Celebrating 100 Years
Delivering High Quality, Homemade Fare The Suter Company
THE ANGRY PICKLE PUB
Summer Fun takes Center Stage
Eyes in the sky, Solutions on the ground
Project Manager: Lisa Angel
Writers: Johnathan Bilyk, Katherine McLaughlin
Layout & Design: Kristin McKenrick
By: Katherine McLaughlin
As summer takes center stage in DeKalb County, we are thrilled to announce a fantastic lineup of events that promise fun, excitement, and community spirit. Here’s a look at some of the highlights you won’t want to miss!
Malta Days Festival: June 21. Enjoy a family-friendly fun time in Malta. Annual hometown festival, including local food, beer garden, craft and business show, kids’ activities, music soundstage and more. This year will feature a bounce house obstacle course and fireworks at 9 p.m.
4th of July Festivals:
DeKalb: July 4 - Kick off on the right foot with the Independence Day 5K. Follow up the afternoon and evening with an animal show, live music, DJ, and a fireworks display in correlation with the DeKalb Municipal Band.
Kirkland: July 3-5 - Celebrate Independence Day at the 77th annual Kirkland 4th of July Festival! Enjoy live music, games, and a vibrant carnival filled with vendors. Don’t miss the grand parade and one of Illinois’ largest fireworks displays lighting up the night sky!
Sandwich: July 5 - Freedom Days presented by the Sandwich Park District. Head to Sandwich for the parade that begins at 10 a.m. Food trucks and vendors will be at the Sandwich Fairgrounds at 3 p.m., fireworks will begin at dusk.
Shabbona: July 4 - The Village of Shabbona’s 4th of July craft fair, parade and festival is an annual event. Start your day off with the Shabbona Fire Protection District’s pancake breakfast at the Fire Barn from 7-11 a.m., mosey around Purdy Park, and check out all the crafters beginning at 8 a.m., the parade at noon, and enjoy the festival activities from 10 a.m.-2:30 p.m. The fireworks display will be at Shabbona Lake State Park (beginning at dusk).
Waterman Lions Summerfest: July 19 - Join us for the 25th Anniversary of the Waterman Lions Summerfest and Antique Tractor & Truck Show! This exciting day features antique and craft shows, thrilling tractor pulls, enjoyable train rides, live music, and a beer garden. The festivities will conclude with a spectacular fireworks display at dusk.
Kishwaukee Fest: July 26-27 at various locations in DeKalb and Sycamore. Kishwaukee Fest brings multiple events to our community! Experience Sycamore’s Sip & Savor, witness the Drum Corps at NIU’s Huskie Stadium, and enjoy Cruise Night downtown Sycamore. Don’t miss the Farmer’s Market in Sycamore and an artisan market with over 100 vendors in downtown DeKalb. On Sunday, the Turning Back Time Car Show will display over 1,000 classic cars in Sycamore.
Sycamore Steam Show & Threshing Bee, plus Barn Tour: Aug. 7-10
Experience history at the 68th Annual Steam Show and Threshing Bee! Enjoy live threshing and sawmill demonstrations, an impressive collection of steam and gas engines, and a wide assortment of flea market vendors and food stands. Additionally, the 11th Annual Barn Tour will feature five unique barns to explore in Sycamore.
DeKalb Corn Fest: Aug. 22-24
The Corn Fest, celebrating its 48th year, is one of the last remaining free music festivals in Illinois! Head to downtown DeKalb on Lincoln Hwy. between 1st and 4th St. for over 90 vendors, main soundstage, community soundstage, a free corn boil on Sat from 11-2pm, Ag street, Kid and crafter fest, carnival and much more!
Live Music Events in DeKalb County: Celebrate Summer with Great Tunes! This summer, DeKalb County is delighted to host an array of live music events that promise to bring joy and entertainment to our community. Here’s a quick overview of some notable free concerts you won’t want to miss:
2025 Music at the Mansion - At the Ellwood House lawn in DeKalb. Enjoy an enchanting evening of music in a picturesque setting. This event features a variety of talented local artists and promises a delightful atmosphere for music lovers of all ages.
DeKalb Municipal Band Concert 2025 - At Hopkins Park in DeKalb. Join the DeKalb Municipal Band for a series of performances celebrating the joy of music. These concerts are perfect for families and friends looking to enjoy classic tunes and community spirit.
Kids Concerts in the Park - Bring the little ones out for fun, interactive concerts designed just for them! Kids Concerts in the Park provide a safe and enjoyable environment where children can experience live music and engage with performers.
2025 Summer Concert Series - Part of our vibrant summer lineup, the Summer Concert Series features a variety of musical genres and brings the community together. Bring your lawn chairs and enjoy lively performances at local parks.
Hinckley Summer Band ConcertsThe Hinckley Summer Band Concerts are a staple of summer entertainment in the area. Enjoy a series of concerts featuring local bands that add to the charm of summer evenings in our community.
Make sure to check the event details on the DeKalb County Convention and Visitors Bureau’s website, www.dekalbcountycvb. com for specific dates and locations. Join us for an unforgettable summer filled with music, laughter, and community celebration. We can’t wait to see you there!
By: Johnathan Bilyk
Josh and Abby Smith did not originally plan to get into pickles, no matter what emotions those pickles were feeling. Now, weeks since opening downtown Sycamore’s newest dining destination, The Angry Pickle Pub, the Smiths hope they have another hit to add to their growing menu of local food and drink favorites.
“The funny thing is, I’m not really a fan of pickles,” said Josh. “But we’re serving up something different, with a different concept, while we maintain the same high quality.”
And the name? “It’s catchy, and something no one’s ever going to forget,” Josh said.
Since 2020, the Smiths have operated the business that would grow to become the Dirty Bird restaurant. Beginning with a food truck, Josh and Abby built a strong following in Sycamore and beyond, as the community fell in love with their fried chicken and other Dirty Bird staples.
In 2020, not long after rolling out the food truck, the couple opened their first brick-and-mortar location in Sycamore and eventually moved to what Abby has called their “dream location” at 124 S. Maple, in Sycamore’s popular downtown.
In the years since, the restaurant has continued to enjoy a strong relationship with its fan base and the community at large. Josh attributes that success, in large part, to his and Abby’s consistent commitment to maintaining a high quality of homemade foods and everything else they serve.
With the business continuing to grow, Josh said they began exploring the possibility of opening a second Dirty Bird location in another community, but struggled to find a way to make the idea work without the quality of their food and drink offerings suffering at both the current and possible future location.
“I’ve seen it happen all the time when good places open new locations,” Josh said. “When they expand, one of the places, if not both, can’t maintain the same quality.”
So instead, Josh said they decided to try something different enough from Dirty Bird, which could be opened right around the corner. They ultimately settled on a vacant storefront at 215 W. State Street. For the menu, Josh decided to build it around a longtime favorite special menu item offered periodically at The Dirty Bird: Philly cheesesteak sandwiches.
“We want to have something that not every bar and restaurant around here has,” Josh said. “And we knew that every time we offered these at Dirty Bird, they sold really fast.”
And finally, Josh said they needed a name. And that’s where their 3-year-old daughter came into the story. “Our daughter, for a long time, she would draw only angry pickles,” he said. “We don’t know why. And we had all of these angry pickle drawings around the house. So, I said, ‘Why not name it The Angry Pickle?’”
And so, The Angry Pickle Pub concept was born.
With a name like that, Josh said he knew they would need to add pickle-themed items to the menu. The Angry Pickle’s food menu, for instance, includes a special Pickle Burger, pickled
Apartments and duplexes feature spacious rooms, well-appointed kitchens, laundry, garages, and access to our onsite dining venues, fitness center and pool.
More importantly, we are building friendships and memories.
eggs, and a Pickle Platter. The drink offerings include pickleinfused cocktails, including a Pickle-tini and a pickle margarita, among others. The bar offers a local pickle-flavored craft beer on tap, courtesy of Noon Whistle Brewing of Lombard.
Visitors to Angry Pickle can still find a wide assortment of highquality, homemade appetizers, entrees, and beverages at the restaurant. These include burgers and chicken sandwiches, sandwich wraps, cheese curds, jalapeno poppers, wings, and the always popular cheesesteaks, which form the heart of the menu.
Possible cheesesteak options include a traditional beef or chicken Philly, a pizza Philly, or the Angry Philly, which Angry Pickle describes as an “Italian beef meets Philly cheesesteak.” The sandwiches can come with grilled peppers and onions, a slice of Swiss-American cheese, and may be topped off with queso cheese sauce.
According to Josh, the menu has very little overlap with The Dirty Bird. Even the fries are different, he said. While Dirty Bird serves thick crinkle-cut fries, visitors to The Angry Pickle Pub can expect to find “delicious, crispy shoestring fries.”
Just like at Dirty Bird, Josh said everything at The Angry Pickle will be of the highest quality. But on top of delicious food, he said, those dropping in to The Angry Pickle Pub can also find a fun and friendly environment, complete with a nod to Josh and Abby’s daughter and the origin of the Angry Pickle moniker. In the entry vestibule, the Smiths painted one of the walls with
special chalkboard paint, and guests are invited to try their hand at drawing their own take on angry pickles. Josh said he tries to erase them daily, offering guests a clean slate each time they visit. But sometimes, a drawing or two may survive its date with deletion, for a time, “if there’s a good one on there,” Josh said.
“Hopefully, everybody can find something good they like here,” Josh said. “And everybody can have a good time.”
Value of $7.75. Please mention coupon when ordering.
1 discount per visit. Dine in or carry out only. Expires 09/30/25.
Cauiflower Crust Available
Saturday, July 26 1-5pm • Sycamore Community Park 940 E. State St., Sycamore IL
Ages 21+ | Includes 10 drink samples, commemorative glass, water, and lemonade.
Presale by July 5...$25 On-site ..................$30
GENERAL ADMISSION
Free to visit food and craft vendors.
Presented in partnership with MVP Sports Bar and the Sycamore Whiskey Club
Sponsored by
Proceeds support the Sycamore Parks Foundation.
By: Johnathan Bilyk
Mike Smith didn’t plan to spend many of his nights looking for other people’s lost dogs and other pets from the air, but after just a couple years of cruising his drones over suburban and rural neighborhoods at night, scouring the ground for telltale heat signatures below—including one search and recovery that landed him on the evening news—Smith, owner and operator of drone search business SmithicAir, says the sky may be the limit for what comes next.
“There are some serious lows to this business, when I have to tell people about the limits of this technology,” said Smith. “But there are also some tremendous highs, when we get to reunite people with their lost pets, these missing members of their family.”
For most of his adult life, Smith, of Bartlett, has actually worked in public education, and is now just a few years to the point he can retire from his current position as a school administrator at Maine West High School in Des Plaines.
About a decade ago, Smith’s life took a very different spin, when he bought his first drone. “I’m a nerd,” he said with a laugh. “I’m a math teacher by trade, and love computer science, so drones have always been interesting to me.”
With his wife’s permission, Smith purchased his first drone, a base model that offered him the chance to break into the hobby. After crashing that drone, along with others, Smith said he soon became rather skilled at flying the remote-control quadcopters and the idea was sparked to begin using them commercially.
Initially, Smith said he thought to use his camera-equipped drones to boost the real estate business he operates with his wife, but after getting his Part 107 Remote Pilot Certificate in 2016, Smith decided to find other ways to use his drones as a business, under the name SmithicAir.
Smith said the name is an amalgam of his last name and the initials of his alma mater Illinois College, a liberal arts college in downstate Jacksonville along with the word “air” to provide an inkling of what they do.
In 2023, Smith said a friend helped turn him onto the idea of using drones equipped with heat-sensing infrared cameras to search for animals from the air. At that time, Smith purchased and deployed his first thermal drone, intending to use it to assist hunters in locating deer kills they would otherwise lose in the woods. While such searches are legal in other states, Smith said restrictions in Illinois complicate the operation of such a business in his home state. Smith said he is currently working with lawmakers and others to rewrite the rules on those searches in Illinois.
Within a few months of acquiring his first thermal flier, Smith said a phone call on a cold night in December 2023 would quickly change the trajectory of his drone business dreams.
Smith said he’s still not entirely sure how the person located his number. As best he can tell, his attempt at deer carcass recovery had landed his name and contact information on a list that was mirrored on a site listing drone operators specializing in lost pet search and recovery operations.
No matter how they found him, Smith agreed to help and soon found himself standing outside in the winter night air, flying his thermal imaging drone in an attempt to locate a lost dog. While that attempt and others that followed were unsuccessful, about three months later, Smith completed his first successful recovery of a lost pet, a dog named Luca in South Elgin.
“From that point on, I was hooked,” Smith said.
Since then, Smith said he has fielded dozens of calls from pet owners or volunteers with organizations dedicated to helping reunite people with their lost animals. In the months since, Smith said he has worked on about 100 searches, helping people search for lost cats, as well as cattle and even a missing fox.
“But 99% of the calls have been for lost dogs,” Smith said. “It’s a disturbing number of dogs that seem to be lost on a daily basis.”
Smith said he doesn’t agree to take every case, as the effectiveness of searching for an animal by air can vary by situation and circumstances, such as how long the animal has been missing, the territory that needs to be searched, and weather conditions.
He said his availability can also limit some efforts at assistance. In those cases, Smith said he will attempt to refer those seeking assistance to other drone operators in northern Illinois who can similarly assist with searching for lost pets.
Smith said thermal drone searches are most effective on calm, cloudy nights in colder seasons, when leaves are no longer on trees. He noted his drones’ cameras are not able to see through dense foliage or other physical obstacles, making it
more difficult for drones to locate small animals that may have hunkered down into a hiding spot.
“Cats can be really, really hard to find from the air, for that reason,” Smith said. “They can hide in places a thermal drone can’t find them.”
If conditions allow, Smith said his drones can cover a search radius of about two miles, though most searches cover significantly less ground. Typically, he said, his drones’ battery life and capacity allow him to keep aloft for about a half hour during a flight. He has the resources to conduct around 8 flights during a search if necessary.
“I know I’m meeting people on one of their worst days,” Smith said. “But I always make sure to tell them what this technology can and cannot do. It’s an awesome tool, but it’s not the tool for every situation.”
Smith said he typically will respond to calls for service within about 50-60 miles from his home in Bartlett. In the past 14 months, those have included several lost dog searches in and around DeKalb County. Those included the recovery of a dog named Moses, who had bolted from his home with another dog owned by the family.
As Smith tells it, Moses and the other dog were spotted near a house in DeKalb they knew from previous visits. After the other dog returned home on its own, Smith was called in to help locate Moses.
His initial sweep was unsuccessful. But Smith returned on another night to continue his search and said he “had a feeling” to search along a stretch of railroad tracks. At the outermost point of his drone’s range, Smith said he picked up the unmistakable heat pattern of Moses, lying along the tracks, curled up in a ball. The owners were then able to coax the frightened and confused dog to them and took Moses home.
In other searches, Smith said owners have been aided by leashes that remained on the dog, which slow the dog down or may even become snagged on bushes or other objects, keeping the animal rooted in place.
In other instances, the owners have needed to recover the animals using other means, even after being located
by Smith’s drones, because the dog has become disoriented and is in full flight mode. Smith recounted one instance in which a dog was located in a farm field, but would not respond to the owner’s call. In that case, the owner enlisted the help of the farmer who owned the field, and needed to resort to a “rodeo style” tackle of the dog, complete with a flying leap after pursuing the dog in the field with a moving vehicle, before the dog could be safely recovered.
“Each recovery is a story of its own,” Smith said.
To this point, however, Smith said his most famous pet search operation was the successful recovery of Charlie, a lost dog in Crystal Lake in January 2025. Charlie, a 2-year-old Bernese Mountain dog, had been missing for five days after running out of their suburban yard. Charlie’s owners then called on Smith, who worked with Dog Gone Pet Recovery to scour the area from the air.
After 50 minutes of searching, Smith spotted Charlie’s “small red heat signature” in the middle of a field about a quarter mile from Charlie’s owners’ home. When he was found, Charlie had suffered a broken femur and had taken cover in some tall grass. It is believed Charlie had been struck by a car. After surgeries and two days in the animal hospital, Charlie was returned home.
Word of the rescue quickly spread, and before he knew what was happening, Smith’s phone was ringing off the hook with inquiries from local news organizations looking to tell the feelgood story. Those included interview requests from television news outlets, including NBC’s national news broadcast.
“The next day after finding the dog, I was sitting in my class, and my phone was blowing up,” he said. “I was looking down at the caller ID, and I couldn’t believe the names and numbers I was seeing. Of course, I couldn’t answer, because I was in class,” he added with a laugh.
Eventually, he was able to call them back, and the story of Charlie’s rescue was told, far and wide. “This dog was so special,” Smith said.
From here, Smith said he intends to continue to grow his drone business, particularly once he retires from teaching in a few years. Plans could potentially include a drone pilot training schedule to help others get in the business, too.
“But that’s all for another day,” Smith said. “For right now, I’ve got all the dog searches I can handle.”
By: Johnathan Bilyk
Tim Suter knows it’s not every day that someone gets to celebrate a 100th anniversary.
But when a company gets to throw such a party, it can in many ways stand as a testament to a century of doing many things right, said Suter, executive chairman of Sycamore-based The Suter Company.
“Only about 1,000 businesses have made it to 100 years or more,” Suter said. “It’s an enormous privilege. And a lot of fun, too.”
Founded in 1925 by Tim Suter’s grandfather, Charles Suter, The Suter Company has stood the test of time, not only as a bedrock of the DeKalb County business community, but as one of the country’s leading and most innovative food manufacturers.
Started in the years following World War I, Suter relocated the company, which specialized in supplying chickens and eggs to restaurants, from its original location on a farm near Palatine in the area now known as Chicago’s northwest suburbs, first to Genoa and then to May Street in Sycamore, where Suter opened a production facility in 1947.
In the 1950s, Charles Suter handed the business off to his sons, George and Chuck,
who transitioned the business to canning chicken meat and producing shelf-stable chicken-based foods, including chicken broth, chicken a la king, and chicken and dumplings, among others.
Over the latter half of the 20th and into the 21st Century, The Suter Company continued to diversify its product lines, offering a range of shelf-stable chicken-, egg-, and tuna-based entree salads and lunch kits, as well as refrigerated products, including salads, dips, and deviled eggs.
Tim Suter became president of the company in 1998 when his father, George, retired. The Suter Company then continued its evolution, opening a new, state-of-theart production facility in 2007 on Bethany Road in Sycamore, and then expanding that facility in 2018. The company relocated its management and administrative offices to the Bethany Road plant in 2020.
The company does not market its products directly to consumers under its own name. Rather, The Suter Company specializes in producing products for about 30 co-pack and private label clients. Those customers, in turn, distribute The Suter Company’s food products to thousands of warehouse and retail locations throughout the U.S. and Canada.
This means it is highly likely that anyone in DeKalb County or beyond who has purchased canned or other ready-to-eat chicken salads, dips or other products has likely eaten food prepared by The Suter Company’s hundreds of employees, said Suter and Paul Callaghan, The Suter Company’s current company president and chief executive officer.
“As Americans have evolved the way they eat, those major long-term trends are what drive the products we innovate and offer,” Suter said.
In 2020, the company transitioned to a full employee ownership structure, which Suter says now makes all of the approximately 400 employees the “4th generation of owners.”
So, when the company took a “holiday” on March 14, 2025, to celebrate The Suter Company’s 100th anniversary, that sense of shared purpose and community made the party that much more special.
To mark the occasion, The Suter Company employees began the day by participating in five different on-site service projects, including creating care packages and writing notes of appreciation to deployed U.S. Armed Forces service members, through the organization, A Soldier’s Hands;
creating more than 1,000 pet toys, which were distributed to TAILS Humane Society and the Barn on Baseline; assembling take-and-bake pizzas, for donation to the Voluntary Action Center, Spartan Food Pantry, Barb Food Mart, Safe Passage and Hope Haven; hand painting murals, to be displayed at DeKalb County nonprofit facilities; and hand-making 100 fleece blankets for pediatric patients at Northwestern Medicine’s Kishwaukee Hospital in DeKalb and Valley West Hospital in Sandwich.
The day was then capped with a companywide party, which Suter and Callaghan noted the service events, as well as the party, were attended by about 95% of The Suter Company’s personnel.
“The turnout we had, and the way we served the community that day, it was made possible by the fact that we are 100% employee-owned,” Suter said.
But the prominent place for community service at the 100th anniversary celebration also simply reflected the company’s longstanding commitment to the principle to “love your neighbor,” Suter said. The company, for instance, has set aside
four days every year for the past 16 years to host a meal-packing event for the Feed My Starving Children organization, which combats childhood malnutrition around the world. In the past 15 years, The Suter Company estimates the packing events have enabled more than 58,000 volunteers from area churches, schools, and others, to pack more than 18 million meals and raise more than $4.4 million to support FMSC.
But beyond FMSC, The Suter Company also partners with a long list of other charitable organizations, including many working in DeKalb County, Suter and Callaghan said.
Often, those community partnerships are the results of suggestions and requests from The Suter Company employees, they said, reflecting the company’s five core values: Integrity, “extraordinary care,” “radical generosity,” becoming “better every day,” and customer success.
“We have been in the community for three generations,” Suter said. “Having a presence in and directly giving back to the community is a high priority for us.”
Suter and Callaghan said those values are further expressed in the way company
leadership seeks to make The Suter Company a great place to work, as well. They noted, for instance, that the company offers a “unique suite of benefits” to all employees, including “extraordinary care benefits.” These include access to four full-time “life coaches” on staff to help employees not only grapple with life challenges, such as enhancing financial literacy, but also to help employees achieve dreams, such as graduating college or even taking a dream vacation.
“It’s about caring for the people we work with every day,” Suter said.
Suter and Callaghan noted these values and benefits have helped the company enjoy strong employee loyalty, including some employees who have worked with The Suter Company for more than 40 years.
Looking to the future, Suter and Callaghan said the company will seek to continue to build on the strong foundations of quality
products, innovation, caring and service to their customers, employees and the community.
Callaghan and Suter noted The Suter Company’s product lines have continued to diversify in response to customer demand, particularly for “international flavors.”
“We have extremely strong and deep relationships with our customers,” Suter
said. “We are carefully listening to what’s next, what’s new, and what are people are looking for.”
No matter how consumer demand may change, Suter and Callaghan said the company will retain its core identity as a “business, on a mission,” a commitment to “enriching lives for generations,” which Callaghan noted “speaks volumes about who we are, and why we’re in business.”
YAEGER’S
Early Bird Rate (by June 25) 5K $30/person 10K: $40/person |
Day-of Registration: $50/person (accepted 7:00-8:00 am) Saturday, June 5 2:00 pm • River Heights Golf Course
$100/foursome
(Does not include green fees and/or cart fees)
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