Latest news with #WaysideCrossMinistries
Chicago Tribune
22-05-2025
- General
- Chicago Tribune
Aurora area gets ready to celebrate Memorial Day weekend
The Aurora area has plenty of activities planned to celebrate Memorial Day weekend. In Aurora, the annual Memorial Day parade will begin at 10 a.m. Monday, May 26, at Benton and River streets in the city's downtown. The grand marshal of this year's parade will be Arlen Peterson, 89, who has lived in Aurora for over 60 years and served in Germany as a member of the U.S. Army from 1954-1955, according to a city press release about the parade. Following his time in the military, he served as a postal carrier and air traffic controller, according to the release. He has also spent years in ministry in Aurora, including time as a leader at Wayside Cross Ministries and the former Claim Street Baptist Church. The parade will also feature local veterans groups and military organizations, including the Aurora Veterans Advisory Council, Roosevelt Aurora American Legion Post 84, Fox Valley Marines Detachment 1233, the Daughters of the American Revolution and the G.A.R. Memorial Commission, city officials said. Marching bands from East Aurora High School, West Aurora High School, Waubonsie Valley High School, Scullen Middle School and Fischer Middle School will be in the parade, along with the Roosevelt Aurora American Legion Band. Other parade participants will include the South Shore Drill Team, the Lamplighters Barbershop Chorus, Costumers with a Cause, the Phillips Park Zoo, the Aurora Public Library's Bookmobile, the East Aurora NJROTC, the West Aurora High School Cheer Team and Diamond Dance Academy. A variety of events are planned in St. Charles to honor Memorial Day, including cemetery ceremonies, a parade, a memorial service and a community breakfast fundraiser. 'Let's come together as a community to honor our fallen service members on Memorial Day,' said St. Charles Mayor Clint Hull in a press release from the city. 'It is so important to remember and show respect for all those who have sacrificed their lives in the service of our nation.' Flag-raising and cemetery ceremonies in St. Charles will begin at 6 a.m. Monday at Baker Community Center, 101 S. Second St., with the Boy Scouts posting colors, an honor guard and an honorary gun salute, organizers said. Boy Scout troops will then lead flag ceremonies beginning at the South Cemetery on the east side of Seventh Avenue, north of Madison, continuing on to the North Cemetery on the west side of Fifth Avenue, north of Johnor Avenue, then concluding at the Union Cemetery on the east side of Fifth Avenue, north of Stonehedge Road. St. Charles veterans will host a veterans community breakfast fundraiser from 7:30 to 10 a.m. Monday at Baker Memorial Church, 307 Cedar Ave. The cost of the breakfast is $5 per person. For all current and former fire, police, uniformed Scouts, emergency services personnel and members of the military and veterans, the breakfast is free. St. Charles will hold its Memorial Day parade beginning at 10 a.m. at Sixth and Main streets, with the parade continuing to Riverside Avenue. New this year is a March of Honor, with the community invited to walk in the parade as a tribute to the more than 1,300 veterans buried in St. Charles area cemeteries, organizers said. The first 100 people who show up with an American flag to hold (flags will not be provided) at 9 a.m. at Sixth and Walnut streets will be included in the parade, according to the press release. A memorial service will immediately follow the parade at 10:45 a.m. at the Freedom Shrine along the river, west of the former St. Charles Police Department, 211 N. Riverside Ave., officials said. In the case of bad weather, the ceremony will be held inside St. Charles Fire Station 1, at 112 N. Riverside Ave. The memorial service will include Hull reading the annual proclamation, a keynote address and taps being played. In Geneva, the American Legion Fox River Geneva Post 75 will step off its annual Memorial Day parade beginning at 10 a.m. Monday from the Geneva Train Station downtown. The parade will feature a color guard, local veterans, youth Scouting organizations and the Geneva High School marching band, according to a press release. The procession will travel north on Third Street to the World War I Memorial in Wheeler Park, where a Memorial Day ceremony will be held. United Methodist Church of Geneva at 211 Hamilton St. in downtown Geneva will host its annual Memorial Day pancake breakfast from 7 to 11 a.m. Monday. The event will offer all-you-can-eat pancakes, sausage, coffee, juice and milk. The proceeds from the breakfast will be donated to charities, according to a press release about the event. Tickets are on sale via the church's website at and will also be available at the event. Ticket prices for those 13 years old and older are $10, with tickets for children 3 to 12 years old set at $5. Those younger than 3 years old eat for free at the event. 'There's something special that happens when a shared meal turns into a shared mission,' said the Rev. Rob Hamilton of United Methodist Church of Geneva in the release. 'Our annual pancake breakfast is more than a community tradition, it's an expression of our calling to serve. I am proud that every dollar of profit goes directly to support organizations making a difference locally and beyond.' Batavia Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1197 will hold a Memorial Day ceremony beginning at 11 a.m. Monday at the post, 645 S. River St. in Batavia. The free program, which is open to the public, will include performances by the Batavia Community Band, a wreath-laying ceremony, a tribute to POW/MIA soldiers, the playing of taps and a rifle salute, organizers said. The Oswego Memorial Day parade, hosted by Oswego American Legion Post 675, will begin at 10 a.m. on Monday. The parade will travel from Polk Street to Monroe Street to Jefferson Street to Main Street, with a final stop at the Oswego Township Cemetery where a memorial service will be held. The Yorkville American Legion is inviting all area residents to attend the annual Memorial Day service starting at 11:30 a.m. on Monday at Town Square Park, 301 N. Bridge St. in Yorkville. The ceremony will feature the reading of names printed on the memorial in Yorkville Town Square, music by the Yorkville Middle School Band and speakers, officials said.
Boston Globe
19-04-2025
- Sport
- Boston Globe
Tom McCall started running on the dirt track of an Illinois prison. On Monday, he'll take on the Boston Marathon.
'I've never even been to a marathon,' McCall said, 'When I ran [my first half marathon] at Fox Valley it had like 3,000 people there, but I've never been to something with 30,000 people racing, fans packing the town cheering them on. 'I'm really looking forward to this.' That McCall is Boston bound is certainly a story of resilience, his ability to use six years of incarceration to find a way forward rather than sinking into more dismay. But it's a story that resonates beyond one person, speaking to the value of running in itself, how it can help a human's body, mind, and spirit. To the value of community, how being among like-minded people and building relationships can lift you from most any circumstance. To the value of goal-setting, how the determination and discipline it takes to get there can impact every corner of your world. To the value of second chances, and how if you open yourself up to people around you, you can take full advantage of them. Advertisement For McCall, who was released in 2022, enrollment in the recovery program at Wayside Cross Ministries in Aurora connected him to their unique partnership with a program called Advertisement Tom McCall (second from right, No. 933) is shown with fellow runners of Up and Running Again, including the program's founder Steve Tierney (second from left, wearing hat). Also shown are Bruce McEvoy (left), Sherman Richardson (No. 6050), and Max Hernandez (right). Tom McCall From there, a running star was born, with McCall capping his first 12-week program by running that Fox Valley Half in 1 hour, 36 minutes, 57 seconds. Almost immediately, his volunteer coach at Up and Running Again, Bruce McEvoy, a local pastor and running enthusiast with 36 marathons to his credit, challenged him with two letters any respectable distance runner knows well: BQ. 'At first, I thought that meant barbecue, and I love barbecue, it's my favorite food. I had no idea what it meant to Boston Qualify,' McCall said. But he listened. He upped his training and within months, ran a 3:15:06 marathon. Time to pack his bags for Boston. 'This is a story of a man that has done the hard work,' McEvoy said. 'When he had no other resources, he did it, not on his own — the higher power of Jesus gave him strength — but his relentless pursuit of health, health in the body, to then having the opportunity to be released from prison and then stumble upon a place that was going to be starting a running program. 'He kept getting fortunate, blessed, and a lot call it luck, but I would argue no, he stumbled into good fortune that might allow him to be at a starting line that will ultimately get him to one of the most historic finish lines of all time, but he's doing the work. And his appendix to the story is setting a personal best at Boston and then continuing to launch to the next thing, his vision to use running and the advocacy he has to impact others, others being fellow veterans, to continue to inspire.' Advertisement Tom McCall is looking forward to adding a Boston Marathon medal to his collection on Patriots Day. Tom McCall Therein lies the next chapter of McCall's story. When he's not out running, training well enough that he has designs on immediately requalifying for Boston with his time on Monday, McCall's energy goes into his foundation, which aims to open a tiny-home community for homeless veterans, helping them get off the streets and into their own homes. As McCall writes on a From where he was, to where he is now, running has been his most reliable vehicle. What started as indoor gym work, where he took assistance from a fellow weightlifter and rebuilt an ailing knee he'd been told would need surgery, eventually moved to the outdoor dirt track, in large part because of the COVID-19 pandemic. What happened from there, well, that's a story only McCall truly knows. I asked him what running has meant to him. His answer was threefold: body, mind, and spirit. 'Well, health-wise it's phenomenal, I have a 44 resting heartbeat and I expect to break a 3:10 marathon at the age of 54,' he said. 'If I can be in low aerobic capacity, which I believe my body has transformed into, then I can finish strong at Boston and Heartbreak Hill will be a success rather than something hard. Advertisement 'Mentally, it makes you stronger, too, when you overcome these challenges. Determination and challenges and overcoming them, that's all mental. 'And whenever your mind starts to break on you a little bit out there, you have some rough sessions, you miss targets, you have shoe failures, whatever it might be, you go into spirit. Especially on long runs, I'll go into spirit, suddenly realizing, 'I don't even remember that mile at all.' Your mind is free. I'll be out there in communion with God, I get rid of all the distractions. It's my go-to, my place away from the world.' From the prison yard to Boston, running built him a whole new world. More Boston Marathon coverage: Tara Sullivan is a Globe columnist. She can be reached at
Chicago Tribune
09-03-2025
- General
- Chicago Tribune
Wayside Cross Ministries looks at building Youth Activity Center in Montgomery
Wayside Cross Ministries is looking to build a Youth Activity Center on a site near St. Olaf Church in Montgomery. The Montgomery Village Board will get a look at the project on Monday night. Wayside Cross was founded in downtown Aurora in June 1928, on the cusp of the Great Depression, to help those in need. Wayside's vision of providing spiritual and material help to the poor has slowly expanded over the decades to includes missions for the imprisoned, the homeless, single mothers, underserved youth and those addicted to drugs or alcohol. The proposed 12,445-square-foot Youth Activity Center would feature an indoor basketball court and four classrooms for after school programs for underserved youth that would teach life skills and assist with academic and religious education, according to village of Montgomery documents. It would serve young people from Montgomery as well as Aurora, offering homework help, tutoring, cooking and technology classes, as well as instructional sports and sports leagues. The site would serve students from 5 to 17 years old, with approximately 35 participants at a time in after school programs and 70 in summer camps, according to the documents, with most students being transported to the site by the organization's passenger vans. The proposed facility would go on a currently 7.7-acre property that includes the church at 1233 Douglas Ave. The plan is to divide the property into two lots of approximately equal size, according to village documents, with one lot containing the existing church and the other housing the youth center. Wayside Cross wants to purchase the property from St. Olaf Church on which the youth center would be built. For the project, Wayside is seeking rezoning of the property from single-family residential to neighborhood commercial, a special use to allow for indoor recreation and a few variances. The Montgomery Planning and Zoning Commission on Thursday reviewed the proposal, and in split votes recommended approval of the rezoning, special use and variances to the Village Board. A number of residents have raised concerns about the project, questioning if it is the right fit for the neighborhood.
