Keeping Kewanee Weird

I've written before, about my hometown, Kewanee, Illinois, and just how weird that place is. I love it, I love it there, and I love where I come from. I'm proud of our quirks and oddities and the stories I get to tell people when I'm away from there, about where I'm from.

That's why I'm really proud to announce the unveiling of a new 'weird' venture: Keep Kewanee Weird.


See other gifts available on Zazzle.


Yes, we're totally ripping off Austin and Portland, but you know what? We may be small, but we have a lot they don't have. You know, we're in the Mid-West, centrally located for your travel convenience. We have Hog Days and now we have Walldogs and our future mural based arts fest, and we have wonderful mineral springs *coughcough,* a decades long vendetta against Santa Claus and Christmas Trees, a school division and we have Deer Man. And remember, if you see him three times, you die, so be careful.

We are weird, and now we have T-shirts to proclaim it!

I've taken the liberty of setting up a Zazzle store, featuring our Keep Kewanee Weird memorabilia: T-Shirts--simple in design, yet full of Kewanee pride, hats, keyrings, and all sorts of other things. I even have the option of creating skateboards, and will do so if there's a demand.  Our designs our simple, the stories behind them complex.  Because when people ask me where I'm from, I'll happily tell them about Kewanee, Illinois; there's no other place like it.

All proceeds go to Kewanee Walldogs, for our initial offering of murals in 2013 and, in the future, to the arts and music festival that will become a July regular down the road.

Those little rubber bracelets will appear sometime in the future as well.

If you have an event and would like to raise some money for Kewanee Walldogs by selling shirts, bracelets or other memorabilia, just email me and let me know. If you're in the Kewanee area, maybe we can work with our friendly neighborhood shirt printer--shop local and all that--and I'll send over the files for the designs. I went with an online Zazzle shop because of the global reach, but if our friendly neighborhood shirt printer wants in, c'mon, let's go!

I think we can do this. I think we can celebrate Kewanee for what it is. Growing up, I was always so proud of how diverse and unknowingly tolerant we were in my town, especially for such a small city. This is a great set-up for an arts town. I've said it before: Everyone else can fight over the manufacturing and farming pies; we're going to go bake our own pie: An Arts Pie.  There's money there to be had; we just need to own it, and I'll start by proudly wearing my Keep Kewanee Weird shirt.