St. Charles youth baseball program to honor coaches, organizers

As a young sports editor in St. Charles about 40 years ago, one of my first summer tasks was to head out to the ball fields by Haines Middle School and check out the St. Charles Boys Baseball program.

It didn't take long to see this was an organization that wanted all kids of all talent levels to learn the game and have fun. The kids who took part in this summer fun during that time have grown up, but have not forgotten what it meant to them.

To say thanks, the organization is honoring the folks who made this program click for so many years and left so many fond memories.

On June 25 at The Office bar and restaurant, the program will honor several of these coaches and organizers.

The idea for this event came from Kane County Judge Clint Hull, who simply felt that the men who devoted so much of their summer to boys baseball from the 1970s and beyond should be officially thanked before too much more time passes.

"I had the original idea, but many have talked about this over the years," said Hull, who fondly recalls riding his bike to weekend games and hoping he'd be on the Dairy Queen team in order to get free Mister Mistees at the end of the season.

"I started thinking these guys played such a huge role in our lives and that we should recognize them for all that they did for us," Hull said.

Current boys baseball board members Kathie Travis and Molly Bryant were key in taking Hull's idea and forming this event.

Those being honored include Bob Graham, Ken Graham, Charlie Bell, Wayne DeMaar, Max Biddle, Rick Butcher, John Stacey, Hank Cassens and the late Bob Burger.

It was easy to see that the St. Charles Boys Baseball program was an extension of a community family in which the sum of its parts consistently delivered an important message about what it means to care about how our youngsters would grow up.

I remember the program dedicating a new batting cage to one of its young players, Chris Anderson, who was killed riding his bike to a game one summer. And I also remember writing about how the program organizers made a point of singing the praises of young athletes who helped coach the teams.

One was 22-year-old Don VanThournout, who spent several summers coaching the kids before heading off into his career at Arthur Andersen in 1981.

Working for the program, VanThournout said, allowed him to develop skills he has used throughout his business career.

"When I started, I was a quiet, introverted high school sophomore," he said. "But the job called for me to take control of the field I supervised, while teaching and encouraging the kids and ensuring the parents were kept in line."

It all forced VanThournout to "step up and become a more vocal leader and implement a sense of organization for what was happening on the field."

The program has been clicking on those cylinders ever since.

Pizza at Smitty's:

We had our first taste of Chuck's Wood Fired Pizza a couple of weeks ago and fully intend to stop by Chuck Grote's table at the Geneva French Market to buy some more in the future.

That isn't the only place you can get this pizza. At the market, Grote sells the crust for people to grill or bake their own pizzas.

But he also sells pizza to eat at various spots, the most recent being from Smitty's on the Corner deli in downtown St. Charles late on Friday nights to catch folks leaving the Arcada Theatre or other spots looking for a bite to eat.

Turns out, Grote was looking for a place downtown to sell his pizzas and came to know Smitty's owners Steve and Ann Smith, as they had become admirers of the pizza at Blackberry Bar and Grill. Grote serves his pizza there on Thursday nights.

"I have been wanting to expand this over time," Grote said. "I have a group of kids who work for me, so I can just oversee it, and that's how this came about."

Grote met with the Smiths after Mike Anderson at the Blackberry Bar and Grill planted the seed in their heads that they might be able to work together to bring the late-night pizza to town.

On the first Friday night in June, without any type of advertising, Grote sold 14 pizzas. He expects to do better as the word spreads, and would like to add Saturday nights in July.

He'll also be catching bike riders looking for a bite to eat by selling his pizza on Wednesday nights at Hal Honeyman's Bike Rack in St. Charles.

"It's taken me seven years to get this business moving along, because I never wanted to go into debt to do it," said Grote, who also works a full-time job in addition to the pizza business. "We have the board of health license to operate out of a food trailer and sell retail."

The way things have fallen into place lately, Grote said he would "be a fool" to not expand the business.

A sweet gesture:

Natalie Keivel can't wait to set up her tent on Tuesday. The 9-year-old isn't doing a summer camp trip. Her tent will be on the lawn of her mother's Sweet Natalie's gluten-free bakery on Third Street in Geneva.

From that spot, the fourth-grader and her friends will sell drinks to Swedish Days visitors to earn money to buy gifts to donate at Christmas for sick children at Lurie Children's Hospital.

Natalie spotted a TV segment about Lurie's two years ago and has since been interested in helping those kids, starting with a letter she wrote and read to her fellow students at Boulder Hill Elementary School in Oswego to encourage them to make donations.

In the past, she's raised money during Geneva's Christmas Walk, but she's getting an earlier jump on it this time by setting up shop during Geneva's summer festival.

The first year, she had enough donations to purchase 100 toys for the children.

"She's been planning the Swedish Days tent for six months, coordinating a shift of 9-year-olds to help and also make posters," her mother Ilene Keivel said. "She's so sweet."

Thus, the name for the bakery, right?

The hospital has recognized Natalie's efforts with two "super donor" awards.

"She's a smart girl," Ilene said of her daughter. "She's the daughter of a business owner," she laughed. "One day, she will take over the bakery."

Those crazy gnats:

Hundreds of thousands? A few million? A couple billion?

Sorry, just pondering how many gnats are buzzing around the region so far this late spring.

An easier figure to assess? How many have ended up in my mouth, ears or nose the past week?

I'm thinking that would be between 10 and 20.

dheun@sbcglobal.net