Forest Park Review 012418

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GROWING COMMUNITY WEDNESDAY JOURNAL, INC.

ForestParkReview.com

Vol. 101, No. 4

$1.00

F O R E S T PA R K

REVIEW JANUARY 24, 2018

Park District receives city grant PAGE 3

Video gaming debate continues PAGE 4

@FP_Review @ForestParkReview

Local vets cope with life after combat

Service dogs, volunteerism and more have helped Forest Park veterans find peace in civilian life By TOM HOLMES Contributing Reporter

On any given night, 39,471 veterans are homeless, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. For a short time, Forest Park resident Corey Perkins was one of them. Perkins served in the Navy during Desert Storm, on a nuclear submarine patrolling the Persian Gulf. After being discharged honorably in 1992, he returned to his home in Oak Park, where his mother had moved his family from the West Side of Chicago when he was in sixth grade. Perkins got job after job, but a series of layoffs led to his losing the Oak Park home. Perkins stayed with friends and family, sleeping on their couches. Other times, he crashed in his car. He didn’t want to feel like a burden to others, but his situation made that feel impossible. Being without a home made him question everything, including his worth as an individual. “I became very withdrawn,” he said. Perkins had never dealt with a state of mind like that before, and reflected on the unwavering faith of his late mother, who raised See HOUSING FORWARD on page 9

ALEXA ROGALS/Staff Photographer

UNITED FRONT: Forest Park residents hold up signs and chant during the second annual Chicago Women’s March in downtown Chicago on Saturday.

Area residents flock to second Women’s March Activists focus on numerous issues, hoping to speed up social change By NONA TEPPER Staff Reporter

Sam Bonwit worried over his future af after learning how a hero died.

A good neighbor has your back.

The 6-year-old read how a man shot Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968, as he stood on a Memphis balcony in solidarity with a group of striking sanitation workers. Sam learned how a girl just three years older

than himself was taken into custody after marching alongside Dr. King. “Are we going to get arrested?” he asked his mom,

Life’s a combination of good days and bad. I have your back for both. And who has my back? The company more people have trusted for 90 years. CALL ME TODAY. 1606040

State Farm, Bloomington, IL

See WOMEN’S MARCH on page 17

Meaghan Good, Agent 7601 Madison Street Forest Park, IL 60130 Bus: 708-366-3779 meaghan@goodsgotyou.com


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