PERU — Friends of Peru Elementary School will take the first steps in rebooting the long-dormant Peru Summerfest by holding a public meeting next week.

It’s set for 6 p.m. Monday, April 21, at the former Peru Elementary School.

Nick Waugh, chairman of the group, said the purpose is to “brainstorm plans” on how to go revive Summerfest, which was formed nearly 20 years ago.

“It used to be an annual thing in Peru, something that was popular with the people in the area,” Waugh said. “It went dormant and was revived for a little while before going dormant again eight or nine years ago due to a lack of volunteers.”

Summerfest was a festival that included games, food and a dance at the school.

“It was very, very popular with residents,” Waugh said. “One year, we had a car show, and when the weather was good, we would hold the dance outside, in the area between the Peru Elementary School building and the Peru Town Office.”

Waugh said Friends of Peru Elementary School have been discussing how they could reboot the festival since the winter and “our talks didn’t start getting serious until our last meeting, when we decided we wanted to try and make it happen.”

“Yvonne Allen, who is a member of the Friends of Peru Elementary School, was the chairman for the Peru Summerfest when it first started, and she has the memory of what the festival was like, what it takes to get it going, a checklist of items we would need, the whole nine yards,” Waugh said. “She said that she would co-chair the festival this year. We’re currently looking for someone else to help her out.”

Waugh said residents from other towns are welcome to attend the meeting Monday.

“It’s for anybody who is interested in the Peru Summerfest and wants to help come up with ideas, or volunteer,” he said.

The group likely will create subcommittees or give volunteers certain tasks.

“Yvonne said that she would assign certain tasks to people, and that would be all they were responsible for,” Waugh said. “It’s better to break it down like that, so people aren’t getting strung out. If you create a division of labor and make each person take on different responsibilities, it makes things easier.”

Friends of Peru Elementary School is tentatively looking at the first weekend in September to launch Peru Summerfest.

“We’re not sure yet when we’re going to hold it,” Waugh said. “We’re still in the planning stages.”

mdaigle@sunjouranl.com