Charity funds, volunteers provide safety railing for disabled Hoffman Estates veteran

Just in time for the holidays, funds from a Hoffman Estates charitable golf outing and volunteer union labor have provided a new safety railing separating the front walkway of the home of a disabled veteran and his wife from the steep four-foot drop into the adjacent driveway.

The grateful recipients were Army veteran William Dybas, 78, and his wife, Patty, 75, who’ve lived in their Hoffman Estates home for 50 years.

Patty said having a railing there is essential for anyone’s safety, but her husband uses an electric wheelchair and has been living with early-onset dementia.

“It’s great, because my husband put in the other one 40 years ago,” she said of Tuesday’s project.

“It worked, but it was rotten,” Carpenters Local 58 Business Representative Matt Oclon said of the remains of William’s long-ago handiwork.

Jennifer Djordjevic, director of operations and outreach for the mayor and village board’s office in Hoffman Estates, said the materials came from a fraction of the $30,850 raised for the village Health and Human Services Department’s Self Help Fund at the July 24 Hope Fore Hoffman event at Bridges of Poplar Creek Golf Club.

“This is exactly what those funds are intended to do,” she added.

The Dybases first made contact with the village hall to ask for assistance during their visit there for early voting. But Mayor Bill McLeod and Djordjevic followed that up with a home visit, where they learned of the need to replace the front railing.

Efforts were made to get the funding approved, the work permitted, and to reach out to Oclon at Carpenters Local 58 about the possibility of their volunteering for the job.

“He said this is great,” Djordjevic said. “This is a no-brainer for them.”

Oclon said such requests from the village and the Hoffman Estates Chamber of Commerce & Industry are virtually always approved because those agencies have already vetted the worthiness of the recipients.

“They’re pretty justified before they ask us,” Oclon said of these projects. “We’re proud to do it. It makes us feel good to do it.”

Oclon was joined on the three-person project by fellow Business Representative Alex Perez and first-year apprentice Justin Zara.

“Both of them volunteered and made short work of it,” he said.

The originally scheduled day last week was moved to Tuesday because frigid temperatures would have negatively affected the materials used during the construction, Oclon said.

There are still plans to go back and add a handrail to the structure later, but the team wanted to get the essentials in place as soon as possible.

Djordjevic said the original $25,000 goal of the summer golf outing was exceeded due to its generous sponsors.

“The Self-Help Fund specifically helps offset the costs of an urgent or short-term need — emergency housing, utility bills, food, and medical bills,” she said. “This fund will enable the HHS Department to provide wrap-around services and fill in gaps where our current programs cannot. The Dybas project is a perfect example of how these funds will be used.”