This week’s edition, filled with Independence Day materials, salutations, and references, limit other articles which are important. Therefore, without a scathing letter to the editor, or any letter, we have extra room to include information we think is important.
Information and comments include:
• There are two Rotary Clubs in Aurora which do outstanding work. One of oldest organizations in the country with objectives, missions, and useful purposes, is the Rotary Club which meets in the morning each Wednesday at Mother’s Restaurant in Aurora.
The last five years the Rotary Club has been a sponsor of a student from Venezuela, Victoria Garcia. It started under the student exchange program in which the Rotary Club has been a participant. She attended West Aurora High School for her senior year. Society collapsed under chaos and dictatorships to the point that the Rotary Club brought her back, after one year back home, to attend two years at Waubonsee Community College and two years at Aurora University. There were eight families which have been helpful beyond the Rotary Club. Ms Garcia was graduated from Aurora University with a major in biology and health science. She is interested in pursuing a future in the laboratory in biology and health science. She has paperwork to complete so she can stay in the United States longer than the expiration date of August 2022.
If there are companies in her fields willing to work with her in the next year, it could be mutually beneficial. There are seven ways international students can stay in the United States, to include optional practical training (OPT), a visa through an employer, a green card, and military service. More information can be found by calling us at The Voice, or, contacting Charlie Schmalz of the Rotary Club in Aurora.
• We have been fortunate in Aurora and northern Illinois to see the reduction in problems with the pandemic. It has allowed many important gatherings to be resumed. There will be many functions Saturday, June 26. One such event is the St. Nicholas Grade School Alumni Reunion which will be from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday, June 26 at Luigi’s Pizza and Fun Center, 732 Prairie Street, in Aurora. The initial St. Nicholas reunion was in 2019 and was a huge success. The St. Nicholas graduates, in 2019 were from as far back as 1950. The crowds filled Luigi’s two rooms in 2019 St. Nicholas closed in 1989 after a merger with Sacred Heart.
There will be two large rooms at Luigi’s for the reunion. Masks may be required. There is no entry cost, however, ordering off of the menu will be an option. Those attending are encouraged to bring photos to share. The organizing committee includes Marie (Schindlbeck) Pierce, Jean (Schindlbeck) Hilger, and Mary (Nickels) Streit.
• The Sandwich VFW Post 1486 is sponsoring a pork chop dinner Saturday, June 26, 4:30 p.m. until the dinners are gone. Call 815-786-1486.
• The communities affected Sunday evening late by the EF-3 tornado really showed community spirit and came together to help others who were hit the hardest. Tragedy often can bring heroes to the surface. Hardest hit along 75th Street were the communities of Naperville, Woodridge, Darien. It makes us thankful to be missed by damaging weather, especially tornadoes.
• At the same time our communities suffered severe weather many more communities were hit hard along the Gulf Coast in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Given a choice, and it is one never to have to make, hurricanes always are more damaging to a wider geographical area. Tornadoes can blow down one house and leave an adjacent building untouched.
• The Aurora Historical Society will reopen its gift shop and first floor exhibit gallery at Pierce Art and History Center, 20 East Downer Place, Aurora, from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday, June 26. The facility has been closed sine March 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. The second floor will open later in the Summer. Masks will be required for visitors and staff members, regardless of vaccination status. The Tanner House Museum will remain closed.
• Girl Scout Gold Award represents the highest achievement. Girl Scouts of Northern Illinois announced 10 awards in the Class of 2021 to include Abigail Covert, Huntley; Calliope Saban, South Elgin; Kathryn Sample, Elgin; and Courtney Tietz, Oswego. Projects are a main qualification for the Gold Award.
• The Capitol News Illinois, based in Springfield, has been a blessing to wonderful statewide coverage, especially in the legislative and political realm. Capitol News Illinois reported the bill-signing of a State holiday recently by governor JB Pritzker in front of a signed copy of president Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. The Emancipation Proclamation was signed January 1, 1863. Juneteenth was proclaimed June 19, 1965 by the proclamation of the a Union general in Galveston, Texas. Juneteenth has been celebrated for many years and now is a Federal holiday. Election Day could become a federal holiday and the democracy in the U.S. would be enhanced.
Clear and Concise, Week 25, Year 2:
We use the terms interchangeably, and even without knowing, with a bit of wink: United States and America. It is greater than just being precise. The United States is one country in one of three Americas, North, Central, and South. Many world citizens give us a wink when we call ourselves Americans. Really, given the geography, residents of Guatemala in Central American are Americans and so, too, are the Peruvians of South America. At this time of the year, the U.S. 145th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence from British rule, and given the world-wide pandemic which has visited every country in the Americas, we should be mindful that our country is the United States. Additionally, it would be good to recognize the two words in the name, United States. We can do better. Canadians are Americans and, so too, are those from Venezuela. A little humility is just as important as being clear and concise.