Annual Taste of Randolph/Fulton Market to be held October 25

The Randolph/Fulton Market Association (RFMA) will host its annual Taste of the Randolph/ Fulton Market on Wednesday, Oct. 25, at Galleria Marchetti, 825 W. Erie St. More than 200 business executives and community leaders will attend to help raise funds for the RFMA and the James Jordan Boys and Girls Club, which features after-school cultural, recreational, and educational programs for young people. ABC-7 TV’s news anchor Sylvia Perez will serve as master of ceremonies.

RFMA is a non-profit economic development organization serving industrial and retail businesses on the Near West Side. It recently helped persuade the Chicago Transit Authority to restore express bus service on Randolph and Washington Streets.

“This event combines traditional non-profit fundraising with business networking and a showcase of Chicago’s finest food manufacturers and distributors,” said Roger Romanelli, RFMA executive director.

“Chicago is the food capital of the world, and our locally made beer, sausages, desserts, coffees, breads, and pasta sauces are some of the amazing products at this event.”

Among the participating companies are Goose Island Brewery, Leon’s Sausage, Pastorelli Foods, Columbus Meats, Nealey Foods, Cougle Commission, Robin’s Food Distribution, Intelligentsia Coffee, Grant Park Packing, Red Hen Bakery, Fulton Street Bakery, and Diana’s Bananas.

The event starts at 3 p.m. and is open to the public. Tickets are $100. For information, contact the RFMA at (312) 458-0789 or at rfma@juno.com.

De La Salle adds lights to Ryan Field

De La Salle Institute has installed lights at Dan Ryan Field, the school’s outdoor athletic arena, to allow De La Salle teams to play football, soccer, and baseball games at night. The lights also will allow the school to host band concerts and other nighttime events.

De La Salle Meteors Athletic Director Tom White said the lights mean “more parents, families, and friends can watch our students participate in a wide range of activities. “As for football, we have had home games under temporary lights in the past and found they were very successful and well received by the De La Salle community.

When you think of high school football, you think of games played on Friday nights in front of big, enthusiastic crowds. We’re thrilled to provide that opportunity for our student athletes,” White continued.

St. Laurence, Loyola, Mount Carmel, and Providence will visit Dan Ryan Field during the 2006 football season. De La Salle is located at 3434 S. Michigan Ave. For more information, call (312) 842-7355, ext. 145.

Sr. Benigna Morais celebrates

50th anniversary Saint Anthony Hospital’s pastoral care director, Sister Benigna Morais, M.S.C., is celebrating her 50-year calling of serving others, particularly the needy. In July 1956, she joined the Order of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. She came to the United States in 1958 from Brazil and traveled from New York to Seattle, finally settling in Chicago. She obtained her license in practical nursing and a certificate in pastoral care.

After having served at St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Hospital on the Near West Side for many years, Sr. Benigna came to Saint Anthony Hospital in 1993, where she oversees the Pastoral Care Department and serves as a hospitality ambassador to patients and employees. She visits patients in the maternity, pediatrics, and ER departments and occasionally visits chemotherapy patients while they undergo treatment.

Sr. Benigna’s warmth and comfort reassure patients and families, whether she is offering someone Holy Communion, bringing a child toys, cheering someone up, or responding to the needs of a family in crisis. In serving immigrants and the poor, Sr. Benigna has advocated and carried out the mission and charism of the Sisters of the Sacred Heart.

“It doesn’t seem to be 50 years,” said Sr. Benigna. “I am grateful for the time God has given me to work for the church and His people, and I hope to continue for years to come.” Saint Anthony Hospital is located at 2875 W. 19th St. Call (773) 484-4529.

Will Robert Redford open

West Loop theater?

A report that actor Robert Redford’s movie theater chain might buy the former Fannie May factory in the West Loop has neighbors excited and hopeful.

The candy factory at 1137 W. Jackson Blvd. has been vacant for two years. Business leaders report Redford’s Sundance Cinemas LLC is close to signing a letter of intent to open a theater with six to eight screens at the site. Neither Sundance nor Fannie May’s new owner, flowers.com, would comment on the deal.

“The movie theater sounds like a wonderful thing,” said Martha Goldstein, executive director of the West Loop Community Organization. “The residents would love it.” It also could spark other retail development in the area, she said.

“The community is interested in knowing,” said Robert Wiggs, executive director of the West Loop Chamber of Commerce. Sundance owns theaters showing independent, documentary, and foreign language films in San Francisco as well as Madison, WI.

—Susan S. Stevens

Haymarket program empowers women

Haymarket Center at 108 N. Sangamon St. offers a new intervention program for women who have been involved in prostitution and other related behaviors that helps empower them to overcome difficulties that get them in trouble with the law or into dangerous situations. Women who have been arrested or been involved in prostitution or other high-risk activity are encouraged to contact Haymarket Center.

The program addresses the relationship between substance abuse and getting into trouble by providing a safe, non-judgmental environment that avoids re-victimization and labels. At the same time, it emphasizes understanding how substance use and abuse relate to behavior. The four-week program meets once a week; each session lasts three hours.

Olivia Howard, manager of special services at Haymarket, said, “This program was developed at the request of the Circuit Court of Cook County, and we have made it our mission to meet this additional need in the community.”

Women who have been convicted of prostitution or related charges will be referred to the program by judges as an alternative to incarceration.

Called SWITCH (Sex Workers Investing Time, Courage, and Hope), the program includes drug abuse education, case management, HIV/AIDS health education, and information about highrisk behavior. Support services also are provided through Prostitution Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, general equivalency degree and job training, parenting classes, and smoking cessation assistance.

Call (312) 226-7984, ext. 545, or log on to www.hcenter.org.

Anger over ‘No Child Left Behind’

Students, parents, and business leaders expressed dissatisfaction and called for equitable funding, relevant information, and increased opportunities for parent and community involvement at a public hearing held recently on the West Side at Garfield Park Fieldhouse to discuss the Federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).

The Public Education Network (PEN) and the Cross City Campaign for Urban School Reform sponsored the hearing. Increasing numbers of Illinois public schools face sanctions under NCLB—238 statewide, 185 of which are in Chicago.

Students at the hearing spoke of growing emphasis on standardized tests and increasing pressures to perform on them. Many at the event agreed standardized tests should not be the only measure of school and individual performance.

Students and parents cited lack of adequate resources such as computer labs, quality tutoring services, and textbooks as persistent challenges to achievement. “We have textbooks in shreds,” said Terri Shields, a high school senior. “My books are from 1999.”

Calls for equitable school funding proliferated throughout the meeting as witnesses testified that, without the same resources as their more affluent counterparts, low-performing schools face an uphill push to meet NCLB requirements.

“We have been ‘reconstituted,’ we have been ‘intervened,’ and we still are a failing school,” said Wanda Evans, a teacher at Applied Arts Science and Technology Academy. “We will never get out of that status with what the law is asking for.” “As more is known about NCLB, the greater the opposition grows,” said Diana Nelson, executive director of the Cross City Campaign for Urban School Reform.

“The public is realizing that punitive sanctions don’t fix failing schools. In short, I’d say the law is failing.”

Speakers at the meeting asked for meaningful education and training on what parents and community members can do to get involved in their schools and suggested greater coordination between schools and the community.

More than 100 people attended the hearing, which featured a panel of state and national experts from education, philanthropy, and advocacy organizations.  To learn more about PEN, log on to www.PublicEducation.org.  To learn more about the Cross City Campaign for Urban School Reform, log on to www.crosscity.org. For further information, call (312) 322-4880 or (202) 572-2936.

St. Helen Festival held Sept. 21–24

The St. Helen Festival will bring carnival rides, music and dance performances, food, and a beer garden to the 2300 block of west Augusta Boulevard from Thursday, Sept. 21, through Sunday, Sept. 24. The festival’s musical line-up includes Latin music by the Sammie Torres Band on Friday night, classic American rock music by Dash Red on Saturday night, and gospel music by the Mount Hebron Baptist Church Choir on Sunday afternoon, among other acts. The Clemente High School Steel Band, a percussion workshop, a flamenco performance, karaoke contests, and dance performances by neighborhood youth are also scheduled.

Festival hours are Thursday and Friday, Sept. 21 and 22, 5 to 10 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 23 and 24, noon to 10 p.m. Festival goers can buy individual carnival ride tickets or a $15 day pass that offers unlimited rides on Thursday from 5 to 10 p.m. and on Saturday from noon to 5 p.m. A $45 mega pass entitles the holder to unlimited rides throughout the festival.

All proceeds will benefit St. Helen School. The Gazette is one of the sponsors of St. Helen Fest. For more information, call (773) 486-1055 or visit www.sthelenchicago.org.

Help for asthma sufferers

Near North Health Service Corp. (NNHSC) provides medical servicees to people with asthma to educate patients on how to manage their illness.

Featuring specially designed treatment plans, the NNHSC Asthma Education Program helps decrease the number of days patients experience asthma symptoms, thereby reducing the days patients are confined to their homes and miss work or school.

The program also can help reduce asthma patients’ hospital emergency room visits. NNHSC’s Winfield Moody Health Center is located at 1276 N. Clybourn Ave. Call (312) 337-1073.

Schwab boasts of outstanding rehab nurse

In 20 years of military service, Sandra Nerocker traveled all over the world. Now she is back to her roots—and loving it.

Nerocker, who was born in the Tri-Taylor community, once again lives in the area and works just a few blocks away at Schwab Rehabilitation Hospital at 1401 S. California Ave. A nurse in Schwab’s spinal cord injury patient unit, Nerocker received her nursing degree from Malcolm X College and her bachelor’s degree in healthcare leadership from National Lewis University.

She was not always interested in learning, however, having once been a high-school dropout. “I guess I thought I was too smart for school,” Nerocker said. “But that was not acceptable to my family. I had to either go to school or work.

So I started working at a health clinic. GED [general equivalency degree] classes were offered right in the building, so it was really easy to work and get my high school diploma.”

Working as a combat medic in the military, Nerocker decided she wanted a permanent medical career and began her nursing education at Malcolm X. She has worked as a nurse at Schwab since the late 1990s.

Last year, Nerocker was named Schwab’s outstanding rehab nurse for 2005. Jeanne Mervine, the nurse who leads the spinal cord injury team, said, “Sandra is the epitome of the rehabilitation nurse. She is kindhearted and tough at the same time. Her goal is educating patients to prepare them for life after Schwab, making them the experts in their own care.”

“I really love working at Schawb,” Nerocker said. “It’s like a community within a community. My coworkers are wonderful, and I have the opportunity to stay on top of my field. But most important are the patients. Each time I see someone make some progress I truly feel I’ve made a difference and know what I am doing is worthwhile.”