St. Charles History Museum debuts 50-50 raffle

A good idea to raise community support can come from anywhere, even a small town like Amboy in neighboring Lee County with its population of roughly 2,300.

That's where Alison Costanzo, executive director of the St. Charles History Museum, first heard of a popular communitywide raffle to raise money.

She's taken that idea and running with it for the St. Charles History Museum's annual raffle, converting it this year to a 50-50 raffle and giving it a much larger presence in the area with retail partners and the Tri-Cities Exchange Club.

In the past, the museum raffle resulted in three winners getting $1,000 gifts. This time, it's a straight 50-50 share for a far bigger prize.

"Amboy has a huge community raffle every year, and their payout to the winner was $137,000," Costanzo said. "Though we're not at that scale, the hope is that we can get everyone on board with that kind of raffle.

"But we couldn't do it on our own. We want it to be community-based," she added.

The museum's goal is to raise $40,000 and split that pot with the raffle winner, and then share the other $20,000 with the Tri-Cities Exchange Club.

"We have similar goals as the Exchange Club," Costanzo said. "They concentrate on supporting families through prevention of child abuse and supporting patriotism and community projects, and we like to emphasize activities for families through our programs."

Cost for a raffle ticket is only $5, or half of what it used to cost. But only 8,000 tickets are being sold to set up a $40,000 pot to split with the winner, who will be revealed at the museum's summer Foodie Fest in late June.

Blue Goose, Abby's Kitchen, Paragon Flowers, Two Wild Seeds bakery, Exchange Club members and others are helping by selling tickets.

"It's a little different than what we've done before, so we are hoping it can be successful," Costanzo said.

Real estate trend:

The large billboard at the corner of Campbell and Fourth streets in Geneva touts "Campbell Row Townhomes" as the newest entry into that historic part of the city.

It's been a significant makeover in that part of town already, with a few new homes a block west on the property of the late Merritt King.

The overall facelift can expect more fuel if voters give Geneva Library the green light to build a new facility at Seventh Street.

Campbell Row has recently been approved by the city, and the site will have five new luxury townhouses.

One was already sold as of last week, according to Tamara O'Connor, owner of Premier Living Properties, the real estate firm selling the units for developer Bob Rasmussen's Midwest Custom Homes.

These townhouses will be ready in November or December, but it's only the tip of the iceberg in what is a fairly hot trend, said O'Connor, who operates Premier along with her daughter Amanda.

"We are also selling Park Place of Geneva near Wheeler Park, and we still have 10 units left in that location," she said. "That's been a very popular project."

Another looming project is along First Street in St. Charles, where her company will be selling townhouses in the Sterling building on the east side of the street. That project is a five-story building with underground parking and units ranging from 2,000 to 3,000 square feet.

"It's the biggest moving segment right now because many people are leaving their bigger homes and, unfortunately, going to other states, but they may still need a presence here," O'Connor said.

Regardless of the underlying reasons, it is apparent nice townhouses are popping up in the region.

Some more tea:

It would be something to say that not long after I mentioned the Afternoon Tea on Thursday and Saturday afternoons at Little Traveler, owner Mike Simon declared those teas would take place Monday through Saturday because of the high level of interest it generated.

But that would be an "alternate fact." The truth on this one is that Simon had increased the number of days for the afternoon teas after the first of year because it has become increasingly popular. And I made my original mention after glancing at the previous schedule.

Sounds like a case of "the more tea, the merrier."

Chili kings:

Chili apparently made its gastric debut as a popular dish for cowboys working the rugged Texas trails in the 1850s. But did we know that our state lawmakers declared Springfield the "Chili Capital of the Civilized World" in 1993?

It's hard to imagine the current state legislature could even agree on that sort of declaration, but the point is our state capital was the home to all sorts of chili parlors and chili canners, sending out more than four million cans per year.

And we bring this up because Thursday is National Chili Day - if anyone wants to be sure to have chili this week.

Thanks to the Kane County Farm Bureau for supplying that information, especially when it was right in the middle of organizing its own Chili Day Cook-off contest in support of its educational foundation.

Yet another tenant:

It's getting fairly difficult to keep track of the restaurants that have done business at 207 S. Third St. in Geneva in what remains a prime spot with great outdoor seating and a nice overall indoor setting.

Most recently, it was Rascals Tavern and Grill. It will soon become Livia, an Italian restaurant coming from the owners of Gia Mia, which is located north of State Street on Third.

Rascals had some loyal followers. They've told me as much, and I enjoyed the meatball sandwiches and thin crust pizza I have had at Rascals in the past.

But it's hard to imagine anything wrong with Livia taking over that spot. Sure, it's right next to Chianti's, one of Geneva's fine dining spots, but two similar fares next to each other hasn't bothered Chianti in the past.

Let's not forget that Chianti started its Geneva tenure in that same spot before deciding to move a storefront north. A place called Gratto Italian Tapas was there for some time before Rascals settled in.

dheun@sbcglobal.net