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Flight for Life marks 30th year of service Anniversary event seeks to reunite crews, former patients By ALLISON GOODRICH agoodrich@shawmedia.com
Photos by H. Rick Bamman – hbamman@shawmedia.com
Habitat for Humanity of McHenry County volunteer Leticia Cardoso vacuums an entranceway of a house being worked on in the 1900 block of Lakewood Avenue in McHenry’s Lakeland Park subdivision. Habitat for Humanity of McHenry County has switched to a neighborhood-centric approach. Instead of building new homes in neighborhoods, the nonprofit is restoring foreclosed and sometimes long vacant homes.
Revitalization effort Habitat for Humanity focuses on rehabbing neighborhood By EMILY COLEMAN ecoleman@shawmedia.com McHENRY – The house had been vacant for almost three years. There were problems with the plumbing, and it was getting older and older. The lawn was overgrown, and plastic covered the windows where newspapers served as drapes. Then the McHenry County affiliate of Habitat for Humanity acquired it, Executive Director Jerry Monica said. The house is one of three houses the nonprofit is rehabbing in the Lakeland Park subdivision. More houses in the neighborhood are being fixed up through the A Brush With Kindness and Repair Corps, two programs designed to help current homeowners. More referrals are coming in from other homeowners in the neighborhood and other social service agencies and organizations, Monica said. It’s not an accident that so much of the work is concentrated in one area. Habitat for Humanity of McHenry County is one of 228 Habitat affiliates that have signed onto a neighborhood revitalization initiative, said
Habitat for Humanity volunteer Marty Lenzen of McCullom Lake installs a doorbell at a home being worked on in the 1900 block of Lakewood Avenue in McHenry’s Lakeland Park subdivision. Rebecca Hix, the director of Habitat for Humanity International’s program since it started in 2010. “Community development has been going on in the United States forever, and what we see now is that a one-component approach is not adequate,” she said. “Whether it’s focusing solely on housing or focusing solely on food and hunger issues or focusing solely on health care issues or focusing solely on education issues, that’s not working anymore.” Instead, Habitat for Humanity branches that have signed on are looking at the whole community through developing a neighborhood
action plan, fixing up parks or teaming up with other groups to approach an area holistically. Seven affiliates in Illinois, including McHenry County’s, have signed up, according to the program’s 2013 annual report. “When [the idea] was originally presented, I was thinking that it was for more of an urban affiliate like in Chicago or Rockford, someplace that has an inner-city feel,” Monica said. “But the more and more we looked into it, the more we found several areas.” Strong neighborhood revitalization programs have taken off in cities such as
Dallas and Los Angeles, Hix said, but it’s also worked well in Quilcene, Washington, a village of about 600 people on the coast of the Pacific Ocean. “The logging industry had pretty much shut the town down because of the spotted owl,” she said. “[The local Habitat affiliate] realized the first thing they needed to do was not so much thinking about housing as economic development. “They started by putting in a ReStore, and a cohort of residents came together and bought one of the gas stations in town and turned it into a gas station and market so they could get fresh produce. When the community felt a little bit more stable, they said, ‘OK, let’s talk about housing now.’ ” The program appears to be working in McHenry County, too, Monica said. It’s drawing in volunteers from the community, building neighborhood pride by getting people together and encouraging other homeowners to fix their places up. “I’m not going to tell you that the area is done and beautiful,” he said. “There are still some houses that are boarded up, and that’s how it
See HABITAT, page A8
CRYSTAL LAKE – The emergency helicopter system that has mobilized more than 30,000 critically injured patients through Illinois and Wisconsin skies will soon celebrate its 30th anniversary. The nonprofit Flight for Life Transport System was established in January 1984 in Waukesha, Wisconsin. Its McHenry base, located on the grounds of Centegra Hospital – McHenry, began operations in May 1987. About 13,000 patients have been transported by the local base since its inception and 33,000 patients transported overall. As the McHenry location approaches 30 years of service, it will be celebrated at 3 p.m. Sunday at the McHenry County College Leucht Conference Center, 8900 Route 14 in Crystal Lake. The event will follow two others of the same nature, one Friday in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, and one Saturday in Waukesha. Flight for Life spokeswoman Tammy Chatman said the events will feature keynote speaker Randolph Mantooth, star of the 1970s TV show “Emergency!”, as well as stories from former patients, all of whom would have had critical illnesses or injuries at the time of their
By LOLITA C. BALDOR and BASSEM MROUE The Associated Press WASHINGTON – The onetwo-three punch of American and Arab airstrikes against Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq was just the beginning, President Barack Obama and other leaders declared Tuesday. They prom-
ised a sustained campaign showcasing a rare U.S.-Arab partnership aimed at Muslim extremists. At the same time, in fresh evidence of how the terrorist threat continues to expand and mutate, the U.S. on its own struck a new al-Qaida cell that the Pentagon said was “nearing the execution phase” of a direct attack on the U.S. or
Europe. “This is not America’s fight alone,” Obama said of the military campaign against the Islamic State group. “We’re going to do what’s necessary to take the fight to this terrorist group, for the security of the country and the region and for the entire world.” Obama said the U.S. was “proud to stand shoulder-to-shoulder” with Arab partners, and he called the roll: Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Bahrain and Qatar. Rear Adm.
John Kirby, the Pentagon’s press secretary, said four of the five had participated in the strikes, with Qatar playing a supporting role. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Turkey, too, is joining the coalition against the Islamic State group and “will be very engaged on the front lines of this effort.” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in New York for U.N. meetings, said he was considering expanding support of NATO operations against the Islamic State to include mili-
13,000 patients transported by the local Flight for Life base since its inception in May 1987
33,000 patients transported overall by Flight for Life Transport System transport. “We are like a flying emergency department or [intensive care unit],” Chatman said. “If you’re calling us, you’re calling us to take a patient to a Level 1 trauma center.” Flight for Life provides transportation between hospitals as well as directly from incident scenes, avoiding the road traffic or construction issues ground ambulances may face, Chatman added. After Morgan Hofmann of Woodstock sustained a serious head injury from a skateboard fall, the quicker air transport helped get him the specialized care he needed, said his mother, Camille Goodwin. At the time, Hofmann was 16, so he needed to get to a pediatric trauma center, the closest of which was potentially more than an hour
See ANNIVERSARY, page A7
Kyle Grillot – kgrillot@shawmedia.com
The Flight for Life helicopter leaves from Peterson Park after being on display Sept. 13 during the Montini Music Festival in McHenry. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Wounded Warrior Project and the McHenry VFW.
U.S., Arab airstrikes in Syria and Iraq just the start Obama, other leaders promise sustained campaign against Islamic State group
By the numbers
tary involvement. In all, Kerry said, more than 50 nations are allied in the fight. It was a measure of the gravity of the threat and the complex politics of the problem that Syrian President Bashar Assad gave an indirect nod of approval to the airstrikes in his own country, saying he supported “any international anti-terrorism effort.” There has been concern among U.S. officials that any
See AIRSTRIKES, page A6
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64th District
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Candidates meet at forum to talk jobs, state pensions / A3
Crystal Lake city officials are hoping to fill vacant spaces along Route 14 / A6
CL Central beats Prairie Ridge, remains undefeated / C1
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This is not America’s fight alone. We’re going to do what’s necessary to take the fight to this terrorist group, for the security of the country and the region and for the entire world.” President Barack Obama on the ongoing military campaign against ISIS
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