Vol. VI No. 20 Old Navistar site nearly leased up, PAGE 5
MAY 18, 2022
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Broadview goes biking, PAGE 5
New micro loan program debuts in Maywood
The Business Investment Micro Loan Program provides small loans exclusively to Maywood business owners By MICHAEL ROMAIN Editor
Small loans to cash-strapped entrepreneurs isn’t a new idea. The concept, wisely known as microlending, has been globally popular since at least the Bangladeshi social entrepreneur Mohammaed Yunus founded his Grameen Bank in the 1970s. Now, however, the concept has landed in Maywood, with the recent launch of the Business Investment Micro Loan Program — the result of a partnership between Proviso Community Bank and the village of Maywood. A branch of the bank is located at 1111 Madison St. in the village. Christopher Parker, the vice president and director of community banking for Proviso Community Bank, which is a Wintrust Community Bank, said the program came about as a way to fill the critical need for capital facing many small entrepreneurs in Maywood. “What our research shows is that a lot of businesses need the opportunity to bridge some of the capital shortfalls,” Parker said. Parker said the program is designed to promote Maywood’s revitalization by providSee MICRO LOAN on page 3
Nicole Molinaro talks about starter plants during Saturday’s annual plant sale, sponsored by the Grassroots Garden Group. Read the story on page 4. Michael Romain
In Maywood, history brought to life by Civil War-era actors Standing in the shadow of Maywood’s Home for Soldiers’Widows, actors dramatized pivotal era during May 14 Living History event By MICHAEL ROMAIN Editor
William Herman Stipp broke down in tears as he talked about Mary Ann Bickerdyke, a fierce advocate for Union soldiers during the Civil War. “She ran around northern Illinois and
southern Wisconsin raising funds to buy soldiers fresh food and better hospital goods than they were getting in the hospitals down south,” Stipp said. Stipp gestured toward an onion and potato nearby. During the Civil War, surgeons relied on those foods to help mitigate diseases and sicknesses that proved more lethal than weaponry. “The latest number I’ve seen is 690,000 men who died during the Civil War,” Stipp said. “I’ve got a book back home of color photographs and he had toward the back of the book that out of the 690,000 that died, a little less died from combat. The rest of them drowned, got run over by a wagon, but the biggie was disease.” Stipp gestured to an onion that was on a nearby table and held it up.
“[Mrs. Bickerdyke] was giving a lecture in Chicago somewhere and she stopped in the middle of it and held up an onion and said, ‘Young ladies, don’t send your lovers a letter. Send them an onion. It will save his life.’” “ Stipp’s tears burst forth again. He and other Civil War soldiers had so much love for Bickerdyke that they called her Mother. She was so well-respected that even Ulysses S. Grant, the commander of all the Union armies and the eventual President of the United States, deferred to her. William Herman Stipp, the first volunteer to sign up with the 10th Illinois Infantry — the first full all-volunteer company formed in the state of Illinois, in a city called Sandwich — is actually Chris BrySee HISTORY on page 8