This week, American history will come to life, and Vernon Hills will make its own history, when the town throws what village officials say is Lake County’s biggest, most spectacular Independence Day celebration of the season for America’s 220th birthday. The three-day festival is scheduled for July 4, 6 and 7, with fireworks, a parade, authentic re-enactments of Revolutionary War battles and an impeccably accurate re-creation of an 18th Century military encampment of the troops, both American and British, who fought against each other more than two centuries ago.
The driving force behind this complex event in which more than 400 people will participate is Shirley Pietrowiak, 53, volunteer chairwoman of the Vernon Hills July 4th Celebration Committee. She is an 18-year resident of Vernon Hills and a full-time records manager for a Chicago law firm.
“I hope our celebration makes people rethink community life and makes them more aware of their history and heritage–what we share, what brings us together,” Pietrowiak says.
The participation of so many volunteers, the enthusiastic community support and the focus on American history should do much to dispel any perceptions that Vernon Hills is a typically rootless suburban community because of its relative youth among older, more well-established communities, according to Pietrowiak.
For the Revolutionary War battlefield re-enactments, volunteers will play the roles of both Continental and British troops engaged in mortal combat. Drums will roll, fifes will whistle, and the smoke-filled air will crack with the sound of musket fire and the boom of cannons just as it did at the battles of Lexington and Concord.
“Putting this together was like putting on a Broadway show,” Pietrowiak says. “There are actors, backstage people, costumes, props, marketing and an audience.” She estimates that a combined total of at least 20,000 people will attend the three-day celebration.
Pietrowiak has been working on the Vernon Hills July 4th celebration since May 1995 with a volunteer crew that includes her husband, Ernest, a retired Glenview Police Department officer who acts as liaison between the committee and the Village of Vernon Hills. Sharing the seemingly endless work and responsibilities are Debra Rosenberg, committee co-chairwoman; Adele Odom, treasurer; and eight others. All are residents of Vernon Hills, and all feel a personal stake in the celebration.
“We want our community, especially our children, to remember that people actually fought and shed blood for our independence,” Rosenberg said.
Village Manager Larry Laschen agreed. “The celebration is for everyone,” he said, “but it’s aimed at young people. I encourage parents to bring children. Students learn about the Revolutionary War in school, but it’s hard to envision those times. Here in Vernon Hills the printed pages of their history books will come to life.”
The re-enactments were suggested by Odom.
“I saw this some years ago and was very impressed,” Odom said. “When we pitched the idea to the Village Board last October, we brought in music on tape and a uniformed Continental soldier who gave a presentation of arms with a musket. The board approved the idea immediately and unanimously.”
The village has contributed about $7,500 to the celebration, according to Laschen, to pay for fireworks, to subsidize the encampment and the parade, and for other expenses. Corporate, business and individual sponsors have also contributed money and services. Gate admissions and raffles will bring added revenue. Although total costs have not yet been tallied, Pietrowiak estimates expenses for the celebration at $10,000 to $12,000.
“There’s never been a July 4th celebration of this magnitude in Vernon Hills,” Laschen said. “People assume that the village puts it on, but the citizens committee does all the work. Shirley’s the mover and shaker behind it. She’s extremely dedicated and inspires the rest of the committee, which is small but does a tremendous amount of work.”
Their work will be reflected in a full and varied schedule of activities. Slated to begin at 9 a.m. July 4, the first day of the three-day celebration, is a parade with marching bands, floats, the Tippecanoe Ancient Fife and Drum Corps, the Voyageurs Fife and Drum Corps, Revolutionary War troops–both Continental and British in authentic uniforms–a horse troop, novelty characters, and what are described in a promotional brochure as “surprises.”
There also will be fireworks at 9 p.m. that day at Little Bear Lake.
The celebration will continue July 6 and 7, also at Little Bear Lake, with two full days of activities starting at 10 a.m. and highlighted both days by the reading of the Declaration of Independence, fife and drum corps performances, and mock Revolutionary War battles. A colors ceremony will conclude the celebration.
Among the participants in the re-enactment events is the Tippecanoe Ancient Fife and Drum Corps, an Indiana-based, 20-member group of volunteer musicians dressed in authentic handmade uniforms of the Revolutionary War era and directed by Malcolm Duncan of Lafayette, Ind., also a volunteer who works as a self-employed Internet designer.
“Our group plays 18th Century fife and drum music, including `Yankee Doodle,’ ” Duncan said. “This is the music that was played during the Revolutionary War. Fifes and drums are meticulously accurate reproductions of the originals, based on extensive research. We also run through King Louis XV of France’s arms drill. So everything we do re-creates the actual look and feel of that time and place.”
Another group of citizen volunteers–male and female members of The Northwest Territory Alliance–will stage battle re-enactments and live for two days in an encampment that accurately re-creates the primitive military camp life of 220 years ago. Every detail of the encampment will be accurate: There will be no electricity and no running water, food will be cooked over open fires, and the “wounded” will be treated in a medical wagon with authentic 18th Century medical tools.
The Northwest Territory Alliance is a not-for-profit educational organization, founded in 1975 to study and re-create the culture and arts of the American Revolution. The group’s 1,000 members are scattered throughout the original five states of the Northwest Alliance: Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio. There also is a unit in Iowa.
The approximately 200 participants of the Northwest Territory Alliance are organized into units representing actual military regiments, both Continental and British. Among them, portrayed in authentic dress, will be the types of people associated with the Revolution: Tories (colonials loyal to England), mercenaries, frontiersman, townsfolk, farmers, craftsmen and merchants and sailors from America, England, Germany and France.
Harold Dobberpuhl, 65, of Cedarburg, Wis., and county clerk of Ozaukee County, Wis., is adjutant of the Northwest Territory Alliance and sergeant of the 2nd Dragoons, one of the units participating in the re-enactments.
“Everything is scrupulously authentic and based on extensive research,” said Dobberpuhl, a scholar of the Revolutionary War era with a personal library of some 150 books on that period. “All uniforms must pass a rigorous inspection conducted twice yearly by the inspector general of the Northwest Territory Alliance. Muskets and cannons are exact reproductions of the originals.”
Besides Dobberpuhl’s passion for history, he described his involvement in the Northwest Territory Alliance since 1985 as “fun and greatly satisfying to share these experiences with the public.”
The impulse to share a common experience seems to be a particularly human motivation, and many of those who worked to produce the Vernon Hills July 4th celebration have expressed that desire.
Perhaps that’s why a public reading of America’s Declaration of Independence has been scheduled for the midpoint of each day’s festivities.
So, from Vernon Hills to America: Happy Birthday.
WHAT’S HAPPENING IN VERNON HILLS
Here’s the schedule of events for the Vernon Hills Independence Day celebrations. Entertainment, re-enactments, encampments and fireworks will be at Little Bear Lake, a block north of Illinois Highway 60 on Lakeview Parkway. Admission: $3 adults (18 and up), $2 children (6-17). Children under 6 free.
July 4
9 a.m.–Parade starts at Deerpath Drive (across from fire station, two blocks south of Illinois Highway 60), south to Sullivan Drive, west to Aspen Drive, north to T.G. Oakson School campus.
7 to 9 p.m.–Live music by R-Gang. For the children: Chuck-A-Roo the clown, with balloons and face painting.
9 to 9:30–Fireworks.
9:30 to 10–Closing music by R-Gang.
July 6
9:45 a.m.–Gates open.
10 a.m.–Opening colors ceremony.
10:30 a.m.–Voyageurs Fife & Drum Corps.
11 a.m.–Map review and battle re-enactment.
11:45 a.m.–Tippecanoe Ancient Fife & Drum Corps.
Noon–Military court-martial.
12:15 p.m.–18th Century Women’s fashion show.
12:45 p.m.–Parade of 18th Century military uniforms.
1:15 p.m.–18th Century competitions, including individual bayonet and tomahawk contests.
1:45 p.m.–Reading of the Declaration of Independence.
2 p.m.–Artillery demonstration.
3 p.m.–Tippecanoe Ancient Fife & Drum Corps.
4 p.m.–Battle re-enactment.
4:25 p.m.–Voyageurs Fife & Drum Corps.
4:30 p.m.–Trooping of the colors.
July 7
Same as July 6 with these exceptions:
Noon–18th Century widow’s wedding ceremony.
4:30 p.m.–Closing colors ceremony.
Food and beverages will be sold at concessions both days.
