Latest news with #TrinityLutheranChurch
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Starpoint '76 grad embarking on 4,300-mile Bike the US for MS ride
A Lockport native who's a lifelong cycling enthusiast will undertake her first cross-country ride as a member of the Bike the US for MS, Northern Tier Route team, beginning next week. Darcy Whitsett, a 1976 graduate of Starpoint High School, said the 31-rider team will be in Lockport on June 20, staying overnight at Trinity Lutheran Church, and she'd appreciate it if, when they arrive in the city, they experience some fanfare. 'I am hoping to see hundreds of supporters wearing orange (the color of MS awareness) as we ride into Lockport,' Whitsett said. A U.S. Navy veteran and longtime Virginia resident, Whitsett, 66, recently retired from Secrets In Lace, the lingerie company that she and her husband Dan founded 40 years ago. Retirement is what made her first cross-country bicycle trek possible. 'My whole family — five kids and our parents — were bike riders. I still remember us going to (Dick Cummings') Schwinn store downtown,' she said. 'When I was in college, I read about a cross-country ride, and I wanted to do it, but ... I couldn't fit it in with everything else in my life. I never let go of it, though.' Bike the US for MS, Northern Tier Route is a 71-day, 4,295-mile trek through 15 states, starting in Bar Harbor, Maine, on June 6 and ending in Seattle, Washington, on Aug. 16. The team members are raising donations to cover assistive services for people managing multiple sclerosis and support research to find a cure for the neurological auto-immune disorder. According to Whitsett, seven days of the trek will be given over to team service projects such as visiting MS support centers, assembling scooters, painting ramps and completing outdoor home improvement projects for people with MS who can no longer maintain their own home. Overnights mostly will be spent in tents and the team members are expected to feed themselves on their own dime. While the cross-country opportunity is what drew Whitsett to sign up for the ride last July, the cause is not unfamiliar to her. Two dear friends from her childhood are battling MS today, she said, and the more she talks to people about the ride, the more people she's meeting who have the disease or know someone else who does. From her friends and her own reading on the subject, Whitsett has learned: MS strikes all ages, moreso those over 40, and more women than men; the disease can go into remission and flare up; and it can affect people differently. She said her lifelong friend Tricia O'Connor Leydecker of Lockport was diagnosed with MS 20 years ago and presently is 'unstable' and using a cane. Amongst the Northern Tier Route team members there is ongoing competition for the honor of raising the most money, and Whitsett has been at or near No. 1 consistently, having raised more than $12,000 herself since she signed up for the ride. When she slipped to the No. 2 position as of May 22, she vowed to get back to No. 1 while cheering on the team, which collectively had raised almost $200,000 to date on a $250,000 goal. Whitsett has taken part in a few organized long-distance bike rides — Key Largo to Key West, Fla., and New York City to Philadelphia among them — but her approach to training for the much longer upcoming ride is pretty relaxed. She just rides her bike every day, she said. 'I was riding to work before I retired. … I'm just a consistent rider. Whether it's the grocery store, the bank, I just get on my bike and go.' While she was in Lockport before Memorial Day, visiting her mom Elrena and her brothers Dennis Monroe and Larry Monroe, she hit the Erie Canalway Trail and biked to Medina and back, she said. As for the desired fanfare when she returns to Lockport with the Bike the US for MS team, Whitsett said she doesn't know yet exactly where they'll enter (she's hoping it's by Old City Hall) but when she finds out she'll enlist friends and family here to share the location. She has been posting updates at Starpoint's Facebook page as well. Donations and pledges to Whitsett can be made online at and via the QR code placed with this report.
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Longanbach Family donates history markers at two rural cemeteries
About 35 members of the Longanbach Family Association held two dedications May 10 at two small township cemeteries in Sandusky County to honor pioneers in Sandusky and Rice townships. The family association completed its recent preservation project while honoring the pioneer families in Rice and Sandusky townships with bronze historical markers at Binkley and Greenwood cemeteries. Association member Julie Otermat, originally of Fremont and now of Texas, said the association raised nearly $11,000 in donations to purchase the plaques installed this month at the two cemeteries. The association has more than 200 members. A bronze historical marker commemorating the Longanbach and Engler families was placed at the Binkley Cemetery. The Greenwood Cemetery project consisted of installing a bronze historical marker to honor early pioneer families who settled in the area in the 1830s and 1840s, along with repairing and restoring 17 gravestones, including three large monuments. To restore headstones and monuments at Greenwood Cemetery, the association members received training from Gravestone Restoration Services by Kate and Jane in Marblehead, Ohio, Otermat said. "In dedication to the Longanbach and Engler families are buried on these grounds," the Binkley plaque read. "These families were among several who in the 1830s bravely immigrated from their homes in the German Confederation and traveled across the Atlantic Ocean to North America for better opportunities. They became some of the early pioneer farmers in Sandusky County." The plaque at Greenwood also acknowledges the family's pioneer history: "Beginning in the 1830s and 1840s, the surrounding area experienced a health influx of hearty German-speaking immigrants, some named Engler, Longanbach, Otermat and Smith, whose daily grueling efforts were instrumental in developing the highly productive farmlands you see today." Both plaques note how the pioneers encountered the swampy region and forests in the 1800s. The Greenwood Cemetery plaque noted how those pioneers cleared the land and dug the deep ditches needed to drain the fields for their homes and farms. Those pioneers also were charter members of Trinity Lutheran Church that stood in the township. Otermat said she has found five generations of her family buried at Greenwood Cemetery at 3077 CR 170, Fremont. For the dedications this month, association members attending were mainly local and regional residents, but others like Otermat traveled to come back for the event. "We're nationwide," she said of the family association. The Longanbach descendants will be back in Sandusky County later this summer. The Longanbach Family Association has been meeting annually in Sandusky County since 1920 and will celebrate their 106th reunion on Aug. 3. By restoring weathered tombstones and erecting markers, the Longanbach Family Association seeks to preserve invaluable cultural and familial history for generations to come. All future projects will continue to be focused on the mission of preservation, research and education. For more information on the association, contact Mike Longanbach at longanbach.m@ rbrooks@ 419-334-1059 This article originally appeared on Fremont News-Messenger: Family association dedicates plaques to honor pioneers of the 1830s, 1840s
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Longanbach Family donates history markers at two rural cemeteries
About 35 members of the Longanbach Family Association held two dedications May 10 at two small township cemeteries in Sandusky County to honor pioneers in Sandusky and Rice townships. The family association completed its recent preservation project while honoring the pioneer families in Rice and Sandusky townships with bronze historical markers at Binkley and Greenwood cemeteries. Association member Julie Otermat, originally of Fremont and now of Texas, said the association raised nearly $11,000 in donations to purchase the plaques installed this month at the two cemeteries. The association has more than 200 members. A bronze historical marker commemorating the Longanbach and Engler families was placed at the Binkley Cemetery. The Greenwood Cemetery project consisted of installing a bronze historical marker to honor early pioneer families who settled in the area in the 1830s and 1840s, along with repairing and restoring 17 gravestones, including three large monuments. To restore headstones and monuments at Greenwood Cemetery, the association members received training from Gravestone Restoration Services by Kate and Jane in Marblehead, Ohio, Otermat said. "In dedication to the Longanbach and Engler families are buried on these grounds," the Binkley plaque read. "These families were among several who in the 1830s bravely immigrated from their homes in the German Confederation and traveled across the Atlantic Ocean to North America for better opportunities. They became some of the early pioneer farmers in Sandusky County." The plaque at Greenwood also acknowledges the family's pioneer history: "Beginning in the 1830s and 1840s, the surrounding area experienced a health influx of hearty German-speaking immigrants, some named Engler, Longanbach, Otermat and Smith, whose daily grueling efforts were instrumental in developing the highly productive farmlands you see today." Both plaques note how the pioneers encountered the swampy region and forests in the 1800s. The Greenwood Cemetery plaque noted how those pioneers cleared the land and dug the deep ditches needed to drain the fields for their homes and farms. Those pioneers also were charter members of Trinity Lutheran Church that stood in the township. Otermat said she has found five generations of her family buried at Greenwood Cemetery at 3077 CR 170, Fremont. For the dedications this month, association members attending were mainly local and regional residents, but others like Otermat traveled to come back for the event. "We're nationwide," she said of the family association. The Longanbach descendants will be back in Sandusky County later this summer. The Longanbach Family Association has been meeting annually in Sandusky County since 1920 and will celebrate their 106th reunion on Aug. 3. By restoring weathered tombstones and erecting markers, the Longanbach Family Association seeks to preserve invaluable cultural and familial history for generations to come. All future projects will continue to be focused on the mission of preservation, research and education. For more information on the association, contact Mike Longanbach at longanbach.m@ rbrooks@ 419-334-1059 This article originally appeared on Fremont News-Messenger: Family association dedicates plaques to honor pioneers of the 1830s, 1840s
Chicago Tribune
18-04-2025
- General
- Chicago Tribune
Hundreds join in New Lenox Good Friday Cross Walk
The New Lenox Ministerial Association Good Friday Cross Walk has been around a long time. How long? That's a tough question to answer. There is no official record so guesswork and memories are the best options at this point. Lincolnway Christian Church Pastor Steve Baker, who helped organize this year's walk, wasn't sure when the first steps were taken. 'It's been going on longer than I know,' he said. 'It's been going on forever.' Maryann Matysac of New Lenox, who brought nine family members with her on the walk, said she's attended for 30 years, so that's not a bad guess. But 81-year-old Jeanie Scherer of New Lenox is convinced that it started 47 years ago. 'My son (Ralph) helped carry the cross when he was 15,' she said. 'He's 62 now. I can't do the math.' She might not do the math, but she can remember that it was the first walk. She said Sister Madelyn Gould of St. Jude initiated the project of getting the churches and community together for a walk and it took off from there. No matter when it started, hundreds of people joined together on a cloudy Friday morning with temperatures in the 70s, sang hymns and listened to passion narratives at St. Jude, United Methodist Church of New Lenox, Maplewood Cemetery and Trinity Lutheran Church. Other participating churches were Grace Episcopal, St. John's Orthodox, New Life and Peace Lutheran. Baker said the walk attracts 400 to 500 people each year. 'Seeing the community come together is awesome,' Baker said. 'In past towns I've been to, I haven't seen the churches working together like this. It's pretty cool to see the Catholic churches working with the Protestants churches and the Lutherans — it's just a beautiful community event.' Matysac and her family have made the walk a tradition, which started when she walked it with her father, the late Victor Magero. He was able to walk it into his 90s. She said every Good Friday, she remembers her dad and the family lunch that followed prepared by her mother, Virginia. On Friday, Matysac, her husband, Patrick, two daughters-in-law and six grandchildren from New Lenox and Glen Ellyn were headed to a Barraco's restaurant for some meatless pizza after the walk. The meatless part, a Catholic tradition on Fridays during Lent, caused some sour faces with some of the grandchildren, although one was looking forward to putting pineapple on her pizza. Maryann enjoys the yearly tradition of people from different churches getting together. 'I like that we visit other churches,' she said. 'We encounter other people from other religions and we see how they worship. We all come together as a community to commemorate the passion.' She members what the walk was like 30 years ago. 'When I started walking with my dad, there were only 30 or 40 people,' she said. 'It has grown exponentially through the years.' Scherer also noticed the growth and said she has only missed a few walks. 'I love the idea of the community getting together and sharing the event after Christ died for us,' she said. It's an event that features all ages and one of four teenagers who carried the cross this year, Luke Strahanoski, was happy to be asked to help. 'My twin brother (Caleb) and I have been doing this Good Friday walk ever since I can remember,' Strahanoski said. 'They asked us if we wanted to carry it and we jumped at the opportunity.' He said carrying the cross was like 'being one with Christ.' 'It's beautiful,' he said. 'This is, by far, my favorite walk. We always sing, 'Were You There?' Now we're carrying the cross.' Baker said the walk is a time for fun and a time for reflection. 'Walking with neighbors is great and everyone has fun,' he said. 'But during the stops, we have the gospel stories and that's a little more solemn but it's cool to see the kids and different families walking.'
