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Vets Raffle Off A Vette

Elk Grove Journal - 7/27/2017

Elk Grove Village resident Gary Spragg left Tuesday's Mid-Summer Concert at Village Green the proud new owner of a 2017 Chevrolet Corvette.

Spragg won the car through a raffle to help install a new $150,000 elevator in the Elk Grove VFW Hall. Elk Grove Village resident Kitty Weiner, Mayor Craig Johnson and Nanci Vanderweel, former township supervisor, came up with the idea several years ago to hold a drive to fund the elevator, according to Weiner's mother.

A check presentation will be held at the Tuesday, Aug. 15 village board meeting. Johnson said fundraising was close to the $150,000 goal, with "many local businesses stepping up to the plate." He declined to provide a fundraising total until the meeting.

Weiner was working for U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam (R-6th) several years ago when she brought Roskam's veterans administration specialist to the Elk Grove VFW Hall, 400 E. Devon Ave., to talk to members of the VFW post. The VA specialist happened to be a wheelchair-bound paraplegic.

The VFW hall has no ground floor entry; instead, visitors are presented with one short staircase going down and one longer, narrow staircase going up.

The VA specialist had to be carried in his wheelchair up and down the stairs by VFW members that day, Vanderweel said.

"Kitty was horrified. She had no idea (about the stairs)," Vanderweel said. "She decided something had to be done."

Initial plans to build the elevator inside the building would have triggered other required updates to comply with newer building standards. Weiner and VFW members discovered adding an elevator to the exterior of the building would not.

Vanderweel said she told Weiner "from day one" that it would be impossible to raise up to $160,000 for the elevator.

"She said, 'Oh yes I can, it'll happen,'" Vanderweel said.

Johnson said when Weiner took over as Rotary Club president, she chose the VFW elevator project as her own. A member of the Community Character Coalition of Elk Grove, Weiner enlisted that organization to collect the money as a charitable organization.

Last year, Castle Chevrolet gave away a Camaro as part of the village's 60th anniversary celebrations. Weiner approached Castle to make another donation, this time a Corvette, so it could be raffled to support the vets.

Vanderweel said Johnson leaned heavily on the business community for donations.

Through the raffle process, Weiner never spoke of her role in starting the drive. The focus was always on the veterans, as Vanderweel said it should be.

"I know Kitty: she likes the background, not the foreground," Vanderweel said.