SWAN-Elgin

Last October, SWAN received a grant of $1000 from the YMCA  Activate Elgin Program and a grant from the America the Beautiful Fund to provide free vegetable and flower seeds. The YMCA grant will be used to provide $50 to 20 homes in SWAN. The money must be spent on gardening materials or equipment. To obtain this grant you must complete an application. Recipients will be determined and notified by April 18^th. If you receive the grant, you must purchase your garden materials or equipment and submit the receipt to SWAN for reimbursement.

Anybody that is interested in obtaining free seeds may do so by requesting them on the application or by contacting Mike Curtin. There are plenty of seeds for everyone.  Please take advantage of this unique opportunity.

If you are looking for cost-effective garden ideas to enhance the look of your property, consider the various packages offered by the Kane-Dupage Soil & Water Conservation District.  This organization offers a butterfly package, a humming bird package, and a rain garden package for only $62 per package.  The last day to order these packages is April 30^th.  If you are fortunate enough to receive a YMCA grant, then the cost of these packages to the homeowner is only $12.

We also need volunteers to help plant trees on Saturday April 17th.  We will be planting between 1500-2000 trees in Burnidge Woods and need 20-30 volunteers. Again, contact Mike Curtin at michaelcurtin31@gmail.com if you’re interested.

Once again, May will be Preservation Month in Elgin. SWAN will be hosting our first-ever Bungalow Walk on May 15, and there will be many other activities throughout the city, including:

More details will be available in the coming weeks.

To get involved with SWAN’s Bungalow Walk, contact Pat Hill.

By Harry Hitzeman | Daily Herald Staff

Last year, volunteers at the United Way of Elgin helped package and sort some 2,000 moving boxes filled with food for local pantries as part of the agency’s “Day of Caring.”

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Hello fellow SWAN members.

We need volunteers to help the enviromental committee with the event they are holding at Zion Lutheran Church from 8am – 11am in the parking lot.

Any amount of time you could help out would be greatly appreciated.

An elderly woman died a few days ago and when the emergency response team arrived, they found a house full of “horded” materials. The Code Department was notified and they were asked if they would call a “Code Blue”. That allows volunteers to help clean out the house and it avoids a code violation/citation. The Code Department agreed to allow for volunteers to clean out the house.

Volunteers are needed on 8/7, from 8 am to 4 pm, and 8/8, from 9 am to 5 pm. The address is 325 Walnut Avenue. The woman’s daughter will be there to help sort the good from the bad and a dumpster will be on site for disposing of the trash. If you can spare an hour or two, it would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

On another note AMidwest Boardup has covered the cost of the dumpster and Elgin Toyota has donated 3 cases of water for the volunteers.

Perhaps some SWAN members might be interested in volunteering for some of these positions,  I was a docent for at least 20 years and it is a lot of fun.  Promoting historic houses in any neighborhood promotes them in our neighborhood, as well.                      – Pat Hill

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