2026 Friend of the festival •
Terri Crain Goodman
Sycamore native, Terri Crain Goodman, graduated from Sycamore High School in 1982 and earned degrees in Vocal Music and Music Education from N.I.U. She taught K-12 general and choral music and directed theatre in the Mt. Morris, Oregon and Sycamore school districts for 26 years. After teaching music in the schools, she continues to maintain a private voice studio and is currently the PR Specialist at Bill White’s C.A.R. Hospital in DeKalb.
She is extremely active in the theater, having directed, music directed, produced and held starring roles in numerous plays and musicals over the past 40+ years. Some of her many theatre roles include Fanny Brice, Mama Rose, Marion Paroo, Annie Oakley, Mrs. Lovett, and Miss Hannigan. She has worked with theatre groups all over Northern Illinois and has been honored with a Stage Coacher of the Year Award, the E. Nelson Excellence in Marketing Award and the Lucille Aikens Lifetime Achievement Award from Stage Coach Players in DeKalb.
She was a member of the Sycamore Pumpkin Festival Committee from 2015-2026, holding the offices of secretary and president, Saturday Entertainment Chair and most recently, Parade Co-Chair. She was instrumental in helping design the current website and beginning the social media presence for the current Sycamore Pumpkin Festival committee.
She and her husband Ken, the band director at Sycamore High School, have a son, Eli who is a freshman at West Virginia University studying Forensic Examination.
“To say that the Sycamore Pumpkin Festival is in my blood is quite an understatement. From my earliest memories, my family and I have been involved in this festival. Whether riding the decorated float of the Bethany Baptist AWANA group, decorating my bike with streamers in the spokes to ride in the parade, baking award winning pumpkin bars for the Sycamore JR High baking contest, delivering homemade pumpkin pies for the Kiwanis pie eating contest, marching all 4 years in the Sycamore HS Marching Spartans in the parade and field competition, making 5-10 lbs. of Sycamore Music Booster B-B-Q for the craft show at the HS, watching my father and sister sit on the committee while I was full-time teaching, or finally joining the committee alongside some amazing mentors, like Jerome Perez, Bart Desch, Jennifer Diehl, Christel Springmire and Jerry Malmassari, the festival has been defining and filling me my whole life. This Honor of being chosen as the Friend of the Festival does not sit lightly with me. Representing the Sycamore Pumpkin Festival in this way truly is a full circle moment for me.”
