 Wanda
Lee Rohlfs, director of Main Street Lincoln,
led off the evening with a PowerPoint
presentation that included the mission
statement of Lincoln's Main Street
organization, which includes the whole of
Logan County Her presentation was entitled
"Revitalization & Heritage, A Firm
Foundation."
Lincoln Mayor Keith Snyder spoke of the
importance of the downtown to the city and
led the gathering in the Pledge of
Allegiance.
Roger Matson, president of Main Street
Lincoln, made several business recognition
awards, reading off a list of Lincoln
businesses that have been ongoing for 50
years or more.
The five businesses honored for having
more than 100 years on the square were State
Bank of Lincoln, Logan County Title, Lincoln
Public Library District, Alexander Lumber
Co., and Miller and Miller.
A list of the remainder of Logan County's
oldest businesses will be compiled for next
year's event. For example, Farmers Bank of
Mount Pulaski was founded in 1872, making it
the oldest ongoing business in Logan County
at 138 years.
Volunteer of the Year was Valorie Carder
and Joan Graue was recognized as Partner of
the Year.
The featured speaker for the evening was
Hal Smith, director of the Looking for
Lincoln Heritage Coalition of Illinois.
Smith once served as a senior staff adviser
for Charles H. Percy, who was senior senator
from Illinois and chairman of the Foreign
Relations Committee. More recently Smith
worked for 20 years as a marketing executive
in the private sector for global gaming and
entertainment companies, doing business
around the world.
Smith spoke of the immense importance of
Logan County's contribution toward the
education and character-building of young
Abraham Lincoln, whom the world and our
nation know as American's 16th president but
whom central Illinois and especially
Sangamon and Logan counties know as their
favorite son, who learned his way as a young
lawyer and surveyor among them. This story
has been, is now and needs to continue to be
told and more so, said Smith.
Smith also spoke about Lincoln's belief
in justice for all, his inherent distaste
for slavery, and his strong conviction that
a man should be taken for his values and
ideas and not shut out or put down for his
race or religion. In referring to the
election f Barack Obama, our nation's first
African-American president, that whatever
your politics may be, you have got to
appreciate this coming of age in the United
States of America and that Mr. Lincoln would
have been so proud to have witnessed - that
which has occurred in and from of his
beloved State of Illinois.
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Last year a congressional grant, backed
by Sen. Richard Durbin, to the Looking for
Lincoln Heritage Coalition of Illinois has
resulted in over 200 signs installed in many
communities in Illinois where Mr. Lincoln
worked as a young businessman, surveyor and
lawyer and where he made speeches.
In regard to Logan County, Smith
mentioned Looking for Lincoln heritage
signage that was installed in Atlanta,
Elkhart, Lincoln, Middletown and Mount
Pulaski. This required much work on the part
of volunteers who helped write the messages
and provide photos for these signs as well
as conducting the fundraising to make them
possible. These signs were not free to the
communities -- they required matching funds
to be raised locally. Many of the volunteers
were on hand to be recognized for their
efforts.
Smith talked of how the spectacular
Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum in
Springfield helps to get all of the Abraham
Lincoln sites ever more recognized -- such
as in Mount Pulaski, Elkhart, Middletown,
Atlanta and the city of Lincoln.
In addition to Smith's speech, there were
drawings for door prizes, which were
dining-for-two fares donated by Guzzardo's
Italian Villa, Chi-town Dogs, First Wok,
Hallie's on the Square and Owl's Roost.
Les Richert gave the invocation and
benediction.
[Text from
file received from Phil Bertoni]
(Main
Street Lincoln)
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