Family that helped others now reaps community support
In these modern, transient suburbs where the push of careers and ever-changing lifestyles can leave one with only a fleeting sense of belonging to a place, Charles "Skip" Mennerick and his wife, Erika Houtz, had deep roots in Elburn and understood the meaning of community. In the wake of their tragedy, Erika appreciates that even more.
"Skip was the kind of guy everybody in the neighborhood calls when you need something," says Bill Grosser, 52, who, with his wife Jane, helped chaperone their church youth group camping trip where teenage Skip and Erika became "Skip and Erika."
"The flames of love first were ignited around the campfire on that trip," says Jane Grosser, 48. "My husband and I have watched them grow up."
Married and busy with their two young kids, the Mennericks couldn't dedicate much time to the youth group's breakfast last Easter at their Rejoice Lutheran Church in Geneva, but "Erika shoved a nice check in the donation box," says Jane Grosser. "They are two of the nicest people ever. A lot of people are all about themselves, and they were not. There was a good sense of community there."
Now, the community is coming together to help the Mennericks.
"It's weird to be on the receiving end of it, but we're very honored," says Erika Mennerick, who still seems a bit stunned by the 800 or so people who stood in line in the rain to pay their respects at her husband's wake. "To hear people's stories of how Skip went out of his way to help others; that's how he lived, and now people are going out of their way to help us."
On Oct. 23, a Friday morning, Skip didn't show up at the usual time for his job at R.F. Houtz and Son, the Cub Cadet dealership where he started working at age 16 for Rob Houtz, Erika's dad, and was in the process of taking over the reins. Erika, a chiropractor looking forward to her 31st birthday the next week, had taken their young children into the large garage and was loading them into their car seats when their lives changed forever.
"I put the kids in the car and I heard his (Skip's) phone chirp," Erika recalls. "I thought, 'Why was his phone on the floor?' Then I walked around and found him."
Skip, only 29, was dead, pinned under his 1-ton pickup truck, which had fallen while he was working under it. Erika jacked up the truck, pulled out her husband and began resuscitation attempts. One of the first police officers who arrived had sat next to Erika at their CPR class. Several of the paramedics were friends of the couple.
"I've had a lot of friends be right there for me," Erika says.
To benefit Erika and her children, Cole, 5, and Kiera, 2 1/2, the community is hosting the Skip Mennerick Memorial Concert starting at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Arcada Theatre, 105 E. Main St. in St. Charles. Tickets, available at www.thearcada.com, are $25. Information from the family's church is available at www.rejoiceinthemission.org.
"We were just looking for a way to help her out, a young mother with two little kids," says Dennis Morgan, 52, one of the organizers and a guitarist with August, the popular local band that is donating its performance to benefit the Mennerick family. Also appearing will be guitarist/singer/songwriter Greg Boerner. The Space Collective, a Geneva High School jazz trio, also will play.
All the musical performances and the theater are donated, Morgan says, so the money will go to the family.
"We hope to raise some funds to ease some of their burdens and worries," Jane Grosser says, "and then just showing her the love of our community."
Having been on the other side of helping people, the Mennericks understand that concept.
"You get whatever life hands you, but you can turn it into something that destroys you or something you grow from," Erika says. "I have two beautiful children and a wonderful life. I'm happy to be in Elburn and have that community there for me."