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16 | July 19, 2018 | The orland park prairie news<br />
opprairie.com<br />
FROM THE MOKENA MESSENGER<br />
Resale shop benefits local animal<br />
shelter<br />
In addition to adopting, volunteering<br />
or donating, locals can add<br />
shopping to the list of things they<br />
can do to help out NAWS animal<br />
rescue in Mokena.<br />
Resale for Rescues opened July<br />
2 on Front Street, and the shelves<br />
are brimming with secondhand<br />
items awaiting a second chance.<br />
The idea of saving things that<br />
someone else did not want and<br />
finding them a new home parallels<br />
the mission of NAWS to find<br />
homes for abandoned or stray animals.<br />
Proceeds from the shop, after<br />
paying for rent and utilities, go<br />
directly to NAWS to support its financial<br />
needs and those of the animals<br />
it brings in.<br />
Many times, the animals NAWS<br />
brings in are in need of medical<br />
attention, in addition to the food,<br />
supplies and regular veterinary<br />
care the animals also will need.<br />
The store takes donations and<br />
sells items such as furniture, clothing,<br />
home goods, shoes, purses and<br />
jewelry. It does not accept large<br />
electronics, such as televisions or<br />
large appliances.<br />
Owner Connie George said the<br />
resale shop has been a dream of<br />
hers for years, but after her 50th<br />
birthday she decided to drop everything<br />
and do it for the animals.<br />
“When we started this, I was volunteering<br />
at NAWS,” George said.<br />
“And this was like my dream ... to<br />
have a resale shop that the profits<br />
would go to for the animals because<br />
they are so unheard. They<br />
have no voice.”<br />
For more information about Resale<br />
for Rescues, visit nawsus.org/<br />
new-resale-and-gift-shop.<br />
Reporting by Amanda Stoll, Assistant<br />
Editor. For more, visit MokenaMessenger.com.<br />
FROM THE NEW LENOX PATRIOT<br />
Historical society replaces stained<br />
glass in old church<br />
It has been an expensive year<br />
for the New Lenox Area Historical<br />
Society.<br />
It started with purchasing the<br />
116-year-old railroad depot last<br />
winter, and the resources spent to<br />
save the structure from being demolished.<br />
Then, there was also the<br />
acquisition of the 119-year-old former<br />
Methodist church after that.<br />
“We depleted our budget this<br />
year, but this is all important to<br />
us,” said Dianne Ross, a member<br />
of the historical society.<br />
In addition to purchasing the<br />
church, located at 112 Church St.,<br />
the restoration efforts are another<br />
expense. Last month, the historical<br />
society repurposed three large<br />
stained-glass windows that were<br />
long overdue for being re-leaded.<br />
The windows have not been releaded<br />
since the church was built<br />
in 1899. Ross said leading lasts 70-<br />
80 years.<br />
Ross hired Cathedral Crafts<br />
Stained Glass Studio to re-lead the<br />
windows, touch-up parts where<br />
there was intricate painting, retrim<br />
the outside, clean and place a<br />
protective covering to protect the<br />
glass.<br />
“The gentlemen who owns the<br />
stained glass studio took one of the<br />
really bad ones out said, ‘I’ve never<br />
seen one this bad,’” Ross said.<br />
Restoring the three windows cost<br />
$43,000, Ross said. The problem is<br />
there are still roughly a dozen windows<br />
that need to be addressed.<br />
“It’s a very expensive project,<br />
so we have to do it as we have the<br />
money,” Ross said. “We did the<br />
first three that were critical. They<br />
had to be done because, otherwise,<br />
we would have lost them, for sure.”<br />
Reporting by James Sanchez, Editor.<br />
For more, visit New<br />
LenoxPatriot.com.<br />
FROM THE FRANKFORT STATION<br />
Umpire situation plays into LW<br />
East, West finales<br />
Things do not always go according<br />
to plan.<br />
They did not for the Lincoln-<br />
Way East baseball team in the summer<br />
state tournament this week.<br />
East coach Eric Brauer planned<br />
to coach in the second game of the<br />
opening day of the regional portion<br />
of the Illinois High School Baseball<br />
Coaches Association Summer<br />
Baseball Tournament on July 9.<br />
Instead, Brauer was pressed into<br />
duty as an umpire for an inning in<br />
a game between Lemont and Lincoln-Way<br />
West.<br />
“That wasn’t in the game plan,”<br />
Brauer said.<br />
But it is what he did as the coach<br />
of the host school. Brauer was<br />
pressed into duty because the home<br />
plate umpire collapsed with one<br />
out in the top of the second inning.<br />
While the ump reportedly never<br />
lost consciousness, he was taken<br />
by ambulance to a local hospital.<br />
After at least a 30-minute delay,<br />
Brauer had to fill in for the umpire<br />
but called balls and strikes from<br />
behind the pitcher. That lasted for<br />
an inning, while a base umpire<br />
changed into his gear to umpire<br />
behind the plate. An accredited<br />
umpire was at the game to watch<br />
his brother play for LW West but<br />
instead served as an umpire for the<br />
rest of the game on the bases.<br />
The good news was that the<br />
original home plate umpire was<br />
released later that evening and<br />
was back out as an umpire in a regional<br />
semifinal game at Lockport<br />
the next morning; however, neither<br />
Lincoln-Way team made it to the<br />
next day.<br />
Reporting by Randy Whalen, Freelance<br />
Reporter. For more, visit FrankfortStation.com.<br />
FROM THE LOCKPORT LEGEND<br />
Citizens Police Academy promotes<br />
partnership<br />
The Lockport Police Department<br />
is accepting applications for its<br />
annual Citizens Police Academy,<br />
which starts this September and<br />
looks to continue building partnerships<br />
with community members.<br />
The academy is open to anyone<br />
ages 18 and older who either lives,<br />
works or goes to school in Lockport.<br />
Participants are to meet at the<br />
Lockport Police Department, 1212<br />
S. Farrell Road, from 6-9 p.m. every<br />
Monday starting Sept. 10 for<br />
12 weeks.<br />
There are already nine spots<br />
filled of the 16 allotted for the program.<br />
Participants are to not only<br />
get a chance to learn about the<br />
various aspects of the police department<br />
through this interactive<br />
program, but they also are to learn<br />
a lot about the people behind the<br />
badges.<br />
“So this course gives the opportunity<br />
to the citizens of Lockport to<br />
come into our world, I guess you<br />
could say, and get to know us not<br />
as the officers but as the people<br />
who do the job and protect them,”<br />
program coordinator officer Jeren<br />
Szmergalski said. “And it gives<br />
them a little sense of what we go<br />
through as regular people in this<br />
profession, how it affects us, how<br />
it affects our families [and] what<br />
mindset we’re in when we’re out<br />
doing our various jobs.”<br />
Szmergalski said having a relationship<br />
with those in Lockport<br />
helps the officers do their jobs effectively<br />
by putting everyone on<br />
the same team. The citizens of<br />
Lockport are the eyes and ears of<br />
the police department, preventing<br />
crime and helping the officers<br />
solve cases faster, he said.<br />
Reporting by Jacquelyn Schlabach,<br />
Assistant Editor. For more, visit LockportLegend.com.<br />
FROM THE TINLEY JUNCTION<br />
Vet relishes Honor Flight<br />
Tinley Park’s Jack “Whitey”<br />
Hoffmeister was among roughly<br />
100 veterans greeted with a hero’s<br />
welcome at Chicago’s International<br />
Midway Airport.<br />
Hoffmeister, a longtime resident<br />
nicknamed for his unmistakable<br />
snowy hair, returned from Washington,<br />
D.C., July 11 to a group of<br />
family members and well-wishers,<br />
including Gov. Bruce Rauner, who<br />
thanked the Honor Flight Chicago<br />
veterans returning from their day<br />
trip. Founded in 2008, the nonprofit<br />
provides veterans and one family<br />
member with an all-expenses-paid<br />
day of tribute that features stops at<br />
war memorials and ceremonies of<br />
appreciation.<br />
Growing up in a Rogers Park<br />
orphanage, Hoffmeister started his<br />
career in the United States Navy<br />
back in the early 1950s, serving in<br />
Korea from 1952-1953 before ending<br />
his military service in the U.S.<br />
Marine Corps as a combat corpsman.<br />
“It’s an honor, quite an honor,”<br />
the 86-year-old Korean War veteran<br />
said. “But it’s really for all the<br />
guys who didn’t come back home.”<br />
Those in Tinley Park probably<br />
know Whitey from The Dairy Palace,<br />
a homemade retro ice cream<br />
shop he operates with the help of<br />
some of his 10 grandchildren. He<br />
also used to own and operate Whitey’s<br />
Italian Beef and Sausage, and<br />
later hot dog stands under the same<br />
brand throughout the Chicago<br />
area before purchasing the current<br />
building on 167th Street and Oak<br />
Park Avenue.<br />
“We’ve been in business for 40<br />
years,” Hoffmeister said. “The soft<br />
serve comes from Green Bay, Wisconsin,<br />
and the hard stuff comes<br />
from Hershey, Pennsylvania, so<br />
you know it’s quality.”<br />
Reporting by Editor, Cody Mroczka.<br />
For more, visit Tin<br />
leyJunction.com.<br />
FROM THE HOMER HORIZON<br />
Be Greek for a Day adds third day<br />
to annual festival<br />
Over the last five years, Assumption<br />
Greek Orthodox Church’s Be<br />
Greek for a Day has grown from a<br />
one-day event to three days of festivities<br />
for the first time this year.<br />
Greeks and non-Greeks alike are<br />
invited to enjoy authentic cuisine,<br />
listen to live music and spend time<br />
together celebrating the culture.<br />
This year, Be Greek for a Day is<br />
to be held July 20-22, at the church,<br />
15625 S. Bell Road in Homer Glen.<br />
“We just wanted to try to go an<br />
extra day on a Friday to open it up<br />
and try something different,” said<br />
the Rev. Sotirios “Father Sam”<br />
Dimitriou, of Assumption Greek<br />
Orthodox.<br />
Included in the three-day lineup<br />
is live band performances throughout<br />
the weekend. On Friday, the<br />
classic rock band Anthem is to<br />
perform from 7:30-10:30 p.m., and<br />
the Greek band Ormi is to perform<br />
from 5-10 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.<br />
There will be a $10 cover charge<br />
on Friday, which includes one<br />
drink ticket. Admission for the remaining<br />
two days will be $2. Be<br />
Greek for a Day returns from 5-11<br />
p.m. Friday, July 20; 3-10 p.m. Saturday,<br />
July 21; and 1-10 p.m. Sunday,<br />
July 22.<br />
Reporting by Jacquelyn Schlabach,<br />
Assistant Editor. For more, visit<br />
HomerHorizon.com.