Event raises $11,000 for Illinois' Bald Knob Cross

Participants in Saturday's second annual Crosswalk begin the five-mile hike from Bald Knob Cross to Alto Pass. (Alexander Stephens) [Click to enlarge] [Order this photo]

ALTO PASS, Ill. -- More than 500 people made the five-mile hike from the Bald Knob Cross of Peace to downtown Alto Pass in the second annual Crosswalk on Saturday.

The event was organized by Friends of the Cross, a not-for-profit organization founded in June 2007 to raise money to restore the Bald Knob Cross. This year's Crosswalk raised $11,000.

The organization also strives to increase the community's awareness of the cross, said the Rev. Bill Vandergraph, 71, pastor of Full Gospel Pentecostal Church in Alto Pass and founder of Friends of the Cross.

"Its very structure is a constant reminder about what Christianity is. It is about the cross," Vandergraph said.

The construction of the cross was funded by donations and completed in 1963. Since then, weather and a lack of upkeep have caused panels to fall off.

Vandergraph founded Friends of the Cross when a disagreement over a loan taken out for work on a welcome center at the cross led to a lawsuit between members of the Bald Knob Cross of Peace Corp. board of directors. The 11 members of the Friends of the Cross board set a goal of raising $300,000 within three years in order to ensure there would be funds to restore the cross once the lawsuit was settled.

The lawsuit was resolved in December after attorneys for both sides reached a settlement that established a transitional board of directors.

Since then, Friends of the Cross has raised more than $180,000 toward its goal. The organization is now shifting its focus from holding fundraising events to soliciting donations from businesses. E.T. Simonds Construction of Carbondale, Ill., has agreed to match business donations up to $50,000 to encourage business participation.

The transitional board of the Bald Knob Cross of Peace Corp. has contracted with an engineering firm to estimate the cost of the restoration. Work has begun on the first stage -- removing the remaining porcelain-coated steel panels of the cross. Friends of the Cross board member D.W. Presley, 27, of Carbondale said that it is too early to determine a completion date.

Presley participated in the Crosswalk Saturday.

"It's great to see so many people come together," he said. "It's obvious now that people want to see [the cross] as it once was."

Chris Collins of Carbondale, who was raised a few miles north of Alto Pass in Pomona. completed the five-mile walk last year and was eager to do the same this year.

"I grew up here," she told the Southern Illinoisan. "When we were little, we went up there for picnic and when we were dating. It just means a lot."

Presley is the grandson of Wayman Presley, one of the men who first proposed holding Easter sunrise services on Bald Knob in 1936 and helped bring about the construction of the 111-foot cross.

"Just as a person, this is a great thing to be behind for everybody, but of course it does hold a special meaning to me that my grandfather was involved in the project," he said.

Several years after the first Easter sunrise service took place on Bald Knob in 1937, an estimated 15,000 people gathered to celebrate Easter there. The aim of Friends of the Cross is to continue that tradition.

"Year after year they consistently had several thousand," Vandergraph said. "And that's where we want to try to go again."

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