Kids raise funds for Lombard heart patient

For the past five years, 10-year-old Abby Glenzinski of Lombard has been one kid helping other kids, raising money with an annual summer Fun Fair for a charity that provides baby supplies.

This year, she changed it up a bit. She decided to be one kid helping one other kid, a boy whose medical condition and successful surgery have been making headlines.

“We donated the money to Tim Grobart, who had a heart transplant, and we’re helping with the medical funds,” Abby said.

Abby’s 5-year-old sister, Cleo, went to preschool with Tim, a Lombard 5-year-old who in late June underwent the first heart transplant at the new Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago. Abby decided to help his family with proceeds from her Fun Fair, held Wednesday in the Glenzinski family’s front yard.

The event raised more than $700 for the Grobart family. Add in money raised from a lemonade stand operated by a few of Abby’s friends, and the total comes to $902.66.

“We put it in his bank account,” Abby said about the donation. “One day, we’re going to get a big check and all go to his house.”

The Fun Fair that began when Abby was 5 has grown into a fundraiser involving her family, community members and friends from Madison School in Lombard Elementary District 44, where she will begin fifth grade next month. The gathering raises money by selling homemade items or the chance to play games like Bozo Buckets for a donation. This year’s fair had a do-it-yourself artistic theme.

“It was kind of more like an arts and crafts fair. I asked my friends to make something for the fair,” Abby said. “One of my friends did bottle cap necklaces, another did duct tape accessories like bows and bracelets.”

Those who made donations included David Danielski, principal of Hammerschmidt School, where Tim is set to begin attending next month. Tim returned home from the hospital Thursday after medical tests showed no cause for concern, his parents wrote on their Friends of Tim Facebook page.

Abby said she couldn’t imagine going through a heart transplant or all the other surgeries and tests Tim has endured, but she was glad her Fun Fair could provide some help to his family.

Abby’s mother, Margaret Glenzinski, said the best part of the fundraiser was not the donation itself, but the fact it came from kids.

“There has been a lot of fundraising and support from the adults in town, so it is great to see kids getting involved,” Glenzinski said. “We were all pretty proud of all the hard work the kids did and with the turnout.”