St. Charles East grad gets hands dirty

Maggie Zimmerman would like to clean up her act, but the 2005 graduate of St. Charles East literally has too much dirt piling up on her.

Zimmerman has been traveling throughout Africa since January, studying international development as part of a program through the University of Minnesota, while also doing internship work with Eco Ethics. She will be there until the end of June.

"Four years ago, Maggie was the one who convinced our family to do volunteer work in Tanzania," said Maggie's mother, Deb Zimmerman of St. Charles.

Maggie, who attends Elon University in North Carolina, will be leaving Nairobi, Kenya soon and be on her way for another six weeks in Mobassa on the coast.

In addition to learning about life in Africa and sharing her knowledge about development with her new friends in that country, Maggie informs her family that water rationing is so strict that she has about a half a bucket of water to wash herself. She said at first she would kid about how dirty she was getting, but now that she realizes she can't fully clean herself, she claims it's just starting to get "gross."

Something tells me she'll stick with it, no matter how much dirt she encounters.

Deb said the family will meet up with Maggie in Nairobi in a couple of months and plans to return to Tanzania to take a shot at climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa and considered the highest "walkable" mountain in the world.

More than 27 dresses

Girls who are preparing for their high school proms have been known to borrow or trade dresses amongst friends. So Lisa Dandre is hoping to carry over that trait in a way that will help the Northern Illinois Food Bank.

Dandre is the adviser for the 50 members of the SkillsUSA club at St. Charles East High School. The club will try for the first time to raise some money with dresses.

"The club has been collecting formal dresses since just after the holidays," Dandre said. "We have had many dresses donated."

The plan is to stage a re-sale event from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. Wednesday in the high school's main commons, where dresses will be sold for $10 each, with proceeds going to the food bank.

"This is a service project for SkillsUSA, which stresses combining the skills of the business and trades worlds for the betterment of the community," Dandre explained.

"This dress sale is an experiment, but we know how girls trade dresses with friends, so we're going to try this," she added.

The dresses will be on display in the morning for browsers, with the hope they will be shoppers in the afternoon, Dandre said.

It was close then

Bill Foster's victory over Jim Oberweis for the 14th Congressional District seat didn't take me entirely by surprise -- but it was more than 20 years since there was a legitimate two-party race here.

In early 1986, I got a phone call from a reporter at the Chicago Tribune. I was the managing editor of a newspaper covering the congressional race between Republican Dennis Hastert and Democrat Mary Lou Kearns for the seat vacated when Rep. John Grotberg had become ill.

I was called because our paper had conducted a survey of voters, showing that Kearns had plenty of support.

The reporter asked how "scientific" the survey was, and my answer was that it was based on the science of what about 200 people were telling us and not much more than that.

In the end, Hastert won his first term, but by a narrow margin, garnering 52 percent of the vote. So even back then, there were Democrats hiding out in this Republican stronghold.

Tempting with sweets

Tony and Cindy Godek of the Sweet Nostalgia candy store in Geneva sent me an invitation to stop in their store and check out the Fizzies, Bun bars, Bosco syrup, Zagnuts and any of the other "more than 400 candies we have in stock."

They must know of my legendary sweet tooth. I reminded them that I have indeed visited their store, and it sparked me to write about the wonderful sweets that I enjoyed as a youngster.

It is worth noting, however, that since the Godeks moved the store -- then called Candy, Candy, Candy -- from Third Street to a location at 318 W. State St., it has earned top honors in Chicago Magazine as the best old-fashioned candy store in the area.