Crop Hunger Walk helps bolster charities
Liz Eakins feels she may be viewing the perfect storm that this prolonged recession has brewed for St. Charles’ homeless shelter.
Eakins, the executive director of Lazarus House, wrote in her monthly newsletter that the number of women and children at the shelter has risen dramatically from this time a year ago. As of late September, there were 29 children at the shelter, or a 44 percent increase over last year.
It leaves those providing this social service contemplating what to do if the numbers keep growing as foreclosures continue, unemployment remains high and emergency assistance grants and rent subsidy programs dry up.
Ultimately, those who have been involved in the Lazarus House operations for the past decade and more realize how important community support has been — and they’ll continue to need it.
A good place to start is the 2011 Crop Hunger Walk at 2 p.m. Sunday in Batavia. Walkers raising money for Lazarus House, the Northern Illinois Food Bank, Salvation Army and the Batavia Food Pantry will be heading out from the Batavia Depot.
Mrs. Brown’s daughter: Yes, she was a lovely daughter. Or at least that’s what Peter Noone of Herman’s Hermits always told us in the mid 1960s. I’ve seen this band in action not long ago, and they still know how to make you feel like you’re enjoying the British Invasion again.They#146;ll be at the Arcada at 8 p.m. Saturday if you want to get in on the fun.Delightful gyros: As a general rule, I stay away from gyros because the taste stays in my mouth for about a month it seems. Because of that, it would be fair to say this Greek specialty is not one of my favorites.But I tried the Gyros Pocket sandwich during the anniversary celebration last Thursday at Fresh D#146;Lite in the Geneva Commons.I kept most of the onions off to the side, so the sandwich fit the name of the restaurant. It was indeed, a fresh delight. I will be back for that meal sometime in the near future.Mostly, it was good to see owner Paul Chaudury draw a full house to his event, in which he served up free samples of some new dishes. It likely gave a lot of new customers an introduction to a restaurant that#146;s not going to knock them out with high fat and sodium content in its food.A major turnout: Now, that was crowded. With Mother Nature providing possibly the best weather a Tri-Cities area festival has ever had, the St. Charles Scarecrow Festival basked in what had to be record crowds last weekend.This was the first year, it seems, in which cars were parked in the Oak Street neighborhoods around Haines Middle School, several blocks from the Lincoln Park festivities.Rather typical: Why am I not getting all spooked about this talk regarding the upcoming winter being one of the worst ever? Or at least, as the headlines screamed, one that will make me #147;want to move.#148;Simple explanation: Every winter makes me want to move. And I never move.dheun@sbcglobal.net