Judee began organizing gatherings, raffles and motorcycle rides to raise money to help others in serious need after a friend who committed suicide left two children ages 12 and 15. Judee began her first campaign to raise money for a children's college fund for the surviving children. Her husband John helped her begin a website to post charity runs. One of her ongoing projects is to continually raise funds for a little 5 year old girl with a rare heart disease who exhausted her insurance for life at age 3. The child's medical costs are a $1,000 or more per month and she will eventually need a new heart. Judee started a raffle promotion with a local bar/eatery to raise funds by raffling baskets of meat, such as roasts, steaks, hamburger, etc. donated or obtained at a discount by a supplier (which raised several thousand dollars), and organizes motorcycle runs and more.
2. Richard J. Faykosh
The list is long of all the work Richard has done to help others in crisis, from the seven years in which he worked to help sexually abused children. Richard also worked for over 20 years with the homeless. This work began first in California when he encouraged members of his local Church, mostly doctors, lawyers and other professionals to cook their meals at his Church. The hundreds of parishioners found they had enough food to share to feed thousands of the homeless who would come to the Church for meals. At Richard's urging, many of these professionals began to donate their services to benefit the homeless also, and the Church began providing shelter as well, even setting up a free Library for the use of those in need. Some of the most basic services were also provided; such as taking calls and just listening to people’s problems. From this service, many other services rose to meet the needs of people as Richard and the other volunteers discovered the needs. Richard has worked with those in crisis also in Indiana, with a Free Church there that helped to bring about programs for Crisis Prevention. Richard now volunteers his time serving the Larkin Center in Elgin, and always does whatever he can in the present moment to help anyone he meets. He has touched countless lives, and deserves to be recognized as the true hero and humanitarian he is!
3. Charles Petrauskis
Charlie loads up the high school suburban weekly, with any and all students that would like to accompany him to the Rockford Rescue Mission. There they serve dinner to the people that are in need. Each student that goes learns a lesson about life, hardship and giving. They each have a task to do when they get there which changes each time they go and he makes it fun! The students say that it’s so many lessons about life at once that you really can't wait to go again! It’s humbling. He has done this for many years. The students look up to Charlie as a truly wonderful man. Being a Special Ed teacher in high school takes a severe amount of patience. I believe that his patience, calm and giving manor, along with his daily attitude about life that he portrays to the students and us all is life changing. He has taught me so much about goodness and to choose to be a better person when given a choice, no matter how small that choice is that you are facing. Many students think of Charlie as a father role and go to him for a shoulder. I am positive that many of these students will never forget the support he gave them and how he helped them choose a better path that day or in life.
