Good News Sunday: Gold Star parents welcome 48 Navy recruits for Christmas Day

This is Good News Sunday, a compilation of some of the more upbeat and inspiring stories published recently by the Daily Herald:

Forty-eight recruits from Naval Station Great Lakes were greeted with smiles, hugs and a parade line of flags Christmas Day at Christian Liberty Academy in Arlington Heights.

Gold Star parents Bob and Linda Stack facilitated the gathering for the 10th year.

The Navy recruits received a full day of food, fun, support, entertainment and phones to call home while at the Arlington Heights school.

Naval Station Great Lakes is the basic training site for all Navy sailors from across the nation. Recruits are usually 18- to 20-year-old men and women who are "sequestered" for eight weeks while they receive their training. This is often the first Christmas that many of these young recruits will spend away from home and family.

The tradition of hosting them was started by Bob Stack, a teacher at Christian Liberty, and his wife in honor of their son James Bray Stack, a lance corporal in the Marines, who was killed Nov. 10, 2010, in Afghanistan.

For the full story, click here.

Father, daughter reunited with DNA test celebrate first Christmas together

The holidays this year at the Mackey house in Lindenhurst came with the celebration of a gift no one imagined.

Angela McGowan planned to head north from her home in Naperville to be with Tim Mackey, the father she had been looking for most of her life. Mackey and his family were set to welcome the 34-year-old daughter he didn't know he had until this year.

While presents were expected to be exchanged, the pair who connected on March 1 through commercial DNA testing say they've already received the gift of a lifetime.

For McGowan, it literally was the end of a journey and dream come true. For Mackey, it was a shocking revelation that triggered waves of emotions and questions.

McGowan was adopted as an infant, and the only father she knew died when she was 4 years old. She had been looking for her biological father for years, but it was Mackey who found her when he received a 23andMe report on March 1 identifying Angela McGowan as his daughter. He reached out to her on the website and received a nearly immediate response.

"She said, 'Hi, Dad,' and I was on my knees after 10 minutes of crying," Mackey said.

For the full story, click here.

Mount Prospect girl sells luminarias; proceeds go to fire department

A Mount Prospect neighborhood got some extra-bright holiday cheer last week, courtesy of a girl with a charitable heart.

Pledging to donate the proceeds to the Mount Prospect Fire Department, 12-year-old Delaney Dixon sold sets of paper luminarias - small candles set in paper bags that are weighted with sand - to dozens of her neighbors along South Kenilworth Avenue.

"Christmas is about giving back to people, so I wanted to give back to the people who help us every day," said Delaney, a seventh grader at Lincoln Middle School.

The fire department, in turn, will give the money raised - about $1,000 - to its annual food and toy drive for local families, Chief John Dolan said.

It's the second consecutive year Delaney sold luminarias for charity. Last year's enterprise raised about $750 for the Mount Prospect Police Department, which donated the money to the 100 Club of Illinois, a nonprofit organization that assists first responders and their families.

For the full story, click here.

Jeeps on the Run boosts Christmas joy for kids in Lake, McHenry County

Christmas morning was brighter for thousands of youngsters in Lake and McHenry counties this year after a Jeeps on the Run event raised nearly $60,000 in cash and drew tens of thousands of toy donations in early December.

Five hundred Jeeps participated in this year's run, which took place Dec. 4 and went from Ray Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram in Fox Lake to the Genesee Theatre in Waukegan.

"We filled two 53-foot semitrailers and two seven-ton military trucks with toys," said Mike Missak, who founded Jeeps on the Run 10 years ago.

"On Dec. 14, we went shopping with the funds collected from the raffles, including the Jeep Wrangler raffle. We spent $25,000 and filled another box truck with countless toys."

Missak said Jeeps on the Run worked with Toys for Tots in Lake and McHenry counties to ensure that toys would be distributed in time for Christmas to children in need across the region.

Additionally, checks for $14,500 and $20,000, respectively, were written to Toys for Tots Lake County and Toys for Tots McHenry County to make some last-minute toy purchases for age groups in which both groups were falling short.

For the full story, click here.

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