Naperville Education Center honors Kids' Best Friends

The Education Center in Naperville will honor individuals and groups during its annual Kids' Best Friend Benefit and Awards Dinner.

The event starts at 5:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 20, in the Hilton Lisle/Naperville Grand Ballroom, 3003 Corporate West Drive, Lisle.

This year's awards and winners are:

Best Friend Award

Tom Carroll, the now retired executive vice president and chief administrative officer of RR Donnelley, has dedicated his adult life to helping kids, families and communities through his work and volunteerism.

In his early career as a psychologist, he worked at a nonprofit organization, The Baby Fold, in Normal. The organization's mission to "embody Christian principles to help families and children develop the hope, courage and love they need to become whole and healthy" and "to never give up on a child" became part of his lifelong philosophy.

After six years at The Baby Fold, Carroll joined the staff of a hospital serving kids with special needs.

Later, as an executive at RR Donnelley, Carroll embraced the company's mission of making a difference in the communities in which employees work and live. Under his guidance, RR Donnelley has been a major sponsor of many youth-focused programs throughout Naperville, the Chicago area, and nationally.

Leading by example, Carroll served on many not-for-profit boards, including the Chicago Public Library Foundation, the Naperville Area Humane Society, Naperville Community Television, Chicago YMCA, Naperville Development Partnership, and North Central College.

Making a Difference Award

The Rotary Club of Naperville, Rotary Club of Naperville/Sunrise, and Rotary Club of Naperville/Downtown, recipients of the Making a Difference Award, have been long admired for their support of community and international causes.

While unified by the mission "Service above Self" and numerous international goals, such as the eradication of polio worldwide, each of Naperville's Rotary clubs has unique goals, projects and fundraisers to make a difference in the lives of others.

Throughout the past 76 years, the Rotary Club of Naperville has contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars and thousands of volunteer hours to support projects and organizations, including: capital projects such as Rotary Hill, the Millennium Carillon, the 95th Street YMCA, Naper Settlement's Pre-Emption House, and Naperville's Riverwalk; sculptures for Century Walk; grants and personal involvement in building freshwater wells and a dialysis clinic in India; solar ovens to Honduras and the Dominican Republic; medical supplies to equip a hospital in Nigeria; supporting Upendo Village in Africa; providing thousands of dollars in college scholarships to local students; and supporting numerous local not-for-profits.

The club is also dedicated to serving veterans by helping with the regional Stand Down Day, organizing coat drives for homeless veterans, and awarding veterans with Quilts of Valor.

The club supports the Rotary Youth Leadership Academy in the schools and youth leadership activities with the Naperville Area Chamber of Commerce.

The Sunrise Rotary club is involved in Naperville Unit District 203 mock trial and youth exchange and donates to local organizations dedicated to youth and family development.

Through the School Backpack Program each fall, club members provide backpacks filled with essential school supplies to children in Indian Prairie Unit District 204 and Hesed House in Aurora. The club also organizes an annual winter clothing drive, collecting coats, hats, gloves, mittens and scarves in boxes throughout the community.

The warm winter items are given to veterans and local organizations that provide services to people in need.

Sunrise Rotary Club's international efforts center on providing clean water in Guatemala. The club also is involved in suicide prevention programs. Among its most delightful activities, the club offers the popular Naper Lights holiday light display, which is free to the community on the grounds of Naper Settlement.

Many of the club's philanthropic activities are made possible through Sunrise Rotary's annual St. Paddy's Day 5K Run.

The Rotary Club of Naperville/Downtown, known affectionately as Naperville's 4:44 Club because of its late afternoon meeting time, focuses on supporting the Rotary Foundation and meeting unmet needs that make a difference in the community. To promote awareness of Alzheimer's and dementia, the club sponsors forget-me-not planters with signs at local businesses.

Another inspiring project uses music as a vehicle for human connection via ArtSpeaks. High school students create playlists of favorite music from past generations and upload those songs to special wireless earphones for individuals who live in nursing homes or who are aging in place at home.

The club's annual Rotary Ride for cyclists and bike riders raises funds for local nonprofits, including Naperville Responds for Veterans, Loaves and Fishes Community Services, SamaraCare, and End Polio Now, a Rotary Foundation commitment to eradicate this dreaded disease.

George and Pat Pradel Humanitarian Award

This year's George and Pat Pradel Humanitarian Award is being given to Thomas and Kathleen O'Donnell, honoring a caring couple whose many contributions to the community have been made quietly behind the scenes.

The children of Irish immigrants who came to America with little formal education, Tom and Kathleen were the first man and woman in their families to attend college. This couple raised six children, volunteered in the community, found unimagined success in business, and used their personal blessings to help others.

The O'Donnells' financial donations provided seed money for the founding of the Naperville Education Association and the Naperville Soccer Association. With a focus on education and Catholic Charities, they have quietly supported St. Raphael's School and parish, Ss. Peter and Paul, Benet Academy, Covenant Classical School, St. Patrick's Residence, Catholic Charities, and many other organizations.

During the Vietnamese refugee crisis, they supported multiple families through local community organizations. They are also major supporters of Notre Dame, providing first-year scholarships to local high school students who attend the university in South Bend and four-year scholarships to several other students annually.

They also funded two chairs at Notre Dame: the Thomas J. and Kathleen O'Donnell Chair of Irish Language and Literature and the Patrick B. O'Donnell Professor of Irish Studies, named in honor of their son.

Because of their commitment to education and the fact that Tom's uncle and father were involved in the Irish uprising in 1916, he was easily persuaded to write a check to help fund the award-winning documentary titled "1916 The Irish Rebellion."

Narrated by Liam Neeson, this three-part series tells the dramatic story of the events that took place in Dublin during Easter Week 1916, when a small group of Irish rebels took on the might of the British Empire. Although the rebels were defeated, the events of the 1916 Easter Rising were a precursor to an independent Irish state and inspired countless freedom struggles throughout the world.

Tickets are $125 per person and include a reception, dinner and live and silent auctions. For more information, contact the center at (630) 420-7807 or www.theeducationcenter.org.