by Mike Orso
When Milk Days officially begins in the northern McHenry County community of Harvard this Friday, June 5, it will mark the 85th year of what organizers call “the longest ongoing hometown festival in Illinois.”
What started as a one-day, WWII-era event to honor area dairy farmers and its industry sector that included more than a half-dozen companies in the area that processed milk, cheese and other dairy products, has since expanded to three days with some events that even took place last month.
“A lot of them don’t last five years,” said Mike Bannwolf, president and general chairman of the Harvard Milk Days (HMDs) board of directors, about other community festivals around the state and nation. “Our basis of operation starts with the farming industry, specifically dairy, and we just carried on a tradition since day one in 1942.”
This year’s theme recognizes the event’s more than eight decades along with our nation’s sestercentennial with the theme, “Celebrating USA 250 in Red, White and Moo.” It has marked the start of summer in the northern McHenry County town since its inception.
“Back then, you could watch it being put up from the schools,” said Lori Moller, board secretary and co-chair of the event’s 5K/10K Milk Run/Walk, about some of her favorite Milk Days memories. ”Nobody got any work done the last week of school because everyone was just watching the grounds go up.”
The three-day festival, June 5, 6, 7, has moved around town as both have grown. Milky Way Park, 300 Lawrence Rd., now hosts most activities and events.
“They used to set up right next to Jefferson School which is at the northern part of town not too far from the high school,” said Michele Bannwolf, board treasurer. “Teachers gave up because heads were turned. It’s the kickoff to the summer around here.”
In addition to the tried-and-true traditions of HMDs carnival midway, country breakfast, parade, milk drinking contest, community church service, dairy cattle show, milking demonstrations, classic rock closing band, fireworks and others, organizers hope a series of new attractions, many of them free, will excite and entertain visitors. They include a roving magic show, farm animal races, a kid bucks game show, water walking balls, and a night of professional wrestling, on Friday, June 5, by Fox Lake-based POWW Entertainment.
“In the board meetings we kind of threw out different ideas and this appealed to us,” said Mike Bannwolf. “We’re now trying to work out how to set up the wrestling arena in the tent. We’ll make it work.”
The event utilized the expansion of a dairy building at Milky Way Park last year for its junior dairy cattle show and additional improvements have been made.
“That’s because the dairy show was growing,” said Mike Bannwolf. “We want to keep accommodating it.”
This Saturday, June 6 will be all things milk, starting with the Milk Run/Walk at 8 a.m., Country Breakfast at 9 a.m., Milk Days Parade at 1 p.m., Milk Drinking Contest at 4 p.m., and Milking Contest at 5 p.m., featuring Michael Kelly, Harvard mayor and invited mayors from other nearby communities. On Sunday, June 7, the junior dairy cattle show takes place at noon.
Seven different milk processing companies once called Harvard and its surrounding area home. They included Baldwin Dairy, Borden, Bowman, Cold Spirit Creamery, Dean Milk Co., PMA Pure Milk, and Progressive Dairy. Edwardsville-based Prairie Farms Dairy, affiliated with the Illinois Farm Bureau, and which operates a dairy processing plant in Rockford, now serves as a major HMDs sponsor. It supplies thousands of cartons of milk given away during the event as well as other dairy products. Sauk Valley Bank of Harvard, another major sponsor, has helped spearhead renovation of the beloved, fiberglass Harmilda cow statue area at what is known as Five Points Park in Harvard. Improvements at the busy and highly visible intersection include a new mural, artificial turf, fresh stain on its split-rail fence and lighting.
“It will be done by this year’s event,” said Mike Bannwolf.
It’s free to venture throughout the alcohol-free HMDs grounds at Milky Way Park, but there is an $8 fee to utilize the parking area provided. The grounds offer such things as a 24-ride carnival midway, food court, cow chip lotto, petting zoo, chainsaw carver, milking demonstrations and much more. For a complete list of specific activities, dates and times, see the event’s website at https://milkdays.com/.
Harmilda (short for Harvard Milk Days), looms large over Milk Days moo-vers and shakers, left to right, Mike Bannwolf, HMD president and general chairman, Lori Moller, HMD board secretary, Michele Bannwolf, HMD board treasurer. The area, known as Five Points Park for its proximity to a busy intersection, has been recently refreshed.
Harvard Milk Days has honored area dairy farm families in the past. Here, the Alan and Gladys Ainger family of rural Harvard received the farm family of the year honors in 1980. Grandson Alan (not pictured), born in 1981, currently serves as treasurer of the McHenry County Farm Bureau. (photo courtesy of Harvard Milk Days)
When the U.S. celebrated its 200 birthday in 1976, Susan Ford, daughter of then President Gerald R. Ford and First Lady Betty Ford, tried her hand at milking. That year, she was honored as a Milk Days Parade grand marshal. (photo courtesy of Harvard Milk Days).