The pandemic may have disrupted a lot of our regular routines, but it did not diminish Hinsdaleans’ commitment for giving back. We’ve documented that bounty of benevolence in our Good News section over the past year, and, as we approach Thanksgiving, wanted to highlight a few of them as an expression of gratitude for those gifts:
• The 2020 Pillars Ball raised $242,000 for Pillars Community Health to support medical, dental, mental health and substance use disorder services along with domestic and sexual violence services to residents of the western suburbs.
• The Hinsdale Rotary Club raised more than $4,000 to help 2016 Hinsdale Central High School graduate Sophie Lekas, midshipman at the U.S. Naval Academy, study engineering research at Oxford University to prepare for a career in aerospace engineering.
• Volunteers filled about 500 bags containing clothes, toys, books and shoes for children in need as part of Community Consolidated District 181 Cradles to Crayons donation drive.
• Hinsdale’s Vinaya Sharma and matching donors raised $2,000 for the Hinsdale Humane Society’s “Match Me Up” campaign for adoptions of harder-to-place cats,
• District 181 donated 425 medical face shields to Amita Health Adventist Medical Center and two nursing homes, ManorCare Health Services in Hinsdale and Chateau Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Willowbrook. D181 families assembled the shields.
• Concklin Insurance Agency in Lombard and president Craig Concklin of Hinsdale donated lunch every Wednesday in April to first responders in several suburbs, including the Hinsdale Fire Department.
• The Rotary Club of Hinsdale donated 225 face shields to the Hinsdale Hospital Foundation through a $2,000 grant.
• Oak School’s Oak Kids Care Club donated $223 they received from the Chipotle Oak School dinner/donation night to HCS Family Services to provide food for families in need.
• The BAM @ a Distance virtual choir project raised $1,015 for the Chicago Artist Relief Fund, organized to support Chicago artists who lost work opportunities to due to the pandemic.
• The sale of 270 yard signs to thank first responders, jointly sponsored by The Hinsdalean, Lithoprint and the Rayner and Buddig families, generated $2,535 used to purchase gift cards for medical personnel at Amita Hinsdale Hospital and meals for members of the Hinsdale police and fire departments.
• More than 1,400 people walked in the virtual Walk for Wellness benefit, which raised $558,000 for cancer survivors, families, friends and volunteers for Wellness House.
• The Hinsdale and Downers Grove offices of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Chicago conducted a fund drive for frontline staff at Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove, raising enough to deliver about 600 meals.
• More than $70,000 was raised at the Third Annual Brooks Strong Invitational Golf Tournament in support of the Brooks Strong Foundation, The foundation, named for Hinsdalean Brooks Tonn, who lost a brave battle with cancer in 2017 at age 10, provides scholarships to enable kids going through cancer treatment to play sports and funds pediatric cancer research.
Feel like contributing yourself? Check out the Spirit of Giving listing on Page 42 for opportunities to help.
