The crowds and the crafters have gone home. The streets are quiet. The Frankfort Fall Festival is a pleasant memory. And for the volunteers who organize the annual Labor Day event, the cycle begins again.
Among the 50 or more committee members gearing up for next year’s festival are Ernie Hinrichs and Kim Belange.
“This is our world,” says Hinrichs, owner of Ye Olde Sign Shoppe Ltd. in New Lenox. Belange is an artist and owner of Belange Paintings. Her murals can be seen in Frankfort at The Trolley Barn, Chef Klaus’ Steak and Seafood Restaurant and The Courtyard Bistro, as well as in other southwest suburban businesses and private homes. Hinrichs and Belange maintain a condominium in Frankfort and a home in Schererville, Ind.
When asked what their favorite festival job is, they agree that it’s mingling with the crowd.
“I love to be with the people,” Hinrichs says. “You can feel the happiness. And it’s great when you can help someone — an exhibitor straighten out a problem or a visitor find the bratwurst booth.”
The festival committee members are easily recognizable with their bright yellow Fall Festival shirts bearing the event’s official logo, designed by Belange five years ago.
“Our committee members smile a lot and offer reassurance with, `OK, we’ll take care of that,’ ” Hinrichs says. “It makes for a better festival. We have a good reputation here. We get top-notch crafters and artists because they know they’ll have good support services and a crowd that comes here to spend money.”
Hinrichs and Belange are part of a team of Frankfort Chamber of Commerce members who work all year long to make the festival happen. In the process, they make new friends, strengthen old friendships and whet their appetite for yet another year’s involvement.
“I look forward to the festival. It’s a party,” Belange says.
“Working on the festival is a great part of being in small-town America,” Hinrichs says. “You build a rapport with the other volunteers. We socialize and meet throughout the year. You pretty much think Fall Festival all year. We’re always planning.”
For Bob Kennedy, co-chairman of the festival and president of the Frankfort Chamber of Commerce, which sponsors the annual event, “The festival has a barn-raising mentality. People come to help. They’ll be the first to arrive and the last to leave. The group benefits. It’s a win-win situation on every front.”
The early history of the festival is sketchy. According to Lynne Doogan, the chamber’s executive director, it evolved in the 1950s from a church’s Sauerkraut Days. In the ’60s, craft exhibits became a part of the event, and by the ’70s it was really rolling as a festival. This year an estimated 200,000 visitors attended the three-day event, which featured about 300 artists, crafters and antiques dealers from 24 states, as well as food vendors and a parade. The festival was rated one of the top 200 festivals in the country in 1997 in a poll taken by Sunshine Artist, a show and festival guide.
In the two decades Hinrichs has volunteered, he has chaired or worked on most of the 10 committees that form the organizational base for the festival.
“I’ve always just hung in there and been a part of it. I’ll work whenever and wherever I’m needed,” Hinrichs says.
Those jobs have ranged from the physical space committee, where, armed with tape measure and duct tape, he has marked out exhibitor areas, to the sanitation committee, for which he has recruited organizations for cleanup and pitched in when necessary.
The only jobs he hasn’t held are general chairman or co-chairman of the festival. He admits he would have to say no to those two jobs “because, ” he says, “I couldn’t do it justice with my work at the sign shop.”
It takes 40 to 50 individuals to fill the committee positions and attend meetings throughout the year. “These volunteers pull in another 40 to 50 volunteers from their own circle of friends, neighbors and business associates,” Hinrichs explains.
“Working on the festival is a lot of fun, but it has to be run as a business,” Hinrichs adds. “We know what works.”
Like clockwork, the general chairmen, committee chairs and chamber staff assume their duties. When a festival is over, they begin on the next one with an organizational meeting in late September. In February, they write to crafters and artists, whose slides or photographs of entries are due in April. With an average of 1,000 entries, the exhibit committee makes its choices, and by May acceptance notifications are sent out.
Tapping the talents of volunteers contributes to the event’s success. An artist who once did an average of 27 shows per year, Belange has a sense for placement of booths and often serves as a judge and juror for fine arts entries. This year, the logo she designed was included on license plates as well as T-shirts, sweatshirts and the official festival flags. In the spring, the logo was given honorable mention among 1,000 entries from Canada and the United States in the Chamber Network Executive Newsletter.
The high rate of return workers and the interest of new workers contribute to the success of the annual event. “It’s been years of putting it together, helping each other, trading jobs and welcoming the new person and getting them involved,” Belange says, “Sometimes, people will drop out, but they’ll come back.”
Bill Burnette, a nine-year festival volunteer and two-time general chairman, says: “Volunteers are the heart and soul of every community. Kim and Ernie epitomize what volunteers really are.”
Kennedy agrees. “When you have someone like Ernie, who can draw on past committee and chamber experience, it’s a plus,” he says. “He and Kim are pulled in so many directions, and they always find time for the chamber. They motivate others by their example.”
Chambers of commerce figure strongly in Hinrichs’ life. He belongs to the Frankfort and Mokena chambers and is the president of the New Lenox chamber. More than 20 years ago, Hinrichs first became involved in village government and the festival. He took to heart one piece of advice from then-Mayor Glen Warning: “What we do now will have an effect in 20 years. Right now, we’re being influenced by the decisions and planning that took place 20 years ago.”
Being a part of the forces that shape the community is second nature for both Hinrichs and Belange. Looking to the future of the festival and the community, Hinrichs says, “We hope to retain the small-town atmosphere. We want Frankfort to be a place where people feel that they’ve come home. To think, `This is my town,’ is a nice feeling.”
