The History of Promote Fox Lake
Promote Fox Lake was established in 2002 by the Village of Fox Lake. The original Board of Directors consisted of two members of the Chamber of Commerce, two members from the Village staff, two business owners and two residents at large.
There was no budget other than donations and occasional fundraising projects. The Mission was to enhance the area in anyway we felt would improve the business climate and inspire the residents to take pride in their town.
In 2013 a new Village administration felt that the Village should not have staff members serving as directors and the Chamber of Commerce merged with several neighboring Chambers and lost interest in the organization. The board decided that we would need to incorporate in order to move forward so, with $500 contributions from both the Village of Fox Lake and Grant Township, by-laws were drafted and Promote Fox Lake was registered with the State of Illinois and the Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) corporation in 2014.
Due to the good fortune of having two excellent gardeners on the board, the group began planting gardens around the downtown area, including the Lakefront Park, Millennium Park and at several entrance signs to the town.
In 2015, with a grant from the Mainstreet Association of Realtors and donations from other local Realtors, the group installed a sign, gardens and two seating areas at the Lakefront Park. The following year, grasses and trees were planted along Rollins Road in front of the shopping center that is the center of the business district.
For the next several years, gardening continued all over town. Planters by the Post Offices, Planters at Rt. 12 & Grand Avenue, an Adopt-a-Planter program with planters placed at 18 businesses in town.
The group supported organizers of the Earth Day Celebration starting in 2017 and planted a Wildflower Garden along the bike path and installed a Gazebo when the Village opened a Community Garden downtown in 2018.
