Revisiting the memorial teaching dock at Peck Farm Park

Dedicating a park or some other type of structure to a person who has committed part of their lives to serving the community is a lasting gesture.

Sometimes these structures are somewhat off the beaten path, so it doesn't hurt to remind us where they are.

One such place is the Ralph Dantino Teaching Dock located at the banks of Peck Lake on the Geneva Park District's Peck Farm property.

Dantino, a well-liked Geneva alderman and member of the park district's foundation board from 1994 to 2009, succumbed to cancer in February 2013.

Because he loved the Peck Farm facility and worked hard to help the park district establish it as a community education and recreation area, the district built a classroom setting made of logs and dedicated it to Dantino in October of 2013.

"The middle school brings classes down there and it's just a wonderful setting," said Nancy Dantino, Ralph's widow.

"We just love Peck Farm and it is such a peaceful place, we do get out there a lot," she added. "I miss Ralph very much and think of him often."

A special pleasure for Nancy came when one of her grandchildren announced, "We went to Papa's teaching deck," in sharing that her Brownies troop made a visit.

The teaching dock is a fine tribute to a great guy, but I would also offer this about Ralph Dantino: He should probably have some sort of shrine in his memory for the effort he put in for the Dancing with the Geneva Stars event in February 2011.

He made it to that Geneva Cultural Arts Commission fundraiser with Nancy so they could do their dance routine, even though he came straight from a hospital bed where he was undergoing treatments for the illness that would eventually take his life.

Talk about "the show must go on." Ralph took it to another level that night.

Importance of a chef:

These ladies and gentlemen don't get as much notoriety as a new mayor, police chief, school superintendent or pastor in a community, but let's just say this: The chefs who work in our finer restaurants certainly have an important role in making all of us happy.

With that in mind, it makes sense that the Herrington Inn in Geneva made a nice splash in introducing its new executive chef Jeffery Potter to its team.

Potter will be busy in the Atwater restaurant at the Herrington Inn, coming here from a recent stint at Hotel Arista in Naperville.

More calories?:

Based on my past ramblings, readers sure don't mind passing along ideas to me that will equate to more calories. But for this one, I was all ears.

These readers suggest I put Heidi's Bakery in Geneva on my to-do list, and try a personal-size pie.

They recently took 70 of these delightful creations to what was called their daughter's "I do/BBQ" party. That must mean she accepted a marriage proposal and everyone celebrated by eating barbecue.

The pies were "the hit of the party," they said, while giving the cherry pie particularly high marks.

And who says this isn't a great country?

Had to see it:

Sure, it didn't get great reviews and it was asking a lot for the new version of "Ben-Hur" to match the Oscar-winning classic from 1959.

Even though it was getting pounded at the box office, I had to go see it. Since I was just a kid plunking down 50 cents to see a Saturday matinee, my addiction to "spear-and-sandal" flicks runs deep. Whether it was "Hercules Unchained" or "Jason and the Argonauts" or "The 300 Spartans" it didn't matter. In my mind, they were the greatest movies ever made.

But I was exposed to the real deals as well with the 1959 version of "Ben-Hur" and then "Spartacus" a year later. And that was it. I would never miss a movie based on the spectacle of Rome again.

So how is the new "Ben-Hur"? Great, of course. How could it not be?

Reason for center:

This was probably another excellent reason for voters to approve Batavia High School adding the Batavia Fine Arts Centre to the campus. The school district now has a fine venue to conduct its annual Hall of Honor Celebration to recognize current and past students and teachers who have represented the schools well.

It wasn't that long ago when most school plays or other special events basically took place on a stage in the school cafeteria.

Tickets are available on the district's website for this year's celebration on Thursday, Sept. 15. Adults can attend for $25, while children and students are $5 each.

This year's honorees get to bask in the glory of homecoming week as well, getting a mention during the parade that week and the Friday night football game.

Taste buds anxious:

OK, this time I will practice some restraint. At last year's Festival of the Vine in Geneva, I ate way too much at the Flavor Fare food tent.

It was one of the few times I felt a bit uncomfortable when heading home afterward.

The Flavor Fare might be one of my favorite parts of any local community festival, but it is easy to go overboard if you don't pace yourself a bit.

In other words, don't be a knucklehead like me and eat four or five samples in rapid fire. Figure out your best strategy and enjoy the festival and the food tent, starting Friday night in downtown Geneva.

Next column runs Thursday:

This week there will be a different run date for my next column. It will publish on Thursday, Sept. 7. After that, I'll be back to my usual Sunday/Wednesday schedule.

• dheun@sbcglobal.net