Good News Sunday: Restaurants keep hospital workers fed; Addison dad discharged after 44 days

This is Good News Sunday, a compilation of some of the more upbeat and inspiring stories published by the Daily Herald during the previous week:

Nearly 6,000 meals donated to hospital staff

Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights is counting the ways the community has shown its generosity to doctors, nurses and other staff who are responding to the coronavirus pandemic.

In fact, the hospital has tallied at least 5,945 such ways local eateries have reached the hearts of these front-line workers — through their stomachs.

That's the number of individual meals that have been donated to the hospital as of April 30, with more donations still coming in, hospital officials say.

The food has included more than 500 barbecue meals from BBQ'd Productions in Lake Zurich, 600 sub sandwiches from Jersey Mike's on Higgins Road in Schaumburg, 140 Thai lunches from Siri Thai in Palatine, and 150 mini bundt cakes from Nothing Bundt Cakes in Mount Prospect.

That doesn't include several thousand more extras like bagels, doughnuts, muffins, pastries, Girl Scout Cookies, prepackaged snacks, energy smoothies and water bottles dropped off by local business owners and community members.

For the full story, click here.

Young Addison dad discharged after 44 days

At only 30 years old and otherwise healthy, Jonathan Davila is not the usual face of COVID-19.

His odds for surviving the virus seemed favorable. But the Addison dad would face a far longer road to recovery than most.

After 44 days in the hospital, Davila finally reunited with his wife and children Tuesday afternoon. Doctors, nurses and other front-line health care workers at Elmhurst Hospital celebrated his discharge by lining a hallway, cheering, clapping and waving signs in recognition of their combined efforts in saving Davila's life.

“It came to a time where I didn't believe he was going to come home,” his wife, Ashley King, said. “I was starting to think of how I was going to tell my kids that they weren't going to have their dad. But right when it was at that point, I got the call that he was doing better.”

For the full story, click here.

How the Arcada Theatre is renovating

In his 15 years operating the Arcada Theatre, Ron Onesti has developed a vision for the historic downtown St. Charles venue.

Some upgrades have been requested by customers over the years. Other ideas stemmed from Onesti's own desire to improve the entertainment experience for his patrons and performers.

With help from the theater's new owners, he's now able to bring “every single one” of those concepts to life.

Renovation plans have been ongoing for about nine months, Onesti said, with much of the infrastructure upgrades and other “heavy lifting” completed before the coronavirus pandemic prompted the theater's temporary closure.

Most of the improvements are now expected to be finished by July.

“By the time we're ready to open our doors again, we're going to be a bright, shiny new penny,” Onesti said.

For the full story, click here.

Grayslake soccer fan scores call from English player after postponed trip

Max Hund of Grayslake received the phone call of his young life earlier this week.

The 10-year-old soccer player and his father, Chris, spoke Tuesday with Mason Holgate, a professional soccer player for Everton of the English Premier League.

“It was really cool talking to an actual player on one of your favorite teams,” said Max, who plays for Libertyville-based FC 1974.

The call — recorded on both ends and made into a video — was the latest in a remarkable sequence of events for the Hund family that began in early February after Max insisted they enter a contest.

For the full story, click here.

Cary native uses old tires to make sculptures

Cary native Tani Ojeda has a menagerie of wildlife for sale from his family's Wonder Lake garage. But there's no need to call McHenry County Animal Control — these frogs, swans and the oversize crocodile are mostly made out of used tires.

“I feel like I'm helping the environment, because everyone is trying to find a way to get rid of these tires,” said Ojeda, 44. “I feel like I'm helping the community, and I'm helping make somebody else's yard unique and different.”

For the full story, click here.

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