This weekend, Saturday February 27, is the Radtke benefit in Johnsburg, Illinois at the Johnsburg Community Club. I am calling it the Radtke benefit as I have been told that the Kinney family is asking that any portion of the proceeds be donated to the Radtke family and after discussing it with the Lions, we will grant their wish. I think that is a very selfless act and my thoughts and prayers go out to them.

Saturday night will be the first time the members of Walla-Pa-Looza will volunteer along side the Johnsburg Lions. We will have live music from Peter & The Versatiles, 50/50 raffles, meat raffles and dart tournaments. A $5.00 donation is the entrance fee for an evening of fun.

Although we are serious about raising money for a family in need, during the event we will be celebrating two birthdays, one of my closest friends Sheryl Smith who has always busted her ass volunteering for Walla-Pa-Looza and a new friend Erin DeYoung. Please stop and wish them both a very Happy Birthday!

I am looking forwarding to seeing all of you this weekend.

Thanks,

Craig

Mike Betts holding the official Walla-Pa-Looza guitar that was raffled off at the event.

Over the past couple of years, I have had a ton of friends come back into my life and it has been incredible. One of those friends is Mike Betts. Mike has gone through so much over the past year that it is nice to see him bounce back. He has a great job at Motor Werks in Barrington and is starting to find his way again. My new joke with Mike is that because of Facebook he has been able to reconnect with old friends and make new ones. Because of that, I decided to give him a new nick name so, I nick named him “Captain Reconnect”. The “Captain” and I hadn’t really spoke in about 20 something years. In fact, I had to remind him that at one point in the past I was sitting at Fox Hole eating dinner and he walked right by me! He doesn’t remember it so I will give him a pass, but I am incredibly happy he is in my life again and I hope to have him as my closest buddy until we are old and gray.

Oh, wait, we are both bald so, just old!

Today I am writing about Mike because he lost his father a few years ago to cancer. Mike’s father had brain tumors and the doctors could not do anything for him. So when I posted a note on Facebook asking for volunteers, Mike was one of the first people to step up.

Original Walla-Pa-Looza Note on Facebook

See, it was important for him to do something to raise awareness – but Mike has a different story too.

The Betts family is currently involved in the McCullom Lake Cancer Cluster lawsuit. I have some information on what is taking place because I happen to own a rental property in the village. But it wasn’t until I took a ride around the area with Mike pointing out the places his relatives lived did I realize the seriousness of it. All of those relatives lived in one particular area. You can connect the dots, read the local papers, or just take a ride with Mike one day if you can’t figure it out, but it’s scary folks. I have posted a link below for you to take a look later on so you can understand the seriousness.

Walla-Pa-Looza is important to Mike because he wants to make a difference. I joked with Mike this past summer about making time in between announcements at our 2009 summer event to take out the trash and clean the toilets but he wouldn’t have cared. He just wanted to be part of something that was so important to him. I love him for his dedication and loyalty.

Although I lost a mother in law and a grandmother to cancer, Mike has lost an entire part of his family tree. I couldn’t even imagine the heartbreak they went through because if you ever met the Betts family you would know how important family really is. I was fortunate enough to witness what a kind and caring family they are first hand at Mike’s surprise birthday party.

As you can see we all have our reasons to do something to raise money for cancer and cancer research. Mike does his part, and you can too. Just contact us for more information on how you can help.

Here’s a link to the story on the McCullom Lake Cancer Cluster.

I hope all of you enjoyed the Super bowl and Super bowl commercials!

Tonight the Walla-Pa-Looza volunteers get to meet with the Johnsburg Lions again to discuss what role they will take in the Kinney/Radtke benefit on Feb 27th. I am excited for a couple of reasons.

First, I enjoy meeting with the Lions because I am completely amazed at the contacts they have and how they are able to get things done. Second, I believe I will be sworn in as an official Lion in front of my friends in Walla-Pa-Looza. The Lions can use the help and I hope I can bring the same energy to their organization that I have for Walla-Pa-Looza. I was joking with one of the Lions the other day asking if I started out as a “cub”. I think he laughed at me not with me but I’m used to that.

Anyway, some of the things we are planning for the Kinney/Radtke benefit are a 50/50 raffle, a meat raffle (meat provided by Val’s Foods) a dart tournament (AH Entertainment, Sunnyside Inn), music provided by Peter & The Versatiles, Pizza by Half Times and much more. It is really nice to see two organizations work together as a team. I can truly say I am proud that I was able to bring them together.

The planning does not stop though folks. You might not hear from us for awhile as we don’t want to bug the crap out of you, but I can promise you as soon as the Kinney/Radtke event is over, we start working on THE big event – Walla-Pa-Looza 2010 – scheduled for July 31. This one is going to be huge. We have some new and exciting ideas for young and old. I am anxious to tell you the specifics but I need to you to keep reading my boring blogs and besides the Walla-Pa-Looza legal department will be all over me in a New York minute. So, keep coming back to our website as we are working on changes to it as well.

As most of you know, I am very proud of our volunteers and next week I am going to talk about one in particular. Have a great week and please continue to spread the word.

Craig

In case you missed Kevin’s blog entry from last week, the Walla-Pa-Looza folks are teaming up with our friends from the Johnsburg Lions to raise money for two families here in Johnsburg, Illinois. This all started as one of our volunteers, Kevin Donlan, had heard about this little girl named Taylor Radtke during a church sermon and that she is very ill. He came to me and asked if we could do something to help the family.

Since our group only does two events a year I decided to reach out to Ed Hettermann, the Johnsburg Village President, a Lion, and a family friend. He invited me to a Lions meeting and the Lions were kind enough to give me a few minutes to talk about Taylor. They decided they wanted to help us out but they also had a local family they were trying to help, the Kinney’s. We talked about having the two super powers of charity teaming up and doing an event together. I thought of it as Batman & Superman working together to fight crime. No one can stop us! We had our first meeting together a couple of weeks ago and besides a small fender bender things went really well. It did however take us an hour to get a date (Feb 27th).

Each group gave a quick story on the families that needed our help. The Lions talked about Annmarie Kinney, 19 who was in a terrible car accident and how she has had 13 operations on her leg and may lose her leg altogether. Her medical bills are mounting and she is in desperate need. Next up was our discussion on the Radtke family. Their daughter Taylor, age 9, has Fibrous Dysplasia, a disease that spreads from the patient’s bones. She was tumor free but in early 2009 the tumor was back and this time, according to doctors, is spreading rapidly and operations will not help. Taylor’s mom, Laurie, is not ready to give up and who blames her? I doubt any of you would give up hope either! I know I wouldn’t. So this is where you come in.

I know we have asked a lot from our friends and families but as I stated to friend of mine just the other day, “if the only social time I ever have is working or going to benefits to help others so be it. I have wasted so much time and money not really helping anyone. This is my way of giving back.”

It’s true.

I figure over the past 20 years I have spent enough in bars and restaurants to build a duplex or two for the homeless. So, I am asking you to look at how you spend your entertainment dollars. Our Walla-Pa-Looza events are pretty reasonable. You get live music, raffles, and inexpensive beverages. The event for the Kinney/Radtke families will be just like the others so grab a pen and write this down:

THE KINNEY/RADTKE BENEFIT – Saturday, Feb 27th from 6:00pm till 12:00am at the Johnsburg Community Club. A $5.00 donation will get you live music from Peter & The Versatiles, Calcutta, Meat Raffles, 50/50 and much, much more!

As a great friend had once said, “You can’t do this alone” – and we’re not. The Johnsburg Lions are in our corner….

For more information take a look at our homepage or feel free to contact one of the folks on our contact page. Have a great week.