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MY SUN DAY NEWS

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News & Features Columnists Editorials Hang Your Hat Obituaries My Huntley News

March 21, 2019

Carol Pavlik

‘Write’ here to help

In Mary Ann Weissmann’s opinion, many people want to write a story of some kind, but they’re afraid to start, or they aren’t sure where to begin.

It’s the exact reason why the writer’s group, Write On, was founded in Sun City back in 2003.

“Some Enchanted Evening” for Sun City Theatre

The Sun City Theatre Company proudly presents “South Pacific,” coming to the Drendel Ballroom for performances November 15-18. The musical, scored by iconic singer/songwriter duo Rodgers and Hammerstein, is based on a collection of Pulitzer Prize-winning short stories by author James Michener. The musical premiered on Broadway in 1949, and has remained a beloved musical ever since, followed by a Hollywood release film in 1958 and many of the songs, such as “Some Enchanted Evening,” “There is Nothing Like a Dame,” and “I’m Gonna Wash that Man Right Outa My Hair” earning their place as popular standards still played today.

Pyrography Club: A burning Desire to Learn

Ed Mosteig remembers peering into his stocking one Christmas morning and finding a wood burning kit from his parents. The kits contained a pen-like tool with a metal tip that, when heated, burns the wood it’s pressed against, creating possibilities for simple or elaborate designs. Several years ago, feeling nostalgic for his childhood Christmases, he put a wood burning kit into his wife, Diane’s, stocking.

“She never had one as a kid,” said Mosteig. “But when she tried it, she burned herself. She put it away on a shelf and never used it again.”

Sun City resident receives recognition for her painting passion

Janet Schipma has always loved art, starting at a very young age. When she was in junior high, she enrolled in a correspondence course.

“I would send in a drawing and get graded on it,” she remembers. “I was almost done with it, but then I started working part-time and dropped out. I felt really bad for my parents that they sent me through that course and I didn’t get the certificate.”

But even as Schipma’s life got busier with work, then marriage, then a family (she and her husband, Herman, raised a son and a daughter), art was never far from Schipma’s mind.

Going the distance

On a June morning at dawn, some 700 cyclists will gather in the cool morning light in Boston, ready to embark on a 3-day, 270-mile charity cycling event that raises money for ALS research.

Among the eager cyclists will be Sun City resident Bob Higgins, age 66, ready for his fourth consecutive year of participating in the Tri-State Trek, which begins at Boston College and concludes in Greenwich, Conn.

Mind Your Manners!

What do Behavior Bear, Do’er Duck, Friendship Frog, Healthy Hippo, Manners Monkey, Respectful Rabbit, Responsible Rabbit, Self-Esteem Elephant, and Warm-Hearted Walrus have in common? They are the embodiment of the nine traits all children should strive for, according to Characters with Character: good behavior, perseverance, friendship, healthy habits, manners, respect, responsibility, self-esteem, and kindness. Through stories, art projects, hands-on activities and even live costumed characters, these traits are introduced and reinforced and talked about in an interactive and meaningful way through this nonprofit organization.

The wild west comes to Drendel

The sights and sounds of the Wild West come to Huntley when the Sun City Theater troupe performs Annie Get Your Gun, the light-hearted musical with music and lyrics by Irving Berlin.

The story is a fictionalized account of the life of Annie Oakley, a sharpshooter who starred in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, and her on-again off-again romance with sharpshooter Frank Butler.

Heart & Seoul

When Sun City resident June Brock remembers her son Scott, words that come to mind are perseverance and determination.

In 1982, Scott Hager, the second-born of June’s four children, suffered a diving accident at the age of 21. Just six years later, Scott qualified for the 1988 Summer Paralympic Games in Seoul, Korea, earning a bronze medal in the butterfly stroke. He won numerous other medals as a wheelchair athlete, mostly in swimming, at competitions all over the world, and continued to be an inspiration to many until his death at age 55 in 2016.

SSA

A few times a week, Joe Marmion picks up the phone and talks to his friend Lorraine, an 85-year old resident of Sun City. He checks in with her and they chat; once a week, the two of them get together and go somewhere, or just spend time together.

Teenage dreams

In a nod to simpler times, the Sun City Theater Company is donning poodle skirts, bobby socks, and letter sweaters to bring “Grease” to the stage.

“It’s always fun when you have adults play teenagers,” said Rob Kaye, director. “It’s amusing to see them be the cool ones, the nerds, or the hot chicks.”

Southern fried comedy

In the small Texas town of Sweetgum, poor Gaynelle has just “accidentally” crashed her minivan through the bedroom wall of her husband’s girlfriend’s doublewide, and now Gaynelle is one frazzled nerve away from a spectacular meltdown. Her cousins, Peaches, the number-one mortuarial cosmetologist in the tri-county area, and Jimmie Wyvette, a rough-around-the-edges store manager of Whatley’s Western Wear, have problems of their own to deal with. But the three Verdeen cousins have committed to throwing their family reunion, and it’s too late to back out now.

Sun City Pilot Honored with Prestigious Wright Brothers Award

Steven Seaman enlisted for the United States Air Force straight out of high school, before he had ever even taken a plane ride. It was 1965, and Seaman remembers boarding the plane that would take him to bootcamp.

“I thought to myself, ‘This is pretty neat, these airplane things,’” he said. “I remember the sound of the gears and the flaps coming up.”

In a heartbeat

In the middle of the night, 28 year-old Cindy Heigl found herself having emergency surgery without anesthesia to replace a faulty pacemaker. Awake, bruised, and scared, she uttered the only prayer she could muster: “Help me, help me, God,” Then, “Fix me, fix me…”

Now, Heigl’s book, In a Heartbeat: My Miraculous Experience of Sudden Cardiac Arrest recounts her experience in 2014 when a wire in her pacemaker broke, causing her to flatline twice, for nearly 5 minutes.

Refresh button

Social media is a popular way to keep up with friends and relatives, near and far. But while sharing photos and status updates and other information is a fun way to keep in touch on sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, the Huntley Police Department reminds residents to be mindful about the information you post online.

Sun City resident takes aim at domestic violence in the workplace

While sitting in the break room, a co-worker confides in you that she is being beaten at home by her boyfriend. Even worse, he may show up at her job, and she is scared.

Booking it in advance

Huntley residents will be invited to “Take a Book, Return a Book,” when three new Little Free Libraries are installed in spring of 2017.

Run, Toto, Run!

Burton the Yorkshire Terrier has been in a casino, crowded elevators, stores and fitting rooms, bathrooms, and airports. But this week, Burton will survive a tornado, travel to Oz, and help Dorothy Gale get back to Kansas when he takes center stage as “Toto,” Dorothy’s beloved dog in the Sun City Theatre Company’s production of “The Wizard of Oz.”

Lions and Tigers and Bears … Oh My!

You’ll know you’re not in Kansas anymore when the Theatre Company of Sun City performs “The Wizard of Oz” later this month.

As Montreal Ban Looms, Huntley Dog Owners Sing Praises of Pit Bulls

Many times, as Huntley resident Deborah Webster walks her Pit Bull, Roxy, down the street, she sees people cross to the other side. “People have horrible opinions about [Pit Bulls],” she says. “If they only knew, she would shower them with kisses and never be aggressive. It’s not fair.”

To the L-E-T-T-E-R

The fun and friendly competition of Del Webb Sun City’s Spelling Bee concluded with three spellers reigning victorious at the end of the night: Bill Clanton took first place, Linda Rogers took second, and Fred Kimmel came in third.

Sincerely yours

As a young woman, Marion Matthews left home and began working at her first job, about 30 miles from her hometown. It was just far away enough to feel homesick.

“It was before you could call long distance,” she remembers. “I had to write my parents a letter during the week! We did a lot of letter-writing back then.”

In the swing of things

When Joe Alengo signs on to his radio program, “Big Swingtime” on Huntley Community Radio, he might say something like, “If you like what you hear, be of good cheer! Tell a friend and let him capture the rapture.”

In the name of freedom

September 11 marks the 15th anniversary of the attacks in 2001, the day Americans watched in horror as a sunny Tuesday morning was violently disrupted by coordinated attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. and a fourth hijacked plane that crashed near Shanksville, Penn.

The bridge of life

Helen Hays likes to tell people her birthday is “Christmas in July,” better known as July 25. This year, Hays turns 99; she’ll celebrate with a family gathering, but she knows she’ll have a little celebration with her friends from her Bridge Club, too.

Things are looking up, way up

“Hurry to the stable, Matthias. We need you!” So begins the ebook, A Baby Changes our World, written by Sun City resident Ken Kozy. The story outlines the events of the Christmas Nativity story from the viewpoint of Matthias, a nine year-old stable boy living in Bethlehem. Later in the story, young Matthias looks to the skies, in awe of the bright star he sees glowing in the sky.

A Tale of Two Walkers

Judy Smith and Pat Shannon met in 2008 when Smith moved in across the street from Shannon on Timber Creek Drive.

“My [previous] neighbor and I were good buddies,” said Shannon. “Then, when Judy moved in to Peggy’s house, well, we began to be buddies, too.”

The two forged a friendship that centered around walking.

Bringing change to the table

Sun City resident Ernest Mall is just one person, but what he witnessed on his visits to South Asia — India, Nepal, Tibet, Myanmar — stayed on his mind. What Mall saw was extreme poverty: families struggling to make ends meet, children forced into child labor and foregoing education, individuals unable to extricate themselves from the cycle of poverty.