June 6, 2024
Dear editor;
Saturday, June 8, was another wonderful Greenfest. We had more than 70 vendors and almost a dozen green car show participants at the Prisco Center in Aurora, along with great music, robots, food trucks, and special performers, to make a whole day of fun and environmental education for our town and Fox Valley.
I want to thank Aurora, the Fox Valley, and surrounding area, for coming out to learn more about how to live sustainably and walk more gently on our beautiful planet.
I want to especially thank the Fox Valley Park District for helping us put on the Greenfest and for coming to our rescue by sending one of their trucks to bring us the Solar House, a little house on wheels that helps demonstrate the power of solar panels for every family.
My gratitude goes out to our great committee which put in the hours to make the 2024 Greenfest such a success. Our volunteer leaders included Deb Fisher, who kept our vendors happy and organized. Christina Campos recruited our small army of volunteers and our Special Species attractions. Tracey McFadden did a great job organizing the green car show, and Marissa Amoni of Marissa Bright Public Relations Event Management was a whirlwind of help for marketing and everything else that needed doing.
The Conservation Foundation has been our fiscal agent for all these 15 years, and we couldn’t do the Greenfest without its help and expert accounting skills. The members provided us with our 501c3 non-profit status. Thank you to our very generous sponsors, including Sierra Club of Illinois, the City of Aurora, ComEd, The Voice, Aurora Fastprint, and Progressive Business Solutions. We definitely couldn’t do the Greenfest without their generous support.
My most important and heartfelt thanks go out to you, the people of Aurora and the Fox Valley, who have supported us since 2010. Your enthusiasm and appreciation of what the Greenfest means to our region inspires us to keep going year after year. I always get a special feeling at the Greenfest. It’s that powerful energy that comes from bringing together so many environmental groups into one space. Everybody is caring about the Earth. Everybody is there doing its part to save endangered species, stop climate change, and bring more natural beauty into our world.
The future of the Greenfest is bright, thanks to all of our supporters. Stay tuned for our date for next year.
Mavis A. Bates, Founder and Chair, Aurora Greenfest; Kane County Board Member, District 4; chair of the Sierra Club, Valley of the Fox, Kane and Kendall Counties