A handful of the 33 inductees participated in the December 15 unveiling of the Elmhurst Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ECCI) Centennial Celebration NFP’s Civic Hall of Fame public memorial held at the Elmhurst Public Library.

“I want to thank the donors, a number of whom are here today, whose generosity made this form of high-tech memorial possible,” said John R. Quigley, ECCI President and CEO since 1999, and President of the Centennial Celebration NFP Board of Directors.

The public memorial features a portable TouchPros Touch Wall interactive, touch-screen TV monitor (65 inches) on which users can view biographies, photographs and video clips of each of the inductees, and will “travel” around Elmhurst before finding its final home.

The Civic HOF website went live last September as part of ECCI’s Annual Chamber of Commerce Month celebrations.

“While not all of the videos and photos have been uploaded to date,” said Quigley, “we expect to accomplish that mission by next April.”

Since its creation in 1992—then as part of the Opening Ceremonies at the Elmfest community festival—the Civic HOF has welcomed 33 businesspeople, community volunteers and elected officials.  Since Elmfest’s finale in 2009, inductees have been honored at ECCI’s Annual Awards Gala in all but one of those years.

Civic HOF attendees included Willis Johnson (2002) of the York Theatre, Pete Cruger (2012) of the Elmhurst Independent, Ralph Pechanio (2015) of the Elmhurst Veterans Commission, Jack Island (2017) of the Silverado Grill and Scott Ahlgrim (2020) of Ahlgrim Funeral Home.

Scott and wife Charity Ahlgrim (his fellow 2020 inductee) made a five-figure donation in 2022 to lift Civic HOF fundraising above its $50,000 goal.

The NFP has invested some $17,000 in the Civic HOF memorial’s hardware, software and related fees for installation, cloud hosting (five years), site creation (uploading of data, photos and video) and extended warranty (five years).

The Civic HOF fundraising is part of the NFP’s one-of-a-kind $250,000 Capital Campaign established for ECCI’s Centennial Celebration (100th Anniversary) in 2018.  The campaign includes the $150,000 Ralph P. Pechanio Student Internship Endowment Fund at Elmhurst University and $50,000 Second Century Fund–both of which also have exceeded their goals.

Tax-deductible donations to the Civic HOF Fund, Second Century Fund or Pechanio Endowment Fund can be made by contacting Quigley by phone at 630-834-6060 or e-mailing johnq@elmhurstchamber.org.