ISLAND PARK VILLAGE HALL — THE LEGACY

            Island Park Village Hall Memory

contributor – Doug Divine

I remember my dad Jimmy Divine who was a volunteer on the Island Park Fire Department. He spent MANY hours at the "Fire Barn" AKA: Island Park Village Hall, working on equipment and working on the Hall itself & surrounding area as that is where the road equipment for maintaining the Island was also located.  About 20 or 30 firemen and their wives (Women's Auxiliary) were volunteers and did other jobs to keep the Island running. All were volunteer jobs.

The Village Hall and its volunteers were the heartbeat of the Island and kept everything and anything running. The Village Hall was the hub of all that went on: meetings, social events, Island news. That Hall helped raise "ALL" the money they needed to run everything required to be working on the Island. It was the place where all the ideas were discussed and brought forth. Believe me, they worked "TOGETHER" with what they had or could scrounge up and came up with ways to make money that would make anyone 

think they were geniuses.They built a complete arena for what they called the Firemen Field Days every year. They collected donations from whatever they could, promoted dances, water ball fights, and parades, and participated in every other fire department's doings. The Village Hall was where they held church, Cub & Boy Scout meetings, paper drives, remembrances on Holidays & other dedications. The whole Island came for Halloween & Christmas parties, all run by the firemen & spouses.

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Each member of the fire dept took upon themselves to offer help to anyone, AND they all had families & other jobs. They were the most dedicated group of people I have ever met; to each other & everyone else. They worked on the Island roads and drove school buses. They volunteered their time to be constables & civic leaders, Treasurers & Island Clerks, etc. I think every one of them had kids.
I can't remember how old the Village Hall was when all this took place, but it was already old, and they had it working & looking good and never outsourced any work that had to be done on it; they did it all on their own. I think, when The Island merged with Mound, the Village Hall got left out.

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