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player ready...Volunteer opportunities
– Naperville Responds, a community group helping residents of Pass Christian, Miss., rebuild after Hurricane Katrina, will hold a kick-off event for its fundraising campaign to build 20 homes. The event will be held at 3:30 p.m. Sunday at Washington Street and Jackson Avenue in Naperville. Participants will fill the streets of downtown Naperville for a historic community photo. For more information, visit www.napervilleresponds.org.
– Ronald McDonald House Charities of Chicagoland and Northwest Indiana needs volunteers to work in three Ronald McDonald Houses as office managers, weekend house managers, special-event coordinators, art night leaders, bake night chefs, kitchen captains, newsletter writers and more. To volunteer at one of the charity’s special events, call the main office at 630-623-5300.
– First Methodist Church of Oak Park will hold a Singalong Messiah fundraiser for West Suburban PADS at 3:30 p.m. Sunday in the church, 324 N. Oak Park Ave., Oak Park. Admission is free, but a donation is requested to support services for the homeless. The program features several hundred volunteer singers, four professional soloists and an orchestra conducted by James Mack. For more information, call 708-383-4983.
– The Village of Bartlett and the Bartlett Police Department are participating in the annual Salvation Army Angel Tree program, which provides gifts for needy children. Tags with the age, sex and size of a child can be picked up in the lobby of the Police Department, 228 S. Main St. All gifts need to be returned to the department by Dec. 15. For more information, call 630-837-0846.
– The Village of Lombard is collecting items to donate to the needy this holiday season. Non-perishable food items, paper products, diapers, new toys, gently used coats, scarves, hats and gloves can be dropped off at the Village Hall, 255 E Wilson Ave. For more information, call 630-620-5718.
Those making a difference
– Pi Sigma Alpha, the National Political Science Honor Society, recently awarded Benedictine University’s Pi Nu chapter a $1,150 grant to help buy small Christmas items for families displaced by Hurricane Katrina. Student members will distribute small toys, activity and craft kits, disposable cameras, picture frames and other stocking stuffers to Katrina evacuees in the Chicago area and Louisiana.
– Staff and administrators at Glenbard Township High School District 87, along with community members, donated $900 to a middle school in Gulfport, Miss., to buy tennis equipment. The school’s tennis courts were destroyed during Hurricane Katrina.
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