Man throwing beer bash to honor late brother
Earlier this summer, Grant Hartung recalls sitting around a camp fire with his older brother, Alex, who stated that if he were to die, he wanted his brother to throw a party for him.
"I thought it would be 80 years from now, not a month after our conversation," said 20-year-old Grant Hartung, who grew up in Long Grove.
Honoring his brother's wishes, Grant is planning a big birthday bash at his apartment in Chicago for Alex, who would have turned 22 this past Wednesday. Grant publicized the party - to run from 8 p.m. today until 5 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 3 - on Facebook prominently promising that there will plenty of alcohol of all kinds, including a keg of Miller Lite because it was Alex's favorite.
"At any party held in Alex's benefit, there has to be a few beers there," said Grant, a junior at University of Illinois at Chicago.
The bash, which about 80 guests are expected to attend, comes just two weeks after Alex Hartung, a Stevenson High School graduate, was killed in a car accident in which police believe alcohol was a factor.
Marti Belluschi, an Alliance Against Intoxicated Motorists board member, disapproves of the party Grant Hartung is planning.
"AAIM strongly supports the message that it is against the law for anyone under 21 to drink," said Belluschi, who also is a drunken driving crash victim. "Alcohol should not be part of any memorial for someone killed in a car crash."
The Hartung family disagrees with police statements that alcohol was involved. On Sept. 20, Alex was riding in a 1995 Dodge Intrepid that lost control and smashed into a tree in Bass Lake, Wis.
The driver of the car, Mark A. Rhine, 22, of Buffalo Grove, was airlifted to St. Luke's Hospital in Duluth, Minn. The other passenger, Paul M. Mescher, 23, of Arlington Heights, remains in critical condition at Regions Hospital in St. Paul, Minn. Their families are requesting that information not be released about their conditions.
The three friends, two of them Northern Illinois University students, were at the Hartung summer home golfing and fishing for the weekend before the horrific accident took place.
Police said Thursday that they do not yet have toxicology reports in connection with the crash.
"And I'm not sure if we will be able to release the results of those tests," said Criminal Investigator Gary Gillis from the Sawyer County Sheriff's Department.
The St. Louis County, Minn., medical examiner did not return calls Thursday but has said alcohol was found in Alex's system.
Grant Hartung's parents declined to comment for this story, but his father, Adam Hartung, wrote on the Facebook page that he does not condone underage drinking or driving after drinking.
Grant noted that if partygoers do have too much to drink, they will be encouraged to spend the night.
After talking to a reporter, he noted on Facebook that keys of those without designated drivers will be collected at the door and held until morning.
Grant added that the bottom line is that this is what his big brother would want: "He would want a party thrown in his honor. He would want to get a bunch of people together to dance and have a couple beers."