Gaffney soon to have his words, music published
Blowing his own horn, or trumpet, in the sixth-grade band sent Kevin Gaffney's love of music soaring. It led him down a path in which he should be blowing his own horn again - this time, the marketing horn.
Gaffney, a member of the St. Charles Parks Foundation and Heritage Center boards, recently learned that Prentice Hall will publish his recording of "The Star Spangled Banner" from his CD, "Kevin Gaffney Patriotic Songs."
Gaffney, a father of five who works in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and is an adjunct professor of criminal law at Judson University, still finds time to play his trumpet - mostly to promote patriotic tunes. Prentice Hall will be marketing its album, "Bonds: Listen to This" directly to college bookstores and libraries.
"My first desire was to play the drums, but my parents, especially my mom objected," said Gaffney, who plans to record a CD of famous movie and Broadway tunes this summer. "Our next-door neighbors had a drum set, so we were all aware of the noise the drums could make."
Gaffney chose the trumpet instead when at Haines Junior High, but his passion for patriotic music was fueled when his family moved to Florida and he was in a marching band through his high school years.
His love of music has been passed onto his family, which he formed into the Kevin Gaffney Family Brass Ensemble.
"I have to admit that music was not my first love when I was young," Gaffney said. "It was basketball and baseball."
But taking lessons from a member of the Chicago Symphony helped Gaffney get hooked.
Gaffney also enjoys writing and he'll be signing his new book at the history center in May. It's about St. Charles veterans and will include DVDs with music and photos.
The art of freezing: There doesn't seem to be any way around this reality: If you are going to paint outdoor winter scenes, it means you're going to be painting outdoors in the winter.
That didn't seem to bother artist Kevin Hunter, who has an art studio in Batavia, other than his fingers were getting cold last weekend while oil-painting a scene of the Japanese Garden at Fabyan Forest Preserve.
It just happened to be about 2 degrees at the time, but Hunter was bundled up and trying to manage the stroke of the brush while wearing winter gloves.
"It isn't too bad, other than the tips of my fingers getting cold," Hunter said. "The oil-based paint holds up well in the cold, unlike when I tried to use water color about a week ago.
"That was stupid," Hunter admitted.
Hunter, whose art can be seen on his Web site at kevinhunterart.com, was joined by a friend, Ryan White, who was painting along the riverbank.
And what was I doing down there on a cold Sunday morning? Walking the dog, of course.
Some digging to do?: City and park district officials say that it won't halt the plans to construct the Batavia band shell, but it will take some good-old Yankee ingenuity to figure out how to remove underground utility lines that are in the path of the shell construction.
It won't be an easy task to get those lines, deep in the bedrock along the Riverwalk, out of the way. When all of the thinking caps are handed out, the hope is that there might be a way to get around relocating the lines or at least cutting down the task at hand.
The lines service the Riverain Point apartments just to the north and east of where the shell is to be located.
The other sculpture: Some interesting snow sculptures were on display in the parking lot of the Geneva Commons after a contest held last week.
But there's another one in the front of Graham's Chocolates along Third Street in Geneva that catches your eye. The giant owl looks to be a tribute to the owls that have been making a tree in front of the nearby county courthouse their home the past few years.
She tackled it: When I spoke to Alicia McCareins late last year about her efforts to raise food donations for the Northern Illinois Food Bank in St. Charles as a member of Campbell's "NFL Moms Tackling Hunger" program, I had a feeling she would do well. The story in the Herald this week proved my instincts were correct.
McCareins, of Naperville, and mother of Tennessee Titans receiver Justin McCareins, was one of the top three moms after she raised 43 tons of food donations.
For her efforts, she earned a trip to the Super Bowl today in Tampa, Fla. I am sure she would have preferred going to see her son, who was a star at Naperville North and Northern Illinois University, play in his second Super Bowl, but things didn't work out well for top seeds in the NFL playoffs this year.
dheun@sbcglobal.net