Saturday, 26 October 2013 was our Naperville region’s kick-off party. It was a delicious pot-luck event, with plenty of savory and sweet delights, including Frank’s chili, my beef stew, Kel’s fruit salad smoothie, Todd’s best chocolate chip cookies and many, many more dishes. We about forty people in attendance at the Naperville Municipal Center (not all were able to stay for the group photo above).
Katherine C. (Squiddish) brought delicious, light macaroons designed as keys to a typewriter. She also made and gifted me and the region with a gorgeous wooden chest filled with individually painted story stones. I will be thinking of ways we can use these beautiful story stones in our upcoming NaNo events (like the TGIO) and throughout the year with the Journey.
Everyone received NaNo cash, thanks to the generosity of the Eugene, Oregon ML Darfinkle. 
After the main activities, we held raffles for the door prizes, which included two of the $100 posters from NaNoWriMo HQ, six smaller signed posters by yours truly, three magnetic inspirational writer quotes, and several writing-related books donated by my co-ML Katherine. Prizes were also given during our ice-breaker Things In Common.
At the end, there were three groups: Frank led one group in a bout of Story War (lots of laughter there); I led a group to do plot twists (both serious and humorous) to people’s novels; and Brian (cableshaft) led a table of card games and picture telephone.
Many thanks to my co-MLs (Katherine and Frank), to our former co-ML Dave, to everyone who helped in setting up (Rebekkah/RL Shepherd, Barry/FinbarrMcG, Ana/SheWrote and others) and in cleaning up (especially Becky/Sapphire, Cassidy/Citrus Siren, Patrick/Domitius, Brian/cableshaft, Ana/SheWrote, Katherine/Squiddish, and Dave/TRRDEDEAN… hopefully I’m not forgetting anyone who helped). Thanks also to everyone who came and made our event such a fun success!
Thanks also to Mayor Pradel who stopped by our festivities and made us feel so welcome in the beautiful Naperville Municipal Center! We are truly fortunate to have access to such a terrific facility.
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