Gather your group and have fun planning your floats, boats, golf carts or whatever your entry may be for this year’s Rend Lake Water Festival Parade.  It’s sure to be a day filled with fun and sunshine!  This year’s parade will be on Saturday May 6th, 2023 

This year's theme is "A tribute to George Harrison" so drag out your tie-dye, grab your headbands, and let's get groovy. 


 
We will again have registration in the parking lot of the Antique Auto Museum (211 N. Main St. - one block NORTH of the Benton Public Square) from 8:00 am – 9:30 am and line up on West Washington Street, as in past years. 

Pre-Registration Deadline: May 1st, 2023 - $15 / Car

Pre-Registration Includes:  Waterfestival T-shirt, 

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DRINKS

Tea, Coffee, and Water
Specialty Drinks available for purchase 

EVENT AGENDA:
Welcome from Chamber Leadership
A few words from our Sponsor
Jon Musgrave
Quick update from the Chamber Executive Director


Chamber Change 50/50 Drawing: The winning ball was not drawn in April so the pot will start at $187.50
 Proceeds will go to the Promotions Account so that we can continue to help provide and promote special events for the community. 
 

MEET THE SPEAKER: Jon Musgrave,

His first major book focused on the Reverse Underground Railroad at an antebellum plantation home commonly known as the Old Slave House outside Equality, Illinois. Despite it's notoriety as one of the county's most haunted houses, it came as a surprise eight months into the research when he discovered the home's original builder had married one of his great-great-great-great aunts, and allegedly one of the souls that haunt there.

His research into slavery in the Land of Lincoln led to his appointment to the Illinois Amistad Commission. Established by state lawmakers in part to focus on ways schools can better include the history and achievements of African-Americans in the school curriculum, he's served both as chairman and vice-chairman of the commission.

His hometown of Marion, Illinois, is the county seat of Bloody Williamson county which earned its name after a vendetta in the 1870s and the violent decade of the 1920s during Prohibition which saw a mine massacre, a war between gangsters and the Ku Klux Klan, and finally a gang war between Charlie Birger's gang on one side and the Shelton Brothers' gang on the other.

In 2013, IllinoisHistory.com published his book on the Shelton Brothers co-authored by a one of the granddaughters who didn't know her family history until her father came out of surgery incoherent and talked three days about shootouts and being kidnapped before finally becoming lucid on the fourth.

Musgrave's interest in films has led to uncredited roles as extras in two feature films and a one-time gig chauffeuring the star rattlesnake for a third. He hopes in the future to focus film-wise instead on mining his region's history for dramatic tales of adventure and suspense rather than the reptile kind in the backseat.

- IMDb Mini Biography By: Anonymous

                                                                                                                                                                                                                        
 Housekeeping Note:
If your plans change and you can't attend, please call the office by Tuesday, May 2, 2023. We encourage you to send a co-worker to represent your organization and network, otherwise you will be billed for your lunch. (Our catering numbers are calculated & finalized according to event registration.)