Bruce Rushton
The Illinois Times
The reenactment of Abraham Lincoln’s funeral on the 150th anniversary of that event is not coming together in the usual way for an occasion that organizers promise will be once in a lifetime.
No government agency is in charge. The headquarters for the 2015 Lincoln Funeral Coalition is a mail drop on Wabash Avenue in Jerome. Organizers have told the Internal Revenue Service that they don’t expect to have more than $50,000 in annual revenue and therefore aren’t required to file detailed financial statements that are available online. While the coalition’s website includes letters of support from dozens of politicians, church leaders and civic groups, organizers acknowledge they haven’t figured out how to pay all the bills. No corporation has stepped up to underwrite the event scheduled for the first weekend in May, not that organizers haven’t asked.
“In my opinion, one of the things that’s most difficult about this, which I understood from the beginning, was that this is taking place in Springfield,” says Katie Spindell, coalition chairwoman. “We have talked to large corporations. One of the statements they have said is, ‘It’s not national.’”
Does Spindell’s group, which has invited President Barack Obama to town for the funeral re-creation at Oak Ridge Cemetery, have sufficient funds?
“We are very close,” says Spindell, who says that she’s asked for state money – she won’t say how much – and is awaiting an answer. “We will no doubt get the money that we need to pull this off.”
City aldermen on Tuesday approved a city budget that includes $20,000 for the funeral coalition, but not without some reservations. The city had already planned to provide $150,000 in services from the police, fire and public works departments for the event.
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Ward 7 Ald. Joe McMenamin, who says that he has attended funeral coalition organization meetings, has faith.
“I think it is grassroots,” McMenamin says. “This is a historical event that goes to the essence of who we are as a city.”
Spindell says it’s fair to consider the event an act of faith. “It’s an act of faith and a labor of love,” she says. “And the people who are doing this are all capable of doing this.”
Joe McMenamin for Ward 7 