St. Charles church making most out of Haiti mission

"There are a lot of mission trips available through Christ Community Church," Ingersoll said of the St. Charles parish. "But many of those are construction-type trips, like to Louisiana or Mexico.

"My knees and back are not what they used to be, so I was looking for something else."

When a medical mission as part of World Relief-Haiti was being offered, Ingersoll did not hesitate.

"That one jumped out at me, because I was a registered nurse," said Ingersoll, who owns a promotional advertising company in St. Charles with her husband Chuck. "I looked into this one, and it looked pretty spectacular."

Ingersoll will join about 20 other Christ Community Church members for the trip in early November to support the King's Garden orphanage and hospital in Delmas, Haiti.

"Something in my heart said this was the one mission to go on," said Ingersoll, who credits Ro and Karen Sparacio of Geneva with organizing the church's missions.

Trips aid many causes

The Sparacios started organizing the charitable trips for Christ Community about six years ago, Karen Sparacio says.

"My husband sold his business and retired, and this gave us the time to be able to do this," Karen said.

Karen said this Haiti trip is unique in that a group will go in late October ahead of the medical team to organize a conference that will help women in the impoverished country improve their lives.

"We've done these trips before, so we know the ins and outs, but each team that travels is different," Karen said. "It is only a three-hour trip, and Haiti is actually in the same time zone as us, but we do deal with extreme heat and humidity, and extreme poverty."

Some dirty driving

Those trucks you see pulling in and out of Settler's Hill landfill are doing a dirty job. No, the landfill hasn't secretly reopened, though one would suspect as much based on the truck traffic at the landfill entrance stoplight on Fabyan Parkway.

"They're bringing in dirt that will be used to cover the landfill," Kane County Development Director Phil Bus said. "It's clay and black dirt being used as a final cover over the synthetic cover, and it will be seeded, and this is the best time to do that."

Bus said the dirt and seeding project is behind schedule because of the August rains, but he hopes it will be completed before winter sets in.

"If a driver at a construction site has some extra dirt, he will bring it to the landfill," Bus said. "Construction companies are often looking for places to drop extra dirt."

Keeping an eye on us

When it comes to the idea of Geneva or Kane County installing cameras at intersections, I think of the Robert DeNiro character in "Meet the Parents" when he points to his eyes, saying, "I'm watching you."

There's the usual amount of murmuring going on in regards to having red-light cameras installed that would take pictures of drivers who do not stop at red lights. Drivers who run red lights and are captured on camera would get a $100 fine, but no black mark on their driving record.

The argument about invading our privacy pales a bit when you observe some of the lousy driving taking place at our intersections. You don't have to wait long to see someone go through a red light. It makes you realize there is no doubt that extra camera surveillance, with signs warning drivers about it, will provide extra safety.