Calendar

Join us for a month-long celebration of new vegan dishes all over Bloomington! Businesses across the area will showcase exciting special vegan menu items, giving everyone the opportunity to explore creative plant-based dishes crafted by talented local chefs.

🗓 How It Works:
- Visit participating restaurants throughout Bloomington
- Try their exclusive vegan offerings.
- Share your experience—vote, comment, post photos of your favorite meals, and tag us at @veganchefchallengeMW
This event is open to everyone—not just vegans! It’s about bringing our community together to celebrate incredible food and support Bloomington chefs.

🙌 Get Involved:
Looking for ways to connect? Volunteer with us! We’re seeking passionate individuals to help with outreach, event promotion, and community building throughout the month. It's a great way to meet like-minded people and make a difference! Volunteer using this link: TinyURL.com/VOLVCC
Join us in making Bloomington an even more inclusive, vibrant, and compassionate community.
For details on participating businesses, menus, sponsorship opportunities, and more, visit our website at veganchefchallenge.org/Bloomington

Join us for a month-long celebration of new vegan dishes all over Bloomington! Businesses across the area will showcase exciting special vegan menu items, giving everyone the opportunity to explore creative plant-based dishes crafted by talented local chefs.

🗓 How It Works:
- Visit participating restaurants throughout Bloomington
- Try their exclusive vegan offerings.
- Share your experience—vote, comment, post photos of your favorite meals, and tag us at @veganchefchallengeMW
This event is open to everyone—not just vegans! It’s about bringing our community together to celebrate incredible food and support Bloomington chefs.

🙌 Get Involved:
Looking for ways to connect? Volunteer with us! We’re seeking passionate individuals to help with outreach, event promotion, and community building throughout the month. It's a great way to meet like-minded people and make a difference! Volunteer using this link: TinyURL.com/VOLVCC
Join us in making Bloomington an even more inclusive, vibrant, and compassionate community.
For details on participating businesses, menus, sponsorship opportunities, and more, visit our website at veganchefchallenge.org/Bloomington

North America's largest interactive comedy murder mystery dinner theatre show is now playing in Springfield, IL! Solve a hilarious true crime murder mystery while you feast on a fantastic dinner. Just beware! The culprit is hiding in plain sight somewhere in the room, and you may find yourself as a Prime Suspect before you know it!

Join us for an event that is very different from a traditional mystery dinner show. Our actors are not dressed in costume and are hidden in the audience! This results in a fun, social and interactive evening suitable for all adults.

Each ticket includes our signature award-winning mystery dinner theatre show, along with a full plated dinner, waitstaff gratuity, and plenty of surprises during the show.

Join us for a month-long celebration of new vegan dishes all over Bloomington! Businesses across the area will showcase exciting special vegan menu items, giving everyone the opportunity to explore creative plant-based dishes crafted by talented local chefs.

🗓 How It Works:
- Visit participating restaurants throughout Bloomington
- Try their exclusive vegan offerings.
- Share your experience—vote, comment, post photos of your favorite meals, and tag us at @veganchefchallengeMW
This event is open to everyone—not just vegans! It’s about bringing our community together to celebrate incredible food and support Bloomington chefs.

🙌 Get Involved:
Looking for ways to connect? Volunteer with us! We’re seeking passionate individuals to help with outreach, event promotion, and community building throughout the month. It's a great way to meet like-minded people and make a difference! Volunteer using this link: TinyURL.com/VOLVCC
Join us in making Bloomington an even more inclusive, vibrant, and compassionate community.
For details on participating businesses, menus, sponsorship opportunities, and more, visit our website at veganchefchallenge.org/Bloomington

GRIEFSHARE grief recovery and support group will meet at the Parish Hall at Trinity Lutheran School, 515 S. MacArthur Blvd., Springfield. The fall session will begin on Tuesday, September 2, 2025 from 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm and meets weekly for 13 weeks. GriefShare features nationally recognized experts on grief recovery topics including "Is This Normal?," "The Challenges of Grief," "Grief and Your Relationships," "Why," and "Guilt and Anger." Thanks to a grant from Thrivent Financial, the workbook fees for this session will be waived.
This event is free and open to the public, but pre-registration is required to ensure there are enough materials for everyone.
For more information or to pre-register, please call 217.899.9418 or register at trinitygriefshare@yahoo.com.

French for "the ephemeral" or "the fleeting," "L'Éphémère" presents a series of paintings that hover between presence and absence. "L'Éphémère" is a meditation on transience. These paintings ask us to pause and reflect on the shifting nature of beauty and perception. These are paints to linger with. In a time when so much feels uncertain, Schwartz's work offers a quiet and beautiful space for reflection.
For a Campus Map and Visitor Parking Information, visit our website.

Peoples National Bank of Springfield was referred to as the first integrated bank in downstate Illinois. Dr. Edwin A. Lee, Sr. and E. Winfred "Doc" Helm created it in 1970 to serve African Americans on the east side of Springfield, who were often financially discriminated against. It operated for decades at 2136 E. Cook St., with the motto "where people make the difference". They employed African Americans at all levels and offered checking and savings accounts, loans, stocks, and drive-thru services. Created by Mary Frances, director of the nonprofit Untold Histories, this exhibit includes black-and-white photos from the 1970s, architectural plans, telephone directory advertisements, artifacts, newspaper articles, certificates, awards, letters, and oral histories by Edwin A. Lee, Jr., Beverly Helm-Renfro, Jon Gray Noll, and Carmen Turner McCombs. The exhibit runs for two months.

On Saturday, September 6th, kids will get the experience of a lifetime . . . a chance to ride and operate heavy construction equipment! The event runs from 10:00 am until 4:00 pm at the McLean County Fairgrounds in Bloomington.

In 20 years, more than 12,000 kids have attended this one-of-a-kind event here in Illinois! On this day, the kids will be in the driver's seat and actually drive dozers, excavators, and other heavy equipment with a professional operator at their side.

Additional farming, construction, trucking, and Emergency vehicles will be on exhibit, plus the world's largest sandbox and other kid friendly activities. Food, refreshments, and souvenirs will be available. It's a great day for good dirty fun!

Join us for our summer discussion series, "Who's on First?": What's Up with the First Amendment? Each week we'll focus on one of the freedoms enumerated in the Constitution. We'll talk about various Supreme Court decisions and the different ways these rights have been interpreted, in the past and in the present. We'll hash them out for ourselves, and decide what the Supreme Court got right and what they got wrong. Level up your citizenship game with us at Lincoln Library.
*The August event will be on the third Tuesday of the month, August 19th.*

GRIEFSHARE grief recovery and support group will meet at the Parish Hall at Trinity Lutheran School, 515 S. MacArthur Blvd., Springfield. The fall session will begin on Tuesday, September 2, 2025 from 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm and meets weekly for 13 weeks. GriefShare features nationally recognized experts on grief recovery topics including "Is This Normal?," "The Challenges of Grief," "Grief and Your Relationships," "Why," and "Guilt and Anger." Thanks to a grant from Thrivent Financial, the workbook fees for this session will be waived.
This event is free and open to the public, but pre-registration is required to ensure there are enough materials for everyone.
For more information or to pre-register, please call 217.899.9418 or register at trinitygriefshare@yahoo.com.