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By Kathy Headley
Your correspondent in Chicago Lawn and Marquette Manor
6610 S. Francisco • (773) 776-7778
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Happy belated Christmas to you all! I’ve been gone for several weeks and I do want to thank you for the calls of concern and condolence. As many of you know, my son-in-law, Brian Krol, passed away shortly before Thanksgiving. So, as you can imagine, the last few weeks have been difficult for us.
We have lots of catching up to do over the next couple of weeks, so let’s start with a few right now.
Many will remember Don Peterson, who served as choir director with Mary Sublewski as the organist at St. Rita Parish for 25 years. Sadly, Don passed away earlier this month, on Dec. 2. He also served as choir director at Argo Community High School for 35 years. Don was the husband of longtime St. Rita Grammar School second grade teacher Judy Peterson. Both were well-loved, admired and appreciated during their time at St. Rita.
Starbucks recently opened their newest location on the southeast corner of 58th and Western. The grand opening celebration included food and ornament decorating too. Store manager Ophelia Alvarez, who grew up in the area, said they have hired 35 people from the neighborhood to work at the shop.
If you were watching the CBS Evening News on Dec. 18, you got a glimpse of lots of neighborhood elves wrapping Christmas presents at Jeanette Arteaga’s Monarca Insurance, 3300 W. 63rd St. The 8th Annual Magic UpLighting Stuffed Love Operation Christmas Wrapping Party took place on Sunday and Monday, Dec. 17 and 18. The plan was to collect 1,000 toys for Pre-K through second grade students at Peck and Eberhart Elementary Schools. Eddie Guillan of Envision Community Services said hundreds of donors came out of nowhere, giving Santa’s helpers more than twice the number of gifts to wrap as expected.
St. Rita Parish is currently working on restoring the stained-glass windows at St. Clare of Montefalco Church. There are eight in total undergoing restoration. If you are able to help sponsor the replacement of the movable parts (that would be the part on the bottom that opens for air circulation) of a window, please contact Alex Guevara at (773) 434-9600.
We’ll do some more catching up next week, but for now let’s look at some upcoming events you might enjoy.
The annual New Year’s Eve celebration at the Southwest Regional Senior Center, 6117 S. Kedzie, takes place on Thursday, Dec. 28, beginning at 10 a.m. Golden Diners caterer, Open Kitchens, will partner on that day with South Side restaurant owner Josephine Wade from Josephines Southern Cooking to provide a special luncheon in honor of Kwanzaa.
There’s still time to pick up the current book for the next Senior Book Club meeting, which will take place at 10 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 13. January’s selection was written by Jessica George and is entitled Maame- A Novel. Get your copy at the Chicago Lawn Branch Library, 6120 S. Kedzie. Book Club meetings are held via Zoom. For more information on signing up, contact the Center at (312) 747-0440.
A reminder that in addition to being closed on New Year’s Day, the Chicago Lawn Library will also be closed this Sunday, Dec. 31, New Year’s Eve.
The next Perpetual Novena to St. Rita of Cascia will take place at the St. Rita Shrine, 7740 S. Western, on Thursday, Jan. 4, at 7 p.m.; and of course, all are invited to stay after Mass to enjoy a slice of the famous Racine Danish Kringle.
At St. Adrian, The Children’s Celebration of the Three Kings will take place in the church, 7000 S. Washtenaw, on Friday, Jan. 5, beginning at 6:30 p.m.
All are invited to celebrate the 144th birthday of Venerable Mother Maria Kaupas, foundress of the Sisters of St. Casimir, on Saturday, Jan. 6, in the St. Casimir Chapel, 2601 W. Marquette Road. Mass begins at 9:30 a.m. followed by a social in the cafeteria. Enter off the parking lot.
Nativity BVM Parish will host their annual champagne brunch on Sunday, Jan. 7, in the parish hall, 6812 S. Washtenaw, beginning at 12:30 p.m. For reservations and more information, call Audra at the parish office at (773) 776-4600. Tickets are $65 for adults.
Mark your calendars for the first CAPS meeting of the year for Beats 831 and 832, which will be on Tuesday, Jan. 9 at Marquette Park, 6743 S. Kedzie Avenue at 7 p.m.
Over the last several months we have been visiting the year 1981. Let’s take a quick look back and see what had been going on at this time of year.
Of course, there was the Christmas parade. For the first time it was under the direction of the newly-formed Chicago Southwest Business Growth Council and co-sponsored by the Chicago Lawn, Marquette Manor and West Lawn Chambers of Commerce and Greater Southwest Development Corp., making it a three-community parade. If you attended Hubbard High School, perhaps you were part of the group that were assigned the job of blowing up lots and lots of balloons for their decorated float. I am told it took days.
Elmhurst Federal Savings was offering an assortment of gift wrap with any deposit of $5 or more. We’ll have two trivia questions this week. First – do you remember where Elmhurst Federal was on 63rd Street?
And, getting ready for New Year’s festivities, where might we have gone on 63rd Street, 41 years ago, for a deli tray of Italian meats and cheeses?
Happy New Year, everyone.