One of the many events in the area this weekend is an open house at the Vermilion County Museum, 1:30 to 4 this Sunday (Sept 26) afternoon. Executive Director Sue Richtor says stop by at 116 North Gilbert in Danville for free tours and light refreshments. They’ll be commemorating Abraham Lincoln’s speech from the balcony of the Fithian Home during the US Senate campaign in 1858. And Richter says, there’ll be some new surprises there, along with, well, a special guest.
AUDIO: We’ve got a couple other new exhibits in place, not total exhibits but additions to exhibits, that we think people will enjoy, so we’re hoping it will be a nice family day. “Mr. Lincoln” is going to be here to talk and greet people and tell them about his time in Danville, so I think it will be an enjoyable afternoon.
And of course there will be the unveiling of the new Lincoln penny sculpture created by artist Richard Belton. Belton says, the whole concept of designing a Lincoln bust with pennies, actually started as a money saver. You might say it, paid off.
AUDIO: How it happened was I originally started out thinking I might cast it in bronze, but it was just going to be too expensive. So I just came up with the idea of doing it with coins. And as it turned out it makes it more unique than if it had been in bronze, so I wasn’t unhappy about it.
And yes, on Sunday you will have the chance to guess just how many pennies were used to make it.
