Chicago Jitterbug Club Logo
Goes Rollin’ on the River
The Chicago Jitterbug Club’s little “mascot” (aka the rotating CJC logo ceiling light) traveled to St. Louis on August 30th for the Rollin’ on the River party weekend .
It was packed up in its home-away-from-home, a large tub with foam padding to keep it safe and unbroken for the 4.5 hour car trip. It arrived looking as beautiful as ever and many dancers and friends came over to compliment our club for such an unusual and festive table decoration.
Many dancers wanted to know how we came up with the idea, and the mascot’s caregivers were quick to acknowledge that Elmer Kukoc, our friend at the Elks Lodge, our dance home, created it and worked many hours to make it so beautiful. Elmer based his work on our club’s colorful shirt logo, which was designed by our founder Mary Lou Poremba. You can see our logo at many ABA sister club events as people from all over have bought our colorful and sharp-looking club shirts.
Elmer took a two-dimensional image, spent 120 hours adding hundreds of colored beads and wired it so we have our own unique “disco” ball of light. It’s lit for every dance at the Elks Lodge. Frank Smith then was able to adapt the light for battery operation, so it could rotate as a traveling one-of-a-kind table decoration.
ABA President Gary Chaney, in his speech to the St. Louis convention Saturday night, acknowledged the dedicated spirit of the individual clubs, not only in their attendance at the convention, but also in their willingness to design their various table displays representing their home cities, i.e., the Brickyard of Indianapolis; Churchill Downs (Derby City Bop Club of Louisville); th“Now this year we have the newest addition, a lovely display from the Chicago Jitterbug Club.” Gary was really encouraging more club to show their support and commitment by bringing displays to the upcoming conventions.
We had fun lighting up the night at Rollin’ on the River, and we’re glad others enjoyed it too! Now if we can just figure out how to get it on the Princess
