The City of Gillespie and Illinois Coal Museum at Gillespie will host a May Day celebration Saturday, May 1, to honor the local history of labor unions. The event will feature three main components: a street fair, museum grand re-opening and dedication of a historic marker at the former site of the Theatre Colonial. The event is sponsored by Mythic Mississippi Project, Illinois Route 66, Great Rivers and Routes, the Mother Jones Museum in Mt. Olive, and Grow Gillespie.
Grow Gillespie will kick off the street fair with a 5K run/walk at 9 a.m.; on-site registration and check-in will begin at 8:30 a.m. Participants may also register online in advance at growgillespie.org/currentevents. A virtual run option is available. Registration costs $25 per person, or $35 total if the runner also registers for Grow Gillespie’s Labor Day 5K at the same time.
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Street fair food vendors will open at 10 a.m. Confirmed at this time are Off the Wall Chef Service, Coal Country Sports Complex, United Methodist Church, Zion Lutheran Church, Downtown Beautification Committee, and Welfare Park Association.
The museum, which has been renovated to include a new floor plan and enhanced exhibits and displays, will be open for tours, guided or self-led, from 8:30 a.m. until 3 p.m. Kelly Hatlee will perform period songs off and on throughout the day. Two authors will give presentations on their work: at 9:30 a.m., Kevin Corley will give a labor overview from his books Sixteen Tons and Throw Out the Water and a gangster overview from 13 Steps and Moonshine Empire; and at 1:30 p.m., Harold Rauzi will discuss area coal mining history as featured in his book Coal Mines on the Prairie. A raffle will be held at 2 p.m., with the grand prize being a four-foot shuffleboard; other prizes will also be awarded.
The historic marker dedication will take place at the former location of the Theatre Colonial, now the site of Grow Gillespie’s Colonial Giving Garden, one block east of the museum at the intersection of Chestnut and Montgomery streets. Activities there will begin with a performance by Hatlee at 10:45 a.m., followed by the dedication at 11 a.m., with a welcome address by museum curator Dave Tucker, invocation and overview of the garden activities by Pastor Dane Solari of Trinity Baptist Church, a musical interlude by Wildflower Conspiracy, a Progressive Miners of America (PMA) overview by Dan Fisher, a PMA Women’s Auxiliary overview by Joann Condellone and Anna Pianfetti Eccher, another musical interlude by Wildflower Conspiracy, a discussion of the Mythic Mississippi Project by Helaine Silverman and Devon Hunter, a closing by Tucker, and exit music by Hatlee. Also making an appearance will be “Mother Jones” and “General Alexander Bradley.”
All activities will be compliant with current COVID-19 regulations, including social distancing. Masks will be required when not eating or drinking.
For additional information, visit gillespiecoalmuseum.org.
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