Wilmington Chamber of Commerce News: April 2015

home : free press advocate : free press advocate		April 22, 2015

4/21/2015 9:43:00 PM
#wilmingtonil
Route 66 celebration enters the age of social media

Staff report

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TAKE A SELFIE with the Michelin man, share it at #wilmingtonil on Saturday, May 2 during the Red Carpet Corridor event, and you might win one of four $25 gift certificates. The bobblehead doll being held here by Alyssa Ohlund, will be hidden among vendor booths and downtown stores for an one-hour duration from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Find it, snap your photo and stop at the chamber tent for an official entry form.

The Mother Road might be a thing of the past, but this year the celebration honoring Route 66 incorporates the current age of social media.

The Route 66 Red Carpet Corridor celebration takes place on Saturday, May 2 and Sunday, May 3, in 13 Illinois communities that hug 90 miles of Route 66, from Joliet to Towanda.

The Wilmington Chamber of Commerce and Industry is planning the local event, which celebrates the importance of Route 66 in American culture.

The Chamber also recognizes the importance of social media in current American culture, and is inviting visitors to share their experience on Twitter at #wilmingtonil.

The Chamber's Michelin Man bobblehead will be found in several conspicuous places throughout the weekend. Anyone who takes a selfie with him and shares it at #wilmingtonil can stop by the Chamber tent to be entered into a drawing for one of four drawings for $25 in chamber certificates.

The Women of Wilmington are expecting to break their Catfish Days record of 61 vendors at the Red Carpet Corridor flea market on North Water Street Saturday. Between the flea market, the downtown businesses, and Milltown Market at the corner of North Kankakee and Canal Street, shoppers will find antiques, collectibles, imports, gifts, odds and ends and more.

When visitors need a break from shopping, the Wilmington Lions Club will be there with grilled burgers, rib-eye sandwiches, pulled pork, chips and ice cream.

The Finale Studio Diamond Dancers will dance their way into visitor's hearts with a performance on North Water Street at 10:30 a.m. Later, at noon, the Chamber of Commerce will host a children's Hula Hoop contest, in front of the Chamber tent on the north end of North Water Street, followed by the annual "Hound Dog" doggie costume contest at 1:30.

Nearby, at Water Street Fitness, the Island City Rotary Club will be holding its Rags to Riches used clothing and shoe drive to benefit Our Caring Closet, the local clothes closet. The drive will accept all of those tired, torn, stained old clothes, shoes and rags that aren't good enough to pass on. Our Caring Closet gets cash for every pound of textiles it recycles, and the Rotary Club will match what the closet gets for the first ton.

Each donor will receive a raffle ticket for a variety of prizes.

Saturday will be topped off by a performance by the Getinanys, singing pop favorites of decades past. The group will appear at the Chamber tent, from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m., and is sponsored by Warehouse Services Inc., the operator of the future Michelin warehouse at RidgePort Logistics Center.

The Chamber tent is also the place to collect this year's Red Carpet collectible, community specific wooden nickels. They will be available in each community along the corridor, on Saturday and Sunday only.

On Sunday, the festivities move to the North Island Park, where contestants in the annual rib cookoff will fire up their grills and smokers at 8 a.m. The ribs will be judged at 1 p.m., on criteria including smoke, sauce and tenderness.

The First Christian Church will sponsor family fun and games from noon to 3 p.m., including a bounce house, inflatable play area and more.

Contestants can enter their dozen in the cupcake contest, which is judged based on taste, originality and appearance. The contest is also sponsored by the First Christian Church.

The winners of the cupcake contest and the rib cookoff will be announced at 1:45.

Grillin' For Freedom will be grilling burgers and hot dogs Sunday, courtesy of The Free Press Newspapers.

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