COVID-19, Local, Science

Kopy’s Kolumn: Art Fair Brings a Blessing to DownTown – PEOPLE


Children, always a blessing, draw Saturday at the Park Forest Art Fair.
Children, always a blessing, draw Saturday at the Park Forest Art Fair. (Photo: Gary Kopycinski)

Park Forest, IL-(ENEWSPF)- The Park Forest Art Fair wrapped up today for the first time in two years. It was a blessing in many ways. It was a blessing to see more artists than two years ago. It was a blessing to be able to purchase some quality art, even get a jump on holiday shopping. It was a blessing to enjoy the warmth and sunshine. But it was especially a blessing to see PEOPLE walking the streets and sidewalks of DownTown.

The Art Fair was a blessing.

Main Street Nights started our return to some semblance of normality. Saw Chuck Sabey at Starbucks in Matteson the day after the first Main Street Nights at the beginning of the summer and he said, at the time, opening night was a “blessing.”

It was.

Main Street Nights concluded with the MAGIC of the Blooze Brothers. The entire band was incredible.

Here’s a taste:

Here are some pics from the Blooze Brothers night:

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The blessings continued right through the end of the Art Fair Sunday. Tall Grass Arts Association pulled off a fabulous event to close the summer in Park Forest. Hats off to all of them, hats off to the number of volunteers who worked tirelessly to make it all happen. Thanks to the number of artists too who graced us in the DownTown.

Events like that weekly would be incredible, but the Park Forest Art Fair is one-of-a-kind, and we’re lucky to have it.

A gallery of pics from Saturday and Sunday — most are from Saturday. Thanks to ALL who made it happen.

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Work Progresses on Somonauk Park

Somonauk Nature Adventure Park
Somonauk Nature Adventure Park takes shape. (Photo: Gary Kopycinski)

Somonauk Park will soon be known as Somonauk Park Adventure Park. It will include fishing piers, kayaking, zip-lines, a wave-field, and walking paths. It’s happening now, taking shape, slated to open next year, the Summer of ’22.

Here’s some of what’s going on now:

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It’s very much a work in progress. Next summer, though, it looks to be amazing.

Kudos to Rob Gunther and everyone else on staff in the Village who had a hand in the planning and execution of this incredible new park design.

Delta Variant Continues to Ravage

Delta Variant continues to ravage
The delta variant continues to ravage. (MGN)

We’re still in a pandemic. Thus far, Park Forest has had 2,320 cases, a rolling positivity rate over the past 7 days of 0.65, has seen 36 people die of COVID-19, and has 55.5% of the population with one vaccination. Still, only 43.8% of us are fully vaccinated (two Pfizer, two Moderna, or one Johnson & Johnson), a complete COVID-19 vaccination series.

Please get vaccinated.

Reporting on High School Athletics

As many of you might know, my “day job” is teaching Theology at Marian Catholic High School. I need my day job.

Recently, I’ve included more coverage here of athletic events from Marian Catholic. I try to attend as many as I can. When I do, I take pictures and publish them on our Flickr page for eNews Park Forest.

Are you on Flickr? Our site is here. Please follow ENEWSPF there.

I am trying to cover Rich Township athletic events as well. Let me say that Marian Catholic coaches send game, match, or meet stats to news outlets, and we get them too. Also, Kevin Kelly, our Athletic Director, makes timely updates to all sports pages every day. As such, it is much easier for us to post results from that high school.

Honestly, the website from Rich Township is not updated as regularly. We will make an effort to publish results of athletic events that happen there, but we really only have the RT Twitter feeds to work with — all of them. That is what we were directed to do to find results for RT athletics.

If you know someone, or if you are someone, who would be willing to cover the Rich Township Raptors, please email me at [email protected].

As such, here are a few for you:

And Finally

Thank you for continuing to be loyal readers. We certainly appreciate your support. Yes, the Park Forest Art Fair was a blessing, Main Street Nights, all of them, were a blessing, but the most incredible blessing in Park Forest is you, the people.

We appreciate you coming along for the ride.


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