Champaign’s 150th anniversary celebration is underway, and organizers hope students and community members alike can take note of some of the events the community has to offer.

Time is short for the first part of the year-long event, an exhibit on Champaign’s history hosted by Illinois Terminal.

The display, which began March 19, closes Wednesday night and concludes the beginning portion of the initiative to recognize Champaign’s sesquicentennial.

In addition to the historical exhibit, the celebration is set to include a mid-July concert series, as well as a ceremony slated for March 2011 to dedicate a fountain and time capsule as a gift to Champaign’s future.

LaEisha Meaderds, project manager for the event, said the three-event, three-theme focus is essential to celebrating the people that have made Champaign what it is.

“The themes that we’ve been celebrating are ‘honor yesterday,’ ‘celebrate today,’ ‘build tomorrow,’” Meaderds said. “It’s about the community; the people of the community and what they’ve done to build the city that we have today.”

T.J. Blakeman, chairman of the Champaign 150th anniversary historical committee, said students are a vital part of the Champaign tradition.

“It’s important for students to understand that they are part of the community,” Blakeman said. “Sometimes they think that others view them differently, as just this transient group that comes in August and leaves in May. But they’re so vital to the community. They contribute financially to the community; they drive on our streets, they shop in our stores.”

He said students should see the exhibit and learn about the city’s history because of the influence students have on Champaign when enrolled and after graduation.

“I myself was a University student. That’s how I came to Champaign, and if you poll the community, a large percentage of them are the exact same way,” Blakeman said. “They came here to the University, they found a job locally, they like the community, and so they stayed.”

He added that students, on top of their influence on the community, should be interested in seeing the exhibit simply because of the knowledge it has to offer.

“If a student wants to know, ‘What did Green Street look like in 1920?’, we have an entire board devoted to Campustown,” Blakeman said. “How many students know that the area where all the fraternities and sororities and apartment complexes are was actually our first fairgrounds?”

Julie McGown, a volunteer at the exhibit and program manager of the Parkland College Foundation, said even as a lifetime Champaign resident, there was a lot for her to learn from the exhibit. She added that her interest in history is what drew her to help out with the project.

“I love history, and I love learning things. I wanted a chance to see what it was all about,” McGown said. “It’s very educational. I’m very impressed.”

She added that although she hasn’t heard much about the other events in the celebration, she’d love to attend them once she finds out more. She said she hopes students at Parkland and the University alike will do so as well.

Blakeman said he’s seen a few students at the event, but he hopes more see the exhibit before it closes Wednesday night.

“I love having students here because they do learn more about the community,” Blakeman said.

“They could end up just like myself and decide that this is a wonderful community and they want to stay.”