It always feels good to give back to the community that has supported us throughout the years…
August, 2024 - Hope & Friendship Foundation's Fourth Annual "Building Smiles with Bricks & Tiles" LEGO building charity event. A bunch of kids spent some time with a building mentor to build a set, grab another one, and take a bunch of kits home. Thank you to all our donors, building mentors courtesy of the Old Quarry National Junior Honors Society, and the Lemont Park District for providing us a great space to create and build!
Christmas Day, 2023 - Hope & Friendship Foundation‘s Christmas Week Care Bag & Food Deliveries. A team of countless volunteers worked together and separately over several weeks to pull together food and personal care bag items for more than 130 families! On Christmas Day we battled some rain and had to think on the fly to keep food and care bags dry, but we got it done despite getting a bit soaked.
Thanksgiving Week, 2023 - Hope & Friendship Foundation‘s “The Day the Turkeys Fly” Thanksgiving meal outreach. Almost 200 turkeys and sides to families in need. Turkeys and sides came from homes, Richards Building Supply, and Jewel-Osco. A special thanks to FFE and the Lemont Public Works for freezer space, and a place to assemble, set up, organize, and plan for delivery pick up, respectively.
August, 2023 - Hope & Friendship Foundation's Third Annual "Building Smiles with Bricks & Tiles" LEGO building charity event. OUR BIGGEST EVENT YET - we maxed out the room with kids and building mentors! Kids spent some time with a building mentor to build a set, grab another one, and take a bunch of kits home. A special thank you to Kids Plus Pediatric Dentistry and the Lemont Park District for their corporate sponsorship. Thank you to all our donors, building mentors, and the Lemont Park District for providing us a space to create and build!
April, 2023 - Hope & Friendship Foundation‘s “Mission Stay Saturday.” Typically, we do yard clean up for those - for various reasons - who are unable to. This one was special! We built a playset for the family of a 2-year old girl whose baby sister is battling cancer.
Thanksgiving Week, 2022 - Hope & Friendship Foundation‘s “The Day the Turkeys Fly” Thanksgiving meal outreach. We set a record of delivering 218 turkeys and sides to families in need. Turkeys and sides came from homes, Richards Building Supply, and Jewel-Osco.
August, 2022 - Hope & Friendship Foundation's Second Annual "Building Smiles with Bricks & Tiles" LEGO building charity event. We helped even more kids this year spend some time with a building mentor to build a set, grab another one, and take a bunch of kits home. A special thank you to Kids Plus Pediatric Dentistry for their very generous $500 donation. Thank you to all our donors, building mentors, and the Lemont Park District for providing us a space to create and build!
Christmas Day, 2021 - Hope & Friendship Foundation‘s Christmas Week Care Bag & Food Deliveries. A team of countless volunteers worked together and separately over several weeks to pull together food and personal care bag items for more than 150 families! Our largest total number of families helped to date.
August, 2021 - Hope & Friendship Foundation's inaugural "Building Smiles with Bricks & Tiles" LEGO building charity event. Numerous kids got to spend some time with a building mentor to build a set, grab another one, and take a bunch of kits home. We raised over $1,100, then went on a LEGO buying spree. A special thank you to Kids Plus Pediatric Dentistry for their very generous $500 donation. Thank you to all our donors, building mentors, and the Lemont Park District for providing us a space to create and build!
August, 2021 - Hope & Friendship Foundation‘s Mission Stay Saturday. We helped 3 families who were focused on other priorities get done some much needed yard work. Many hands make for light work as a crew of over 20 volunteers cut grass, trimmed bushes & trees, weeded, raked, and pruned all while avoiding a little bit of poison ivy.
December, 2020 - HOPE & FRIENDSHIP FOUNDATION's 2020 Christmas Week Care Bags and Food Deliveries. Cookies, care bags, and pre-cooked meals and sides went out to over 130 families in need! Special thanks to the countless volunteers who cooked, baked, sorted, divided, cut, sliced, packaged, moved, and delivered thousands of items, and to Hughie McClafferty’s Pub and School District 113a for providing much needed space for all the madness!
April, 2018 - Junior Achievement of Chicago's Financial Literacy Volunteer Program teaching a class of Oakwood Elementary School Kindergartners about some basic financial concepts like making choices, needs versus wants, and how we earn money. At the end 3 girls came up and hugged me, so I like to think I made some kind of an impact.
May, 2017 - HOPE & FRIENDSHIP FOUNDATION'S WILL POWER CHALLENGE to help raise money for a child battling cancer and for pediatric cancer awareness. proud to be an event sponsor and to sponsor team i.e. fitness to a second place finish in their bracket
February, 2016 - with my kids, Josh & Kaitlyn, helping out at HOPE & FRIENDSHIP FOUNDATION'S "warm a heart lift a spirit sack lunch assembly" where donated food was packed up into sack lunches and delivered to people in need
December, 2015 - running the 'write a letter to santa' station at lemont's 2015 hometown holiday event
November, 2015 - lending a helping hand to Hope & Friendship Foundation's Thanksgiving turkey giveaway with my son, Josh
july, 2015 - lending a helping hand to Hope & Friendship Foundation along side Lemont Professional Wave
June, 2015 - Outdoor classroom dedication with the Lemont Junior Women's Club at the Heritage Woodland Sanctuary
2014 / 2015 Lemont Township Open Space Committee (l to r) Megan Duffy, Natalie McFaul, Mike Pensinger, Kevin Barto