Winfield Lions Club

Lions Clubs International is the world’s largest service club organization with nearly 1.35 million members in approximately 45,000 clubs in 206 countries and geographical areas around the world. Since 1917, Lions clubs have made a strong commitment both globally and locally.

Since the Winfield Lions Club’s chartering on March 18, 1959, its members have worked on a variety of projects in the local community, such as: building the pavilion at Lions Park, Lions Campaign SightFirst II, providing general eye assistance (exams and glasses) and hearing assistance (exams and hearing aids) to those in need.  We have been present years past as the hosts of the Easter Egg Hunts and Snacks with Santa. Proceeds from past fund raising events have gone to sponsor Boy Scout Troop 575, Winfield D.A.R.E., Winfield in Action and to support area organizations such as the Humanitarian Service Project, the DuPage Convalescent Center, St. Mary’s Food Pantry, Winfield Township General Assistance Fund and the Walter Schauer Scholarship Fund. Our largest fundraiser will be the Good Old Days Beer Garden September 9-12,2010.  It is through the fundraisers we are able to accomplish our goals and support the community through donations.

Lions clubs are groups of men and women, volunteering their time, working to identify the needs within the community and working together to fulfill those needs.

We greatly appreciate all the support our community has shown us in the past which has been why we are able to continue our work and fulfill our visions for the future.  Community is what we make it. For more information or to get involved with the Winfield Lions Club, please contact the Winfield Lions Club at lion@winfieldlions.com.

Lions Club Good Old Days Schedule of Events:

2010 Winfield Lions Good Old Days Beer Garden Schedule

2010 Bags Tournament Flier

Winfield Criterium 2010 Video

The Winfield Criterium is my most favorite event of the summer. I can’t think of a better opportunity to throw a party and to have friends over for a cookout than to watch the racers blast by on the course that runs right past my house. This year was no exception. We had a moon-walk for the kids, the Knights of Columbus did the catering and the guests all had a fabulous time. 2010 was the eleventh year the Criterium has been run in Winfield. The Winfield Emergency Management Agency (WEMA) controlled traffic for the two day even. The Knights of Columbus provided the food for both days as well as cater my private party. The course marshals blocked every intersection and made sure the riders and the public were safe. Athletes By Design and Prairie Path Cycles coordinated the race. Central DuPage Hospital provided the prize money. Packey Webb Ford provided the cool Mustang convertible as the pace car. The Winfield Juniors put together the children’s bike decorating station and bicycle parade.

The fact that over fifty people worked so hard to make this even happen is a testimony to the community spirit that Winfield has. The enthusiasm of the riders and partiers on the race course is evidence of that community spirit.

I hope the Winfield Criterium continues on for many more years and that Winfield, for one weekend a year, remains a gracious ambassador to the bicycle enthusiasts of Chicagoland.

Next year, stop by the top of the hill on Oakwood Street and cheer your lungs out for the riders… Have a hot dog and a drink and stick around to meet your fellow Winfieldians. Everyone is welcome.

Ghosts in the Machine

Once again Steve Romanelli is having a tantrum in the comments section of the Daily Herald in reference to this story.

I had a conversation with Steve about two years ago and told him I thought he was “Swinging at Ghosts” when he ranted up a storm on the editorial pages and at www.winfield411.com.

This is what I meant when I said he is swinging at ghosts:

Dear Daily Herald,

Why do you continue to be fooled into letting anonymous posters attack good honest people in Winfield? You would think that a credible publication would honor their TOS and not allow such manipulations to occur. It does not take a genius to know who these people are. Look at the ousted candidates in the 2005 Winfield Election and you will find this slew of anonymous posters is actually just one or two people using a variety of alias names. One of our former trustees has 13 email alias names that are known. Why????? They use these tactics to make it seem like they are an army of dissidents when in fact they are a just one or two who were thrown out of office by the voters of Winfield. Now they attack the community through anonymous websites and anonymous posts seeking revenge for their own failures.

It is unfortunate that people cannot just identify themselves and state their opinion. Imagine living your life, using fake identities to try and attack others, knowing full well you are responsible for your own demise. It must be a terrible feeling and one that I am glad I never will experience.

It makes him look like a crazy. Sorry Steve, that is just my honest opinion.

You are basically saying that everybody that posts on the DH is Chris Levan in disguise… except for Patti Weber because she uses her name.

Let’s take a look at the New York Times Paul Krugman, Nobel laureate, Econ Blogger and Econ hack if you ask me. Notice the hundreds of shameless anonymous commenters? Of course, because that’s how it is done when you are living in the “Now” with the “interwebs”.

Seriously, the only friends you are making with this display of apoplexy at the Daily Herald is with the people can’t read it because they are afraid of computers. The internet is made for being anonymous and just about everyone under the age of 40 “gets” it. Come to peace with it Steve. As a matter of fact, having honest feedback is something that a serious person, such as a business exec with an “open door policy” would come to appreciate, even if the feedback was coming to him anonymously. Possibly, the unvarnished truth could be more valuable because it is coming to you without the fear of being discovered. Who knows, it might be your neighbor that signs on as “HomeSweetHomeWinfield”, wouldn’t that be a kick in the teeth?

Let it go. We have a referendum coming for the roads and an election coming for trustee. We can see who has the interests of the people at heart after that.

It Takes A Village (to open a deli)

This Saturday marked the grand opening of that oh-so-rare of creatures, entrepreneurship in Winfield. At one o’clock on Saturday I made my way downtown with my wife for a sandwich at the new Gianorio’s Downtown Deli which can be found two doors south of the train tracks on Winfield Road. Now I don’t know about you but if it weren’t for the taste of outstanding food much of the joy in life would be gone. I have been known to travel long distances for great food. While I never fired up a jet plane for peanut butter and banana sandwich like Elvis, I do my best to locate the best-of-the-best in food. Once that is accomplished, I become a fiercely loyal customer. I have to admit that I was a little cranked-up because I was familiar with the other Gianorio’s in town, Gianorio’s Pizza. In fact, it was Gianorio’s Pizza Winfield store that made my trip for the “best pizza ever” shorten from Westmont to my own back yard. It always gives me great joy to see grandma Gianorio making pizzas in the kitchen. The bottom line is that I knew that with a name like Gianorio, it had to be fabulous.

I was not disappointed.

I believe the sandwich is much more than a comestible; it is, if done properly, a work of art.  My Italian sub sandwich was the work of a master. It was piled high with meat, cheese, lettuce and tomato and then kissed with the appropriate amount of a home-made Italian dressing. If I didn’t have a tough-guy image to protect I would admit sometimes well done food that takes into consideration not only taste but presentation can sometimes bring a tear to my eye…

…but I AM a tough guy, so don’t think I just admitted anything…

The bottom line is,  if you are a foodie like I am, you really can’t beat the care a small regional sandwich shop like Gianorio’s Downtown Deli brings to the craft of making fine food. The price point is the same as any factory fast food place and the speed with which we were served was comparable to anywhere else but the fact that when you are eating Gianorio’s outstanding food you are supporting Winfield’s entrepreneurs, it puts the bow on the package. You owe it to yourself (and you owe it to your stomach) to check them out.

WINFIELDTRUNNSAT (-LAUG14W

Sometimes I wonder if the problem is with me or if there really is something deeply wrong with the administration in Winfield. I will let you tell me which you think it is.

I would file either of these pictures of the banner advertising the Winfield run that crosses Winfield road under “When you don’t care to do your very best.”

When I graduated from college I started my first software company. I learned a thing or two about managing people and how they respond to the boss’ expectations of them.  If you allow your employees to get away with crap work, you will get crap work and your business will be seen as crap. This banner advertises the Winfield Run badly but it advertises something else about Winfield as clear as a bell.

You tell me, is this a quality job?

Impeach Obama Protest at Winfield Post Office

On Friday July 30th there was an impeach Obama protest on the parkway outside the Winfield Post Office.

I decided to grab my camera and go see what the story was so the good readers of Winfield 411 could be kept up to date about the goings on in Winfield.

The picture of Barack Obama with a Adolf Hitler moustache is eye-catching in the same way as any human is captivated by the sight of a car-fire or a train crash. Society is basically a collection of gawkers and rubberneckers as evidenced by our need for a 24/7 media and our compulsive scanning of the airwaves and print for news. The Obama as Hitler photo strikes a nerve in just about all of us on all sides of the political spectrum. The scar tissue of WWII in the world’s collective conscious is exceptionally sensitive, even for someone like myself that was born 30 years after the event. It has been said that a picture is worth a thousand words but the thousand words gives context to an otherwise unfocused and visceral reaction to the picture.

The woman in the picture was very interested in talking with me up until the second I started taking pictures. I wish I had known that was going to be her reaction because I would have asked more questions before I pulled out the camera. She became even less enchanted with me when I switched to video. I thought it was quite bizarre behavior to get squirrelly when talking to a guy with a camera when the whole point of her protest, petition and information cart was to get her point across to people. You would think she would be overjoyed to have her point of view put on the local news. The people she had at her cart that were signing up for information were alternating between shy and evasive and aggressive albeit through veiled threats.

For a person driving by it would be easy to think this protest was some Tea Party activism gone off the deep end. Or, possibly, a Tea Party member might think it is a spot on depiction of the president. The Obama protest was fronted by the Lyndon LaRouche political action committee. Lyndon LaRouche is not a Tea Partier. In fact, he was a labor party candidate for president of the United States in 1976 before running another 7 times as a Democrat. Running as a Labor Party candidate makes LaRouche a Socialist, and running as a Democrat for the next seven years also makes him a socialist (that was humor, feel free to laugh). The LaRouche Wiki entry about his life and policies makes clear he was everything from a Communist to a Maoist to a Socialist. He also has a pretty inflated view of himself and his intelligence. The Tea Party movement is sort of a quasi-libertarian movement with a hodgepodge of populist bullet points thrown in. Pretty much nothing could be further than someone with a passion for socialism than a libertarian.

The LaRouche movement has been characterized as a cult and I could see where the analogy comes from. It has similarities at a high level to Scientology. If you view the purpose of Scientology as a business that is designed to bilk spiritually susceptible people into giving money to the church elders then you could also view the LaRouche organization as a business that is designed to defraud the politically susceptible into giving money to the LaRouche party elders.

The bottom line is, it pays to be wary of who to hop in bed with politically. These days with the power of a Google search at your fingertips there is no excuse for being uninformed.

Local Firefighter Done Good

Well, the new media is supposed to be faster than this but I had a busy weekend. I know it is no excuse.

It looks like Winfield’s own LT. Timothy Roman was on “Live with Regis & Kelly”. The purpose was to have a Fire House Cook Off and LT. Roman submitted “Alarmingly Healthy Chicken Parmesan”. You can check out his video here:

http://bventertainment.go.com/tv/buenavista/regisandkelly/contests/cookoff2010/vote.html

Unfortunately we are behind the curve on this one. You needed to vote for your favorite by the end of Sunday August 1st.

I will shoot an email over to the LT. Roman at the Fire Department and see if we can publish the recipe.

Update: Tim Allen has invited you to the Winfield Districting BBQ

5 Reasons to Politically District Winfield

33 Benefits of Districting

Sunday, August 1, 2010 – 1:00 pm to 6:00 pm

Personal message from Tim:

As you may know there have been many leaders of the community of Winfield that have been walking around this summer with petitions to have Winfield Politically Districted.

Winfield politicians are currently elected at large, which means that they can come from anywhere inside the village, they can even be next door neighbors. Oftentimes the Winfield politicians live within a few block radius of each other, concentrating the political power in one neighborhood and leaving vast stretches of the village without any political voice. Electing Winfield politicians at large may have worked well in the old days when Winfield was smaller, but as time went by and the town grew it set the stage for inequities and constant political in-fighting. It’s time to move Winfield’s politics in a healthy direction, it’s time to district Winfield to provide fair representation to all parts of our town.

The window of opportunity for signing a petition to politically district Winfield is drawing to a close. Tony Reyes has kindly offered his house at 27W024 Jewell Road this Sunday, August 1 from 1:00 to 3:30 as a place to turn in your districting petitions and have them notarized to make them official. If you haven’t collected any signatures yourself there is still time to do it. Just print out the attached PDF and have your neighbors sign it, then drop it off at the BBQ at Tony’s house this Sunday. I hope that everyone can bring 10 signatures but if you would prefer, you can just stop by and sign one of the many petitions that will be available for any registered voter living in Winfield.

While you are there, feel free to share in a brat or hot dog and a frosty beverage. Take a moment to sit down with Tony Reyes and Tim Allen and have a chat about anything that may concern you with regard to the village or just tell us how your summer has been going.

Download Your Winfield Districting Petition Here

We appreciate your time and commitment in advance to making Winfield a better place to live.

Thank you,

Tim Allen & Tony Reyes

630.344.9354 – Call if you get lost.

Updated: The Winfield Flood of 2010

The following video was a compilation of photos and video from the flood this past weekend. It’s not my best work but I have been involved with some other things since Saturday and I was thinking that getting the video up was more important than the quality of the piece. It was taken with my iPhone. I decided after getting this video up that I was going to put some resources into getting the appropriate hardware to make better quality You Tube videos. Please pardon the slipshod job.

WEMA (Winfield Emergency Management Association) had seven people on the street setting up signs and roadblocks for the moving water that was covering the various streets. A little bird called me and suggested I write about the numbers of Winfield politicians, village managers and officials that showed up to this natural disaster but I decided to keep it positive and emphasize the hard working volunteers that go too often unsung.

That hottie in the first video clip had just finished walking through 100 yards of 18 inch deep flood waters to place the “Road Closed” signs on Summit Street. She got the call for a downed power line that she needed to route traffic for at 7:00 AM and promptly spent the next 5 hours working for the village. Her day job is a Geologist. Did I mention she is a hottie?

Special thanks to all the neighbors that helped neighbors and all the volunteers that helped the village.

Over Caffeinated, Under Communicated

I got my water bill today and read through the propaganda from the village. I thought about writing a few notes for the readers of Winfield411.com but there was really nothing new to talk about. Just before the Winfield Word hit the circular file I saw a spot on the back called, “Citizen Feedback”.

It says, “The purpose of this section is to provide a way for you to communicate with the village board. We hope you will take the time to jot down any questions, comments, suggestions or opinions regarding the village. Your comments are appreciated. Just find yourself a section of papyrus, use a quill from a turkey feather and write in a mixture of carbon black and Indian gum. Then strap your message to a carrier pigeon or, if you would prefer, find your local pony express and point them in the general direction of the town hall. From whence your communique arrives we will make sure that we have Bob Cratchit give it the once over before we use it as kindling for the Ben Franklin stove that is keeping us warm in the winter.”

Seriously.

No, Seriously.

Ok, I am kidding… but Ca’mon! Paper? Pen? Post Office? Aren’t all those things dead, or possibly endangered? Someone over at the Village Hall needs to hear about the wonder invention of the 1990’s. It’s called the “inter-webs” and was invented by Al Gore, presidential contender and patron saint of global warmers and massage parlors. It’s an amazing invention where a series of ones and zeroes combine to make tens and impossibly small fractions that somehow recombine on the other side of the inter-webs and become either emails or Internet porn depending on your predilections. I prefer email but hey, to each his own, I don’t judge.

Winfield's Communication Core Awaits Their Next Assignment

While I am at it, you would think our village board could find a way to make that WIFI switch they put in 2 years ago public. It seems every coffee shop in America can provide this little smidgen of convenience and customer service but our village cannot. How cool would it be if when the planning and zoning commission went to talk about a particular piece of land, the commissioners could pull up an aerial view in Google Earth? I asked them once and they had a very sophisticated answer that involved “security” and “hackers”. Makes me wonder how Starbucks does it without crashing their global network of hegemony. Maybe the buyers of the Half-Caf-Decaf-Carmel-Cafe-Macciato-Misto-Venti-Dolci-Latte-Cappuccino… mocha… are too caffeinated to hack the intergalactic headquarters of Starbucks. Clearly Winfield is ripe for the pickings of disaffected ex-KGB types that can’t wait to spread the details of the Birutis administration’s executive sessions. Yow.

My point is, if communication is truly important to our village government then they should get with the times and make a concerted effort to use the technology of the day. This includes email and the Internet to expedite their work and make their staff as productive as they can be.

Alright. I’m done now. Barista, pour me another one…