People still wiling to help worthy cause

Despite the hard economic times, it's great to hear that people are still willing to help out a worthy cause.

Fire fighters from the Carpentersville fire department raised $7,513.98 in the Fill the Boot campaign benefiting the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

For three days earlier this month, firefighters stood out at the intersection of Lake Marian and Route 25, Main Street and Route 31 and along sections of Randall Road, collecting money. The department came in second behind Elgin in money raised and were named the most improved for Kane and DuPage counties.

Firefighter/paramedic Pat Gillespie and Firefighter Michael Knowlton - who both recently celebrated two decades with the department - were instrumental in the fundraiser.

Recycle that PC: Do you have a stack of old cassette tapes, compact discs or other electronic equipment gathering dust in your basement or otherwise taking up valuable storage space?

If you are looking for a place to dump the obsolete stuff, the Kane County Environmental Management department is hosting a Dundee Township electronics recycling day on Saturday, Sept. 27 from 8 a.m. to noon in the parking lot of Santa's Village, on Route 25, half a mile south of Route 72.

The day is free to Kane County residents and residents of Elgin and Aurora. For a complete list of what's permitted, go to http://www.co.kane.il.us/Environment/recycle/electronic.htm. The recycling center is also open from 8 a.m. to noon on select Fridays and Saturdays throughout the year.

Festival plans: The planned marriage between the Carpentersville's OctoberFest and the Chicago Cyclocross race scheduled for Sunday, Oct. 19, has a new moniker. It is now the OctoberCross.

Details for the event are still being ironed out, but it sounds like the beer garden will be open from 1 to 5 p.m. instead of the originally planned noon to 4 p.m. time slot. The change makes sense: the festival runs until 5 p.m. and you don't want festivalgoers to burn out too early. No word yet on the beer vendor, though.

Trustee Linda Ramirez-Sliwinski, the parks committee chairwoman, said the village has spoken to both the Budweiser and Samuel Adams distributor. Randall Roadhouse will serve the brew.

Clean it up: If you want to make a difference in the Carpentersville community, the Carpentersville Improvement Committee is looking for volunteers to join the group. The committee has started cleaning up abandoned or foreclosed homes in the area - cutting grass, cleaning up debris and pulling weeds.

In fact, the group was out during last weekend's torrential rains cleaning up a home. Members took about three hours to clean up the yard that reportedly had grass taller than some of the members.

Though the group could never maintain every forgotten property in the village, their efforts should not go unnoticed. The yards they have cleaned up are in great shape and some neighbors have even volunteered to take care of the properties. They could use as many volunteers as they can attract.