This year’s Black History Family Festival at the Gail Borden Public Library in Elgin will focus on those who made their mark in history.

The seventh annual festival is 2-5 p.m. Saturday at the library, 270 North Grove Ave., and is expected to draw between 2,000 and 4,000, said Miriam Lytle, chief of community services and program development.

“African-American Firsts: Black Americans Who Have Shaped Our Country,” is this year’s theme, which will focus on black Americans who have impacted science, medicine, politics, the arts, among other topics.

One way the theme will be displayed is showing different inventions created by black Americans, Lytle said. Children will learn about inventor Garrett Morgan by crafting models of one of his notable creations – the traffic light. Teens will also make airplanes as a lesson on the Tuskegee airmen, Lytle said.

“We’re highlighting people who made a difference in our country,” she said.

Phyllis Folarin, a former U-46 teacher, started the Black History Family Festival as a way to bring families together, while educating on black history and focusing on literacy, she said.

For that reason, Folarin said she’s most excited about this year’s event featuring author Candy Dawson Boyd, who’s written several children’s books.

Reginald McLaughlin, also known as The Hoofer, will also do a tap dancing presentation; and storyteller Linda Gorham will tell interactive folktales.

“Whoever attends the festival will learn something new about African Americans and their contribution to our country,” she said. “Not only African Americans, but everyone. We’ve had very good, diverse attendance at the festival and that’s one of the things that we really hoped to do.”

For information, visit www.gailborden.info.