Our guest contributor this week is Pat Barch, the Hoffman Estates Historian. This column originally appeared in the June 2021 issue of the Hoffman Estates Citizen, the village's newsletter. The column appears here, courtesy of the Village of Hoffman Estates.

Proudly positioned along the curved driveway into the village hall are signs that many of you have never really read unless you slow down to almost a crawl as you head to the parking lot. If you do manage to read them, do you know what they represent? There are five of them. The oldest one dates back to 1989 with the others dated 1993, 2000, 2003 and 2012.

These signs represent Governor's Home Town Awards. The award was established in 1983 to give formal recognition to those who contribute to projects that improve their community's quality of life. A 40 member bipartisan board studies the projects submitted and makes their decision each spring.

Representatives of Illinois townships, villages, cities and counties are eligible to apply. That's a lot of competition when you consider how many projects are submitted to the 40 member board. One of the sponsors is Serve Illinois Commission on Volunteerism and Community Service. These are highly coveted awards that bring much pride to the winners and their community.

The first Governor's Home Town Award came to Hoffman Estates in 1989 for the work done on planning and building the beautiful Veteran's Memorial that originally was at the northwest corner of Golf and Gannon Rds. When the village hall was moved and demolished, the memorial was moved to the north side of the Police Headquarters building on Higgins Road and Spring Mill Drive. 

Our second award came in 1993 for the rehab work done on our original village hall on Illinois Boulevard to provide a home for the Children's Advocacy Center.  Many local tradesman and trade unions came together to do the work. 

In 2000 we won the award for the Arts Commission's Summer Concert Series held in the Virginia Mary Hayter Park. It was free to all who came with a blanket or lawn chair to enjoy an evening of music.

Our fourth Governor's Home Town Award was won in 2003 for the Arts Commission's beautifully presented Quilt Show that brought together lovely quilts from many area quilters.

The fifth and our last award came about in 2012 for the Community Resource Center that was a partnership with School District 54 as well as with input from the Schaumburg Township District Library. It was located in one of the apartments along Salem Drive. Many of the community resources provided parenting classes, family health, and dental health provided by the Harper Community College dental students 

Over the years, these signs lined up along the road like Burma Shave ads (are you old enough to remember them?) tell a story of what a wonderful community we live in. The tremendous efforts that went into winning the Governor's Home Town Awards include hours, days, weeks and months of record keeping, planning, commitment and preparation of the documentation needed to apply for the award.  Thank you to all who were a part of winning these awards for our Village of Hoffman Estates. 

Pat Barch, Hoffman Estates Village Historian  
eagle2064@comcast.net

Credit to businessyab.com for the photo of the Virginia Mary Hayter Village Green.