TriCity youth group heads north to 'rough it' and learn

Jim Otepka calls it the most significant "self-esteem builder" his organization offers to young people, in addition to being a sterling example of volunteerism in a paying-it-forward model.

Otepka, executive director of TriCity Family Services, is with two staff members and several volunteers this week for eight days of, as he puts it, "roughing it in the bush."

With them in the boundary water areas of northern Minnesota near the Canadian border are 30 young people taking part in the 19th annual Wilderness Challenge offered by TriCity Family Services.

"This program is really about social skill development, communication and problem-solving as a group," Otepka said of the trip offered for youths who are served by the organization.

"This is forced inter-dependency, and they really have to learn to work with each other," Otepka said.

The interesting twist this year, he added, is that two young men who participated in the Wilderness Challenge six or seven years ago have come back to participate as volunteer adult leaders.

"They felt it was such an important program for them that they want to share that with other young people," Otepka said.

Many adult volunteers return for their seventh or eighth consecutive year, he said, making the senior leadership for the volunteer group "pretty impressive."

Counting this year, he estimates the Wilderness Challenge has served 345 youths since it began 19 years ago.

It's a Swedish first: Yes, Virginia, as hard as it is to imagine, there are people who have never been to Swedish Days in Geneva.

And if you just opened a shop on Third Street for the first time, you might fall into that category.

When the grand summer festival starts Tuesday, one Third Street merchant will be ready for her first experience with Swedish Days.

"I have had people telling me to prepare to be busy because there are going to be a lot of people," said Ann Ellanson, whose Savannah Rose Boutique has been open for only two months above what will soon be Grotto Italian Tapas restaurant.

After five years of business in downtown Plainfield, Ellanson moved her shop, featuring vintage-inspired Southern Victorian merchandise, to Geneva's popular shopping district because -- close your ears if you were a business owner near any bridge work or street redevelopment in the Tri-Cities the past two decades -- she was tired of what seemed to be ongoing construction work in that downtown.

On June 26, Ellanson will host her grand opening, as will Cashmere, which has moved into that same building. For now, it will be all Ellanson hands on deck for Swedish Days.

"We'll be staying open later, and I have family and friends who will be helping out," Ellanson said. "I've heard so much about this festival, and we're really excited about being here."

They provide jobs: By now, plenty of families and youth organizations in the region have enjoyed the summer fun of minor-league baseball offered by the Kane County Cougars.

But in the 15 years the Cougars have called Elfstrom Stadium on Kirk Road home, think of the number of jobs that have been available for our local teens and young adults who might otherwise have had trouble finding summer work. Especially this year, with jobs being difficult for anyone to pin down, it is nice to know the Cougars are usually a decent place for teens to find work.

Day for dads: A conversation I recently overheard while looking for a movie at Blockbuster sums up quite well the role of a wise father. It is fitting on Father's Day to share this tale.

A father and his young son and daughter were combing the aisles, looking for a family movie to take home.

The little boy pulled one off the shelf and asked his sister if it would be OK. She sounded uncertain, saying it might scare him too much, and she called in Dad for his advice.

"We better not take that one home, buddy," he said to his son, who quickly protested with a sigh and a whine. "I don't think your mom would like that."

When the young boy persisted, and the young girl chimed in and said, "Dad, you have to quit worrying about what Mom says," the father thought for a minute and then put it all in perspective.

"Remember the last time we were here and we brought home that candy?" he asked his son.

"Yes," the boy replied, surely not certain where his dad was going with this.

"Remember what your mom said? Would you want to go through that again?" he asked, to which the boy said, "No."

And the father topped it off with, "Well, good, because this would be a lot worse."

To all of the wise fathers out there who know how to avoid a battle scene at home, Happy Father's Day!

dheun@sbcglobal.net