Downtown Elgin rises up to help ailing member

Keeney's Sporting Goods store and the Keeney name have been synonymous with downtown Elgin for more than a century.

And now that owner Patricia Keeney has been hospitalized with a kidney ailment, the downtown community is banding together to support her.

While Keeney recovers at Provena St. Joseph Hospital, eight volunteers from the Downtown Neighborhood Association are running the shop in her absence, said Mary Ann Imhoff, who has known Keeney since 2004.

The DNA is also accepting donations to help Keeney offset her medical expenses, and several downtown businesses have reserved collection jars for the Patricia Keeney Fund.

Keeney has been hospitalized since Oct. 26, said Imhoff, who urged her to check into the hospital.

She was initially housed in the intensive care unit, but as of Saturday, Keeney was staying in a regular room, enjoying the calls, gifts and flowers from well wishers, but missing the turquoise rings she ordinarily wears on every finger.

“I feel lucky to be here today, I feel lucky to be with my friends and relatives,” Keeney said Monday. “Without having good friends and relatives, you can't survive. That's simply the truth of it.”

Keeney is the primary caregiver for her 90-year-old mother, Kathryn. The store, which sells everything from gym suits to Civil War weapons and vintage clothing, is their only source of income.

Imhoff works in the box office at the Hemmens Cultural Center and went to Keeney's Monday for the 1 to 6 p.m. shift.

She had previously worked at the store for 2½ years after Kathryn Keeney retired, and has helped bring the other volunteers up to speed on the store's operations.

Imhoff called Patricia Keeney the mother of downtown Elgin and said she's helped people down on their luck by letting them work in the store for a few hours.

“What I really like about Pat is she connects with everybody it doesn't matter what their background or color or race,” Imhoff said. “She's very generous, very much loved by all and she's just a great lady.”

The store has been around in one incarnation or another since 1883 and is one of the oldest businesses in town.

As well, the Keeney family goes back more than 100 years in Elgin.

If you would like to support the Patricia Keeney Fund, you can visit or mail donations to the Downtown Neighborhood Association Offices at 2 Douglas Ave., Elgin, Ill. 60120.