Latest news with #ChristianNeighborsChurch
Chicago Tribune
28-04-2025
- General
- Chicago Tribune
Hundreds volunteer to clean up Waukegan neighborhoods, beach; ‘This is the right thing to do'
As more than 300 people — wearing green T-shirts that read '#4 Waukegan' — gathered in the Christian Neighbors Church parking lot on the last day of Earth Week, the Rev. Luke McFadden, the church's pastor, told them their mission was about more than removing garbage. Telling the crowd they were about to go into different neighborhoods to be good neighbors to their community collecting discarded rubbish, McFadden said being a good neighbor is about caring for people. He asked them to reach out to others as well. 'Love your neighbor by listening,' he said, knowing there were participants from 18 churches and other organizations. 'Meet a new neighbor. Talk to someone (in your group) you've never met before. Listen to them. Get to know them. Understand them.' Brian Diamond and Steven Kik of Libertyville belong to the same church — CrossLife Evangelical Free Church — but never met until they were assigned to the same group of about 50 people to clear the area around Belvidere Road and Lewis Avenue of strewn garbage. Diamond said he grew up at CrossLife, had seen Kik a time or two, but they never had occasion to talk to him. Kik said he recently moved to the area, so now he has a new friend. 'I'm new to the church,' Kik said. 'We started talking and learned we had a lot in common. We'll be doing things together now.' McFadden was pleased to hear his message got across to Kik and Diamond. He was hoping something similar happened to others. 'God brings people closer together as they serve side by side,' McFadden said in a text after the event. 'New connections are made, and relationships are formed as people band together to bless the community.' Kik, Diamond and McFadden were among hundreds of people on hand Saturday to gather tons of trash on the last day of Waukegan's fourth-annual Earth Week in a variety of neighborhoods, as well as the beach and harbor. Starting with a recycling event at the Waukegan Public Library on April 19 and finishing with multiple cleanups on Saturday, the week was highlighted by the city's Public Works Department providing a Dumpster in each of the nine wards on a given day. There were 45 Dumpsters used altogether. 'It's grown the last year as more people are learning about it,' Mayor Ann Taylor said as the beach cleanup started. 'We learned more each day as people came to the Dumpsters with their spring cleaning.' As people left the Christian Neighbors Church parking lot, with one group removing trash in downtown Waukegan and the other five cohorts heading to neighborhoods around the city, Sandy Pogue was part of the contingent going to Lewis and Belvidere. While others were bringing black plastic bags of trash to a driveway near Belvidere Road west of Lewis, Pogue was holding a rusty steel spike at least four feet long. There were several railroad ties among the debris. 'I found it in the field right over there,' she said. 'We've worked hard. This is the right thing to do.' Not all the church participants were part of the Christian Neighbors group. The Rev. Mark Rollenhagen, the pastor of St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Waukegan, was cleaning the beach with a dozen of his congregants. 'They're part of the Green Team from our church,' he said. 'We used to use a lot of plastic water bottles. Now we use mugs and wash them so we can use them again. They did that. We're bringing some of that holiness to the beach.' Along with the people from St Paul's, 150 individuals who work at USA Blue Book, 30 from American Place casino and other volunteers participated in the beach cleanup. Lisa May, the city's lakefront coordinator, said trash accumulates over the winter when the beach is closed. 'Look at everything that piled up over the winter,' May said. 'We're going to get everything from the water plant to the north beach. There are some tires which washed up. We'll help you with that.' Helping at the beach for the second year in a row, Julie Ivic, American Place's director of communications and advertising, said this is the second consecutive year the company has participated. 'This is one of the ways we give back to the community,' Ivic said. 'We are focused on ways we can do it. In 2026, we're going to plant trees on Arbor Day.' Young people were involved as well. Rachel McNutt brought her son, Marshall McNutt, 11. She wanted him to get the experience he helping with something bigger than himself. He had some specific ideas. 'I want to make it safer for sea animals,' Marshall said.
Chicago Tribune
18-04-2025
- General
- Chicago Tribune
Waukegan's Earth Week activities start Saturday; ‘This gives people a chance to do their spring cleaning'
Collaboration between the city of Waukegan and the Waukegan Park District for a river and ravine cleanup on April 5 officially made this Earth Month locally, but the city's annual Earth Week activities begin on April 19. Started four years ago when community members and city officials joined forces to arrange a week of events, Earth Week has grown to include hundreds of volunteers picking up trash around the city from the lakefront to each of the nine wards. 'Trash accumulates over the winter,' Mayor Ann Taylor said. 'Once the snow melts, it becomes more obvious. This gives people a chance to do their spring cleaning. It's had a snowball effect. Lots of people are now getting involved to make the city better.' The city's fourth-annual Earth Week opens Saturday with a recycling event at the Waukegan Public Library and continues through April 26, when hundreds of people will be doing a variety of projects throughout Waukegan to help the environment. Along with the recycling event on Saturday and next weekend's events around the city at the Waukegan Municipal Beach, the Waukegan Harbor & Marina and other locations, each ward has a designated day where they can bring unwanted items to a Dumpster that will be set out in their neighborhood. Ald. Lynn Florian, 8th Ward, helped organize the first Earth Week when local accountant Marty Wozniak suggested more activities around the city on the same day he led the spring rendition of his quadrennial cleanup of the Amstutz Expressway. 'Our ultimate goal is that we don't have to do this because everyone will dispose of their trash and help the environment,' Florian said. 'For the foreseeable future, this is a very good thing, and we're going to keep at it. It's great to see how many people get involved.' Opening the week, the library's Off the Grid team is conducting a free recycling event for paper and electronic waste between 1 and 3 p.m. Saturday in the parking lot behind the building near the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue and Clayton Street. Christian Neighbors Church in Waukegan is organizing a volunteer effort bringing people from 14 churches and three other not-for-profit organizations together to fan out through the city collecting discarded items. 'It's a chance for people from different walks of life and different churches and other organizations to get to know each other and make the community better working together,' the Rev. Luke McFadden, the church's pastor, said. 'It's really overwhelming to see this happen.' McFadden said more than 250 people volunteered for the effort last year, and he expects more on April 26. They will gather at 8:30 a.m. in the church parking lot at 222 North County St., start going into the neighborhoods at 9 a.m. and finish with a lunch at 11:30 a.m. Lisa May, the city's lakefront coordinator, said she is expecting more than 100 volunteers from the American Place Casino and USA Bluebook for a beach cleanup from 10 a.m. to noon on April 26. May said a lot of trash accumulates at the beach over the winter. 'The wind blows a lot of trash into the dunes and tall grasses,' she said. 'It takes a lot of work to get the beach ready for summer, and my staff of Beach Rangers do not start until Memorial Day weekend.' Julie Ivic, American Place's director of communications and advertising, said this is the casino's second year of sending people to the beach and dunes. It is one of several ways the company helps in the community. Just south of the beach, between 50 and 150 volunteers — including a contingent from the Waukegan Police Department — will gather at the harbor for a cleanup. Robert Kutzler, the harbor's director of marketing and special events, said the effort has taken place for more than 25 years. 'We give them gloves, a picker and a garbage bag,' Kutzler said. 'When the bag gets full, they lay it down and the police pick it up. It helps keep the place clean, and it is good for the environment. Shelby McDonald, the Park District's director of marketing and community relations, said the organization also has Earth Month events scheduled throughout April. There are a variety of activities, including one where children in the Before and After School Experience get a tree to take home and plant. 'They are learning and doing something to reduce the carbon footprint,' McDonald said. Throughout the week, the Waukegan Public Works Department will take Dumpsters to locations throughout the city for people to discard trash. City workers will retrieve them to dispose of the items. Dumpsters will be in their location from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Dumpsters will be at 8th and Adams streets in the First Ward, and at the intersection of Dugdale Road and Benny Avenue in the Second Ward on Monday. On Tuesday, they will be at 100 North Lewis Avenue in the Third Ward, and in the Fourth Ward between Butrick and Washington streets. On Wednesday, there will be a Dumpster near the intersection of Greenwood Avenue and Delaware Street in the Fifth Ward, as well as Hickory and Keith streets in the Sixth Ward. Dumpsters move to 1815 North Sheridan Road in the Seventh Ward, and 2255 West Yorkhouse Road in the Eighth Ward on Thursday. A Dumpster will be in the Ninth Ward at 2650 Belvidere Road on Friday. People cannot bring yard waste, liquids, tree trunks, concrete, brick, stone, rocks, hazardous waste, flammable materials, carpets, small engines, paint, stain or railroad ties to the Dumpsters, according to information on the city's website.
