Mayor's July 4 Breakfast for Veterans Expands

For the second year running, Mokena Mayor Joe Werner will be holding a July 4 breakfast for local veterans.

But this year he won't be doing it out of his house.

"I ended up having 200 people in my yard that morning trying to scramble around – no pun intended – to get breakfast for all of them," Werner said during Monday night's village board meeting, recalling last year's breakfast.

This year, Werner rented out for the breakfast. Breakfast will start at 7 a.m. and go until 9 a.m., when the veterans, bikers and other attendees will head off to the July 4 parade put on by the .

Veterans and their immediate families can eat for free; non-veterans will pay $5. Donations will be appreciated to pay for the food (last year, they ran out of food twice).

To watch video of Werner talking about the event, click here, then click on "Mayor's Comments" on the online agenda. Start at the 51:30 mark.

The event started, strangely enough, from Werner's collection of antique military vehicles, Werner told the board at the June 13 meeting. After joining a club of fellow collectors, Werner invited them to join the parade, then decided he should serve them breakfast first.

Spurred by the involvement of motorcycle group American Veterans Who Ride, the event snowballed.

"Saturday morning, my block was awash with a beautiful display of 70 motorcycles and all these antique military vehicles," Werner said, laughing.

To hear Werner tell the full story of how the event started, click here, then click on "Mayor's Comments" on the online agenda. Start at the 2:36:00 mark.