Friends to hold a benefit in memory of kids' father
A motorcycle accident in August took the life of a 36-year-old Crystal Lake father of three, Lloyd Thomas, when he collided with a 2004 Honda Pilot on Butterfield Road in Elmhurst.
But his memory remains, driven in part by his high school friends who are determined to turn their grief into something positive.
Not content to merely comfort his wife, Sarah, and their 4-year-old triplets, the couple's friends set up a trust fund for the children's education.
On Saturday, they will hold a benefit to raise money for the fund, after appealing to literally hundreds of merchants for auction items, gift packages and vacation destinations.
The Lloyd B. Thomas Memorial Benefit takes place from 6 to 10 p.m. at the Maryville Academy gymnasium, 1150 N. River Road in Des Plaines. Festivities include live music, hors d'oeuvres, raffle drawings, and a live and silent auction.
Ray Herr, formerly with the Ides of March and an Arlington Heights resident, will open the entertainment from 6 to 8 p.m. before the band Instant Karma performs from 8 to 10 p.m., fresh from their performance tour in Liverpool, England.
Brian Hansen of Rolling Meadows, a friend of Thomas' and former football teammate at Buffalo Grove High School, chairs the event. He hopes to raise $100,000 for the fund.
"Everyone's telling me I'm crazy," Hansen says. "But I figure, why not shoot for it."
He and Thomas met as underclassmen on the football team and soon began driving to school together everyday. While both pursued different things in college and beyond, they remained close friends. He now serves as trustee for the children's fund.
"Because Lloyd spent much of his life serving young people in the Chicago suburbs, we believe it is our turn to honor him by helping his family," Hansen says
Thomas earned a bachelor of arts in human services from the University of Wisconsin in Oshkosh. After graduating, he worked as a youth counselor at Maryville Academy in Des Plaines, where he met his future wife, Sarah Cason.
Both ran group homes at the facility, helping with the treatment of physically, sexually and emotionally abused children and teens.
From Maryville, Thomas went on to work at GlenOaks Hospital in Glendale Heights, before his most recent stint as a behavioral health counselor at Westlake Hospital in Melrose Park.
The couple married in 2005, and settled first in Algonquin before moving to Crystal Lake with their triplets, Lloyd Jr., Hailey and Paige.
In July, weeks before the accident, the family had splurged and spent a weekend at the Wisconsin Dells. While they wrestled with whether or not they could afford it, family members now say they are glad they went.
"At least they had that time together, and they took lots of pictures," says Bob Cason of Arlington Heights, Sarah's father, "and now they will always have those pictures of their father."
A little more than a week after the accident, Sarah Thomas followed through on something she had been planning for the last two years: attending nursing school at Harper College in Palatine.
She and her children have moved back with her parents in Arlington Heights, where her course work has helped her work through her grief.
"It's kept her very busy," her father says. "I think it's helped her get through it."
If you go
What: The Lloyd B. Thomas Memorial Benefit
When: 6 to 10 p.m. Saturday
Where: Maryville Academy gymnasium, 1150 N. River Road in Des Plaines
Cost: $20
Call: Brian Hansen, (312) 354-0883 or brianswedehansen@comcast.net
Mail monetary donations to: The Lloyd B. Thomas Memorial Fund, c/o Beverly Hansen, 7 Chenault Court, Buffalo Grove, IL 60089