Ballet Folklorico Tayahua (BFT) founder and CEO Lupita Muñoz was a newly arrived teenage immigrant from Mexico in the mid-1980s when she was walking down Genesee Street in Waukegan and saw the Genesee Theatre for the first time.
Amanda Diaz-Bahena, Muñoz’s daughter and BFT’s director of youth development programs, said when her mother got her first glimpse of the theater, she knew it was a place she wanted to perform. Approximately 30 years later, she got her wish when dancers from BFT were part of a performance.
“We started out dancing in driveways and garages,” Diaz-Bahena said. “We’ve performed on the Genesee stage (several) times. In 2018, we purchased the BFT Cultural Center at 32 North Genesee.”
Ballet Folklorico was one of 30 companies voted onto the “30 Wonders of the 30th District Business Edition” list sponsored by state Sen. Adriane Johnson, D-Buffalo Grove, on Nov. 16 in Vernon Hills, recognizing achievement in her Illinois State Senate District.
First choosing 30 Wonders of the 30th District in 2023, Johnson said people nominated and then voted for a selection of places from those with historic value, like the Waukegan History Museum at the Carnegie, to parks where people can relax, exercise or watch children play.
In 2024, Johnson said the focus was on people. They came from all walks of life, from environmental stewardship to law enforcement, to very young achievers, to experienced individuals. Some were students who achieved beyond the classroom.
When Johnson began soliciting nominations and then votes for the nominees this year, businesses, large and small, were included in the category.
Just as different categories of people were elected last year, businesses were put in four categories — micro with 10 or fewer employees, small companies with 11 to 49 workers, medium-sized concerns employing 50 to 249, and large with 250 or more.
“Businesses are the heartbeat of our community,” Johnson said. “The creativity and imagination shown by these entrepreneurs make the 30th District a wonderful place to live, work and grow. We not only want to recognize them but express our gratitude. Small businesses are the job creators.”
Selecting the 30 wonders was a months-long effort. Johnson said there was an open nominating process in which people proposed choices to make the ballot. There were more than 100. After a review by Johnson and her staff, the ballots were made available.
“The businesses with the most votes were selected,” Johnson said.
Of the 30 companies making the list, 12 are Waukegan-based. Others are from around Lake County — part of the district is in Cook County — including North Chicago, Vernon Hills, Buffalo Grove, Mundelein and Gurnee.
Waukegan businesses included BFT, Dandelion Gallery and Studio, We Simply Care Transport & Services, AAUW Preschool, January Accounting Services, The Antmound Foundation, The Ritacca Laws Firm, Waukegan Mail Depot, Drip and Culture, Family First Center of Lake County, NIRCO and the UMMA Center.
Initially started to “preserve Mexican Folklorico dance and give our students the gift of artistic expression,” Diaz-Bahena said BFT has become much more. It is an international dance company with adult and children’s groups. It has a social purpose.
“We work with at-risk youth,” Diaz-Bahena said. “We work on their development and help our kids navigate through it on the dance floor (and) values of discipline, teamwork, respect and pride in their roots.”
Along with performing at events around Waukegan and Lake County, Diaz-Bahena said BFT has performed from Disneyland to Soldier Field, as well as in Mexico, Colombia, Texas, New York and beyond.
Deanna Cruz, the co-founder and president of Dandelion Gallery, said she and the artists who are part of the business took over the gallery in downtown Waukegan five years ago. Though the artists there create art, teach it and display it, they go beyond art itself.
“We offer creative wellness,” Cruz said. “There is play therapy, art therapy, mindfulness, yoga and different forms of meditation. We want to get rid of the stigma. People feel they’re being helped in a group setting.”
Cruz said the artists at the gallery take their efforts, including teaching, throughout Lake County as well as some places in Cook and McHenry counties and Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin.
Alicia Harris of Waukegan left the corporate world five years ago to start We Simply Care Transport & Services. She and her three employees, “help seniors and individuals with disabilities get to medical appointments” and some other needed places.
Since starting her business in June of 2023, Harris said she has transported more than 3,000 people 21,000 aggregate miles. They get people to doctors’ appointments and other non-emergency medical transportation, like kidney dialysis.
“Everything we do is prescheduled,” Harris said. “We take them to their appointment and bring them home when they’re done. We ask them a series of questions so they don’t have to wait so long.
Other businesses that were designated members of the 30 Wonders of the 30th District include Salvadores Sin Fronteras of North Chicago, Kenneth Smith Photography of North Chicago, Nothing Bundt Cakes of Vernon Hills and Our Shining Star Foundation of Lake County.
More designees include Pamdell Printing of North Chicago, Sweet Treats by Ava Marie of Lake County, Tax Lady 1040 of Mundelein, We Care for You Nursing Agency of Lake County, Crossroads Restaurant & Bar of Mundelein, Holcomb Hollow of Mundelein and Reading Power Inc. of Lake County.
Additional designees include Simply Bee of Vernon Hills, Community Trust Credit Union of Gurnee, StudioNorth of North Chicago, Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh of Buffalo Grove, Medline Foundation of Vernon Hills and Rust-Oleum Corporation of Vernon Hills.
Johnson said she and her staff also take a look at different businesses in the 30th District and chose four to be wonderful mentions — Eggsperience of Wheeling, Tighthead Brewery of Mundelein and both Mikan Technology and Serenity Estates of Lincolnshire.