The Coronado Receives Grant To Fix Marquee Light Bulbs

The Marquee. The first thing you see when trying to find someplace. They set the tone for your experience. We've all seen a marquee with lights out or just old looking. Start having some preconceived notions of a place before we ever step foot inside. Legend has it that the band ZZ Top got their name from a marquee with burnt out bulbs. It was supposed to say "Pizza Stop" but only ZZ Top was lit up and so they chose their name.

There are a lot of iconic marquees, especially in Chicago. Wrigley Field is the first to come to mind for me. Aragon Ballroom, The Drake, Chicago Theater, Chicago Skyway Toll Bridge to name a few. Rockford has a pretty iconic one too! The marquee at the Coronado. The problem is that they become expensive to maintain as electricity costs and light bulb costs go up.

The Coronado got some relief. They received nearly $15,000 to update the LED technology in their marquee thanks to a grant from the foundation's community arts and humanities fund according to WIFR.

No word yet on when they will be finished but I can't wait to see it shining bright and lighting up the area.