Walker's Grove 20th Anniversary Carnival Postponed

Update: According to the Walker's Grove PTA, the event has been cancelled due to the inclement weather and Friday's school closure. It has been rescheduled for May 3.

Original story:

Twenty years ago, community members pitched in to help a brand-new Plainfield elementary school open.

Now, as Walker’s Grove Elementary celebrates its 20^th anniversary, the school is inviting its students, past and present, and community members to help celebrate the milestone.

The school’s PTO will host its annual Family Fun Carnival in celebration of the anniversary from 5:30 to 8 p.m. Friday, April 19. The event will include building tours, games, food, train rides and more.

Before the boom

When Walker’s Grove Elementary School first opened in 1993, it became the first new school built in the district just before the boom years of the 1990s and early 2000s really got under way.

“We were the first new building in the district after the tornado,” said first-grade teacher Ann-Marie Peters, who has been with Walker’s Grove since those early days.

Unlike other Plainfield elementary schools, Walker’s Grove initially served not just K-5 students, but also sixth-graders. And the school’s first teachers didn’t have all the amenities most District 202 staffers did.

When the 1992-93 school year started, construction on the brand-new school wasn’t finished, school secretary Linda Woodruff said.

“We had two of every class in [mobile units],” she said. The mobile classrooms were parked outside of Indian Trail Middle School. Grades K-3 held classes in the mobiles, Woodruff said, while grades 4-6 were taught in borrowed space inside Indian Trail.

“That was difficult during dismissal,” she remembered, saying staff had to relay the message to Walker’s Grove staff inside the building that it was time to dismiss students.

“I remember taking kids into the library [at Indian Trail], and it was winter,” Peters said, adding she'd have to help kids get their coats and boots on to make the trek into the school.

Walker's Grove operated out of the trailers from September through December 1992. Finally, in January 1993, moving day came.

“People came and helped with the move and helped put the desks together,” Peters remembered. The building itself wasn’t the only part of Walker’s Grove that was a community effort.

“The original playground was community built,” Peters added.

“All the kids helped,” Woodruff said. “My daughter came and helped by soaping nails” for the wooden playground equipment.

The building was unique to District 202 not only in its floorplan, but also due to the fact that it’s the only one where the different wings are identified by the names of continents — North America, Asia, Antarctica, Europe and the library, which is known as Australia.

Teachers also got to choose a destination name for their classrooms.

“Each class is labeled with a place,” second-grade teacher Kala Sweeney said. The place names are reflected in murals painted by fourth-grade art students.

The campus was named after James Walker, who established a sawmill and started a log cabin community along the banks of the DuPage River in the early 1830s. Other settlers soon followed, and the area became known as Walker’s Grove. A log from Walker’s sawmill is on display in the school lobby.

When the school was built, not much else filled the stretch of 135^th Street. “This was all cornfields,” learning resource director Pam Jackson said.

“I lived in the city and when I came back in the fall and I drove down 135^th Street, it was cornfields all the way down,” Peters said, adding with a laugh, “There weren’t many places to go to lunch.”

Anniversary carnival

The public — particularly Walker’s Grove alumni and community members involved with the school’s early days — is invited to the April 19 event.

Assistant Principal Robert Battey said the school’s fifth-grade service club will host building tours for guests who’d like to see their former classrooms.

Activities include inflatables, courtesy of the C.W. Avery Family YMCA, along with a DJ, photo booth and magician. Kids can also take rides on Little Obie, a scale model of a CN locomotive provided by Canadian National.

 Guests can also purchase food from vendors including Papa Murphy’s Pizza, Flirty Cupcakes, Cathy’s Sweet Creations and Mix It Up smoothies. Girl Scout Troop 998 will also be on hand selling pop, water and lemonade.

Battey said the festivities will take place in the school’s back parking lot. Because parking is limited, guests are encouraged to park in the neighborhood and walk to the school.

As part of the anniversary celebration, school officials will open the Walker’s Grove time capsule, which contains items from the school’s opening and the 10^th anniversary. Guests can see what items have been stored there for posterity.

“Our fifth-graders will re-fill the time capsule for the 20^th anniversary,” Battey said.