'Traveling bank' back in Arlington Heights

Mel Gaare still remembers the $20 he received from his hometown of Arlington Heights in 1942.

World War II was being fought overseas and Gaare -- a member of the Air Force -- was stationed in Missouri.

"Back then it was as much as an entire month of pay," said Gaare, who is 89 years old today. "It was a lot of money."

The $20 came from "the traveling bank," started in the early 1940s by Arlington Heights residents Mar and Lillian Johnson, owners of the Parkview Tavern at 19 E. Campbell St. Throughout the war, Parkview's patrons dropped change into the bank, which also had the names of all of the servicemen and women from Arlington Heights. Each week, a name was pulled from the box and the winner received that week's donations.

Peoples' Bank President Frank Appleby brought back the "traveling bank" to Arlington Heights on Thursday during an unveiling ceremony at the Metropolis Performing Arts Centre.

The new traveling bank will travel around Arlington Heights and donations will go to rotating non-profit agencies, Appleby said.

"If the Cubs had an early start tonight, I'd be talking to some empty easels and black curtains," Appleby told a crowd of about 100 people. "So I want to thank you for coming. I'd also like to thank major league baseball."

The non-profit groups selected to receive the donations won't be picked from a hat, said Peoples' Bank Senior Vice President Mary Ann Flynn.

"We will accept applications from area not-for-profit groups," she said. "They can take the bank and display to their event, or we will place it in the bank lobby and collect there on their behalf."

Gaare attended the event on Thursday and left with an almost life-size photograph of himself, taken when he was in uniform in 1942.

"A man from Chicago came out and took pictures of us guys in the service that day," said Gaare, who still lives in Arlington Heights. "It was taken at a park right across from Davis Street."

The first name pulled from the traveling bank in the early 1940s was Frank Bublitz who received around $4. Sometimes the weekly collections grew to $100, which would be about $1,200 today, said Michael Mulholland, the genealogy librarian from the Arlington Heights Memorial Library.