hosting 3 fun parties this fall & winter to hang out with your neighbors. Be sure to check out the sign-ups for “Gals of GWCA”, “Guys of GWCA” and “Next Gen of GWCA” at the Fest
Magic By Randy ☀ 3:30-4:00
Silent Auction ☀ Featuring items from The Long Room, ClimbZone, Lakeview Taproom, Cubs game tickets, Namaskar Yoga, Interstellar Records & more!
Create Custom Tie Dye T-Shirts & Spin Art ☀ 4:00-6:00
Kids Create Studio Activity ☀ 4:00-6:00 ☀ Kids Create Studio on Southport will be on hand for a fun take-home art project
Kids Musical Chairs ☀ 4:30-5:00
Big Star Taco Truck & Margaritas ☀ 4:30-6:30
Juggler ☀ 6:00-7:00
Off Color Brewing Beer, plus Wine & Craft Cocktails
2022 was a great year of re-emergence (of sorts) after a couple of years of flattening the COVID-19 curve and building immunity.
We kicked the year off after hibernating for the winter at our March meeting where we had a great time with Alderman Matt Martin and continued to build our relationship with Lake View High School, specifically their STEM program representatives and our very own Council member and teacher Joanne Yonan.
On Earth Day we cleaned up the streets around the high school with our Congressman Mike Quigely.
Our Q2 meeting took place in beautiful Warner Park and focused on the efforts of the GWCA Eco Committee, led by Council member Joel McFarland who is an Openlands certified TreeKeeper. We also heard from the Alderman’s office and CDOT about safe streets improvements. More on this topic in 2023.
The annual yard sale was moved up to June. Many thanks to Mark Nehring for his leadership.
The annual Garden Walk celebrated 40 years in 2022. 40 years! Fearlessly led by Donna Forsberg for one last time as she called this year her last as the chairperson. Mother Nature decided to keep us guessing throughout the day but allowed for plenty of time for all of our amazing neighborhood gardeners to share their efforts with guests.
The newly branded Graceland West Neighborhood Fest (formerly GWCAFest) was visited by Gale and Squall who dumped about 2 ft of flooding into the neighborhood, but that didn’t stop Sarah Maxwell, Barb Sullivan, Brad Pierce and their volunteers (including LVHS students) from toughing it out and waiting for the weather to clear for the neighborhood to emerge to enjoy Peg’s famous bake table, Randy’s age-less magic, Lisa B’s smooth vocals, Tacos, Tacos, Tacos (and Margaritas), and flame throwing (aka juggling)!
Our Q3 meeting finally brought us back into LVHS where we were introduced to the LVHS Robotics program (which is incredible)!
The Halloween party at Warner Park returned after a couple year hiatus and featured some amazing costumes, games and make your own candy apples. Special thanks to Andrea and Colin McLeod and their volunteers for hosting the event.
And sure enough, Mother Nature wasn’t finished with us when she gave us rain and 50 mph winds the morning of our Street Leaf Cleanup and the Pumpkin Smash at LVHS. Didn’t stop new Council member Paul Monzella from raking Cullom/Greenview until it was pristine. Throughout the week we totaled 182 bags, picked up by the Ward Superintendent the next week.
We finished off the year back at the Piggery, our gracious hosts for our March and December meetings, where we enjoyed pizza, pork and socializing.
The GWCA Council would like to recognize our Block Reps who helps to deliver flyers and spread important neighborhood news. Thank You!
Also, thanks to all who volunteered or attended any of the GWCA meetings and events and participated in the goal of the association to foster positive relationships between residents of the neighborhood, promote civic engagement and educate community members on issues of common interest such as crime prevention, neighborhood history and preservation, and community improvement. It takes a village!
Thanks for a fantastic Graceland West Neighborhood Fest on September 11, 2022. We were delayed past our 3 pm start by a super cell that brought heavy rain and a squall that flooded several blocks of Greenview. Fest Committee and volunteers set up in a downpour and then held on to tent legs to keep them from going airborne. Randy started the Fest with the magic we all craved, Lisa B kept our hearts warm with song. Once weather lifted enough, neighbors began to fill the 4100 block of Greenview until it was packed with attendees from families with infants to a neighbor in his mid 90’s who walked through the rain to renew his membership. Neighbors kept baked goods coming and Peg’s Bake Table sold out. Kids sported painted faces, one dad held umbrellas in each hand to keep kids dry. Many volunteers went home and changed to dry clothes more than once. Mid-Fest, just when we were all hungry, Big Star Taco arrived with three kinds of tacos and a margarita, and then the juggler brought fire to warm us up.
Kudos to the Fest Committee, which included Barb Sullivan, Sarah Maxwell, Brad Pierce and more. They planned the perfect Fest and executed brilliantly, given the challenges mother nature sent their way. Thank you to the 25+ GWCA Members and Block Reps who helped with spreading the word about the event and a very special than you to LVHS students who braved the weather all day.
Because we were unable to properly thank our sponsors during the event, they are recognized below.
While the weather forecast unfortunately isn’t looking favorable for the Graceland West Neighborhood Fest, our annual festival and most of its offerings including the Big Star taco truck is on as planned. We’ll have coverage from the rain throughout the event as needed. Your participation from 3-7pm, today, September 11th, is appreciated and helps support Graceland West’s initiatives throughout the year ahead. Hope you can join!
If you’ve been following us on facebook or instagram you’ve seen a few photos from GWCAfests of the past… This year we’ll make some new memories…Sunday, 9/12 from 1-5 pm on the 4100 block of Greenview. More info on Facebook here.
When Graceland West Community Association (GWCA) was just getting started, it was decided that an annual block party would provide a venue for fund raising and a chance for neighbors to meet and talk (“fun raising” ).
Early block parties were pot lucks and our neighbor, DJ Gil Munoz would bring out his gear & provide music. That first year it was decided to have a chili contest – and then they added all of them to the pot luck meal.
As years went on, different people tried different things:
Magic by Randy circa 2007
A group of Dads grilled burgers & brats
A neighbor and her family members made awesome tacos right there in the street
We held a talent contest & discovered some amazing talents in our neighbors (choir members, dancers, kazoo bands, rock bands & more)
Neighborhood teens performed (a few have gone on to careers as musicians, some just do it nights & weekends)
People sponsored acts like the Jesse White Tumblers, the Roberto Clemente High School Steel Drum Band & a rising new singer LisaB
For many years, the party kicked off with a pet parade. Everyone dressed up and costumed & ribboned their pets: dogs, cats, bunnies and even fish (in a bowl in a wagon). One man even brought a pet python!
We’ve had the Lake View High School cheerleaders, jazz band & percussionists perform for us
We’ve done rummage sales, silent auctions & live auctions to help fund the organization
Fortune telling by Madame Sonia
Chair massages
We’ve tried Saturday morning, Saturday afternoon, one year we even did an afternoon party for kids & an evening party for adults only (parents hired babysitters, showered & changed and came back to party with the adults)
We’ve moved it around the neighborhood, every couple of years on a new street ! Then for years we did it on Warner by Warner Park & Gardens
We’ve had bounce houses, pony rides, petting zoos, dunk tanks and arcade games to amuse the children
One of our neighbors, Liz Thomas, painted bean bag & ring toss boards for us to use. And then freshened them up ten years later.
One year, using a dog run & a cowboy hat, the Sheriff made his first appearance. For one ticket he would arrest anyone you pointed out to him. Then they had to serve a 15 minute sentence in “jail” or, since this is Chicago, for 2 tickets they could purchase an immediate release (hey, it’s all for the good of the organization).
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This year we’ll make some new memories…Today, Sunday, 9/12 from 1-5 pm on the 4100 block of Greenview. More info on Facebook here.
Tim McGonegle will be re-creating his role as Sheriff, with some assistance from his Grandson, Dawson. So there’s a new Sheriff in town!
Next year the block party could try something new that you suggest. Let us know what would get you to come next year and whether you could help to turn your idea in to reality at next year’s celebration
