[caption id="attachment_177656" align="aligncenter" width="1000"] Hononegah Forest Preserve is the Forest Preserves of Winnebago County's oldest preseve and one of its most popular. This year the Forest Preserves of Winnebago County celebrates 100 years. (Photo by Samantha Crooks/Forest Preserves of Winnebago County)[/caption]

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Forest Preserves of Winnebago County.

Samantha Crooks, communications coordinator for the Forest Preserves, joins Steve Summers on This Week in the Stateline to talk about some of the ways the organization will celebrate its first century. (Listen to the full interview at the bottom of this article.)

She has challenged people to explore all 44 of the forest preserves this year in honor of the 100th anniversary.

The Forest Preserves of Winnebago County were created by a public vote in November 1922. It was the third forest preserve to be created in the state. The preserves now encompasses 11,500 acres of woods, wetlands, rivers, prairies and ponds in Winnebago County.

"We hear a lot of people just thanking us for what we do and they're very thankful to have a place to go to to just unwind and kind of get away from work stress," Crooks said.

[caption id="attachment_177657" align="aligncenter" width="1000"] Samantha Crooks is communications coordinator for the Forest Preserves of Winnebago County. (Photo provided by Forest Preserves of Winnebago County)[/caption]

Listen to the full interview below:

Heidi talks about the need for blood during the holidays in Northern Illinois and how to go about donating. In addition, she outlines the requirements to donate in a COVID-19 world.

Runtime:  10 Minutes

This week in the NIC-10 Whip Around podcast:

We'll talk about Belvidere North's huge win on the road over the Boylan Titans and discuss how big that win is for their program. We'll also break down some of the true contenders in NIC-10 football this year.

We'll also talk about Hononegah's star player who people are comparing to Bo Jackson.