Mayor's prayer breakfast set for Feb. 7

The Mayor's 21st Annual Community Prayer Breakfast will be held at 7:15 a.m. Feb. 7, at the Sheraton Chicago Northwest, 3400 W. Euclid Ave., Arlington Heights. Arlington Heights Mayor Arlene Mulder will be joined by a group of prominent area residents joining in delivering messages on the importance of faith and prayer.

Jon Ridler, Arlington Heights Chamber of Commerce executive director, will act as master of ceremonies for the event. After opening the program, he will be followed by the Rev. Sheri Rupert, who will give the invocation. Next will be the presentation of colors. Mayor Mulder will deliver welcoming remarks and be followed by Joel Goldberg, reading from the Old Testament, and Tom and Pat Harris with a reading from the New Testament.

The featured message for the event will be delivered by John Sonderegger, whose remarks will focus on celebrating our heritage as Americans, community members, and people of faith and diversity.

Sonderegger is a retired executive of a New York Stock Exchange-listed corporation and a former chairman of the Northwest Community Hospital Foundation, for which he still serves on the board of trustees. The foundation has played a significant role in the hospital's expansion and becoming recognized for excellence in health care. Sonderegger was also a member of the Arlington Heights Downtown Planning Task Force, which was instrumental in the development of the present downtown area.

This year's prayer breakfast will feature music by the Prospect High School Madrigal Singers.

Tickets for the breakfast and program will be $20 per person. Reservations must be made in advance. Call the Arlington Heights Chamber of Commerce, at (847) 253-1703 by Jan. 28.

This marks the 21st year in the current series of community prayer breakfasts of area residents and business people who come together with the aim of strengthening the spiritual character of the community and its leaders.

This Mayor's Community Prayer Breakfast is sponsored by a voluntary group of community residents who organized the event for all members of the community in an expression of their faith in God and fellowship with one another. The nondenominational event is patterned after the yearly President's Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., which was inaugurated in 1952, and the Illinois Governor's Prayer Breakfast.

Members of the Steering Committee for this year's Prayer Breakfast include: Fred Broviak, Ron Crawford, Chris Farnsworth, Jeanie Gain, Ken Nielsen, Jo Segalla, Carol Lynn Seifert, Ray Walker, Georgie Wiltse and Jon Ridler.