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6 | March 5, 2020 | the frankfort station news
frankfortstationdaily.com
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From Page 5
the foundation's board of
directors – explained that
after the accident, Maddie
had a conversation with
her parents about her desire
to be an organ donor.
“What we found was
having that clarity of
knowing what she wanted,
gave us the strength to
make sure those wishes
were carried through,”
Cyndi Grobmeier said.
“As we started learning
more and more about organ
donation – realizing
that there's a disconnect
between people's perceptions
of organ donation,
their willingness to sign
up on the registry and how
they talk about organ donation
or don't talk about
it – we realized that this
is something we could do
to take our tragedy and
bring some meaning to it.
Expires 3//2020
Julie Cantrell, of the Cantrell Property Group, wins an
armful of wine after playing the FAWN wine toss game.
Photo by Laurie Fanelli/22nd Century Media
Expires 3//2020
It's given us a lot of peace
being able to bring some
meaning to such a senseless
loss of such a beautiful
young woman.”
Through Maddie's story,
Maddog Strong now
fosters the opportunity
for conversations about
organ and tissue donation
while building upon
the mission's of organizations
such as the Secretary
of State's Office, Gift of
Hope, Donate Life Illinois
and Donate Life America.
Melcher said of the
chamber's decision to
work with Maddog Strong,
“This foundation, I think,
lwsra
From Page 3
hit home for a lot of our
committee members. It
touched a lot of people
because Maddie's a local
girl and it's such a positive
message that she put out
to her family and now her
family is carrying on in her
honor.”
Maddog Strong will
be hosting its inaugural
Miles for Maddog
5K/10K in Frankfort on
June 27, and the Frankfort
Chamber of Commerce
has several events coming
up, including the Community
Showcase on March
21, Pub! Grub! Network!
on April 29 and the Community
Golf Outing on
June 29.
More information about
the Maddog Strong Foundation
is available at www.
maddogstrong.org, and
the Frankfort Chamber of
Commerce can be found
online at www.frankfort
chamber.com.
leged thefts to be acknowledged
and investigated internally,
Wallace responded
“Well, criminals are good
and they’re clever. This individual
had the trust of a
small agency and the trust of
that position.”
Wallace and Hassett also
said that because notifying
LWSRA families and the
general public of the reported
theft was not part of the
legal advice, the organization
did not do so.
“It wasn’t something that
came up,” Hassett said. “We
didn’t discuss it as a board
to decide to make a public
press release. Our attorneys
didn’t recommend it, so we
just followed the advice of
our legal attorney and handled
it as we did.”
Minutes from the board’s
May 15, 2018 meeting show
that following a closed session
meeting the board instructed
its attorney, nowretired
Matthew Lulich,
to prepare two separate
“Agreement of Separation”
documents.
One of those documents
outlines the terms of Billips’
employment status. It states
that Billips misused association
funds for personal
expenses and that her “voluntary
resignation” would
be changed to “termination”
unless she repaid a total of
$6,938.12 in three installments:
$250 on May 14,
2018, $250 on the first day
of each month thereafter and
$5,188.12 on Dec. 1, 2018.
Wallace and Hassett said
that Billips has repaid that
amount, and that new procedures
— such as alerts sent
directly to Wallace whenever
any staff member makes
a purchase using one of the
organization’s credit cards
— have been put in place to
prevent future questionable
financial activity from occurring.
Pictured is the aftermath of the McCurdy family home in
Frankfort following a fire Feb. 24. Photo submitted
GoFundMe page set up for
Frankfort family following
fire at house in February
Pastor and family
of Mokena Baptist
church OK after
blaze
T.J. Kremer III
Contributing Editor
A GoFundMe page for
the McCurdy family, of
Frankfort, was started following
a fire at the family’s
home Feb. 24.
Frankfort Fire Protection
District responded
to a call at approximately
10:27 a.m. in the 300 block
of East Nebraska Street,
according to FFPD, and
the fire was brought under
control within 15 minutes.
Units from Mokena, New
Lenox, Homer, Monee,
East Joliet and Manhattan
Fire Districts assisted in
the effort.
Brandon McCurdy, the
pastor at Mokena Baptist
Church, said no one
was injured in the fire.
His wife, Rachel, and
their goldendoodle, Wrigley,
were inside the home
when the fire started, but
the couple’s two daughters
were in school at the time.
A family friend set up a
GoFundMe page to assist
the McCurdys. The campaign
had raised $6,375 in
its first 15 hours.
“We have a lot of really
great people in our life,”
Brandon said. “We’re very
grateful … We’re grateful
the Lord’s protected us.
Things can be replaced;
people can’t.”
FFPD wrote that the
cause of the fire is still under
investigation.
For more information on
the GoFundMe campaign,
visit gofundme.com/f/mc
curdy-housefire-relief.