2024 MidWeek Year in Review: Business birthdays, art exhibits, Guinness records and more

SYCAMORE – From centennial and 50th anniversaries to a new world record and the joy of new life, a lot happened in DeKalb County in 2024.

Here are some of the most heartwarming, newsworthy and unique stories that ran in the MidWeek in 2024.

January: Cross-country skiing pops up in DeKalb County

In January 2024, officials with a Northern Illinois University program and a local park district came up with an answer for cabin fever: a pop-up cross-country skiing event.

Sycamore Park District staffer Sarah Rex said the 101-year-old park district held a cross-country skiing pop-up event at the Sycamore Park District Golf Course on Jan. 28 with the help of NIU’s outdoor recreation group, NIU Outdoor Adventure.

Christine Lagattolla, associate director of external affairs for NIU Recreation, said NIU Outdoor Adventure does programming with Sycamore Park District year-round, but the pop-up cross-country skiing was scheduled when Mother Nature cooperates.

DeKalb County was pummeled with two major snowstorms in mid-January, leaving plenty of snow on the ground for some winter fun.

“We do this about every year, for the past several years, if we get lucky with some snow. And it looks like we’re going to have some snow for a while, so that’s good,” Lagattolla said.

February: New office to open at NIU for U.S. Geological Survey

The U.S. Geological Survey opened a branch on Northern Illinois University’s campus in 2024.

School officials said in February they think the move will boost collaborations and foster more research opportunities.

Karinne Bredberg, NIU’s director of the Office of Innovation, said the university coordinated with the U.S. Geological Survey to house the Central Midwest Water Science Center in the former NIU Department of Technology print shop. The survey houses an office on Peace Road in DeKalb, which will relocate to the NIU campus under the new plan.

She expects the move to bolster the university’s research and education.

“The collaboration agreement is basically just strengthening the partnership we’ve already had with [the survey],” Bredberg said. “We’ve had a long-standing partnership with them. They work with our faculty and have hired students, and interns and graduate students. It’s just really bolstering the research that they do, and that we do, and making it a collaborative effort.”

March: Mexican art exhibit finds home in NIU library

Mexico City artists built dozens of alebrijes for a largely outdoor exhibit in DuPage County in 2022. In early 2024, 22 of those folk art pieces were put back on display in DeKalb.

The alebrijes, a Mexican art tradition created in the 1930s by Pedro Linares, were made at Cantigny Park by artists who live in Mexico City, according to a digital Northern Illinois University exhibit.

Fernando Ramirez, president and founder of the Mexican Cultural Center of DuPage County, said the art exhibit was expected to be a short-term program. Public demand has kept it on display, however.

“We had a great response. People kept asking us about it, and we wanted to figure out a way to continue doing it. We never planned on continuing these pieces,” Ramirez said. “But the artists were wanting to continue doing it, so they helped us refurbish a lot of these and reconstruct them.”

April: Captain of country’s first all-Black high school rowing team says sport gave him discipline he needed

In April, an award-winning author from the west side of Chicago told dozens on Northern Illinois University’s campus how competitive rowing gave him the fortitude he needed to rise above his childhood circumstances.

Arshay Cooper visited NIU on April 11 to speak in the Carl Sandburg Auditorium in the Holmes Student Center for Project FLEX, a university program that helps incarcerated youth in northern Illinois find better paths through sports.

Project FLEX – which stands for fitness, leadership and experience – brought youth from the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice Illinois Youth Center in Warrenville to hear Cooper’s presentation.

Cooper told the crowd that competitive rowing taught him how to take time to make the world a better place than he found it. It also allowed him to fulfill his childhood dream by becoming a personal chef for World Wrestling Entertainment, Warner Brothers film sets and professional athletes.

“Sometimes as young people we want lightning to strike, but here’s the thing: Lightning just doesn’t strike,” Cooper said. “You have to have something in you to attract the lightning, and for me it was commitment, it was self-control, it was discipline, it was connection, it was love, it was forgiveness.”

May: Voluntary Action Center celebrates 50 years of community service in DeKalb County

A DeKalb County nonprofit that provides hot meals to the needy, nutrition programs for day cares and transportation for those without it turned 50 this year.

The Voluntary Action Center, 1606 Bethany Road in Sycamore, started in 1974 as a volunteer clearing house. After refining its focus and mission, the organization has morphed into one of the most tenured volunteer organizations in DeKalb County.

Nate Kloster, COO for the organization, said the center has two main focuses: transportation and nutrition. It provides transit services for rural DeKalb County – everything outside of DeKalb, Sycamore and Cortland.

Bus services also are open to the public, Kloster said but those services are geared toward residents older than 55 and those with disabilities.

“Our desire is to really help, and our focus is intentional about seniors and those with disabilities, and folks that don’t have access to transportation or need the services of a lift or assistance getting on and off the vehicle,” Kloster said. “We do a lot of work with folks that go to dialysis, for example, every week. So we kind of relieve the family member from having to get them to the appointment.”

June: Blumen Gardens celebrates 35 years in Sycamore with next generation

Joel and Joan Barczak set up an unassuming gardening shop in Sycamore more than a generation ago. After multiple family and business expansions, they celebrated 35 years at Blumen Gardens in June.

After three and a half decades of business, Joel Barczak said he thought 2024 was the right time to “let someone else do the heavy lifting.”

The celebration signified a transition of sorts: Their daughter and son-in-law have transitioned into managerial roles at the popular garden center and banquet venue. And soon the business will be handed off.

Jill Mandeville now is a co-owner and partner of Blumen Gardens with her parents. She said she didn’t grow up dreaming of taking over her family business, however. After becoming a registered dietician and seeing the world, it was romance – like her parents, who met on the first day of classes at Kishwaukee College in 1981 – that changed her life’s trajectory. Mandeville met Keith Mandeville, who’s now her husband, in New Zealand.

“[I] never thought in a million years I would work here, and then I went and traveled and I met my husband who’s Canadian, and so I started traveling back and forth from Canada and I started working here part-time,” Jill Mandeville said. “I needed somewhere to work part-time so I could go and visit him, and then I ended up working here and I loved it.”

July: Sycamore popcorn stand turns 100

Cassie’s Popcorn Stand celebrated its centennial in 2024, and the family operation behind the tasty kernels promised to stick around for more generations.

Lifelong Sycamore resident Cassie Oltman took over ownership of Cassie’s Popcorn Stand from her mother in 2010. The family has owned the business for more than 40 years. Oltman said she thinks “it is awesome” to be a part of the Sycamore popcorn stand’s legacy.

“The public, everybody’s great,” Oltman, 59, said during a centennial celebration July 25. “They come up for the popcorn. We have people that come almost daily to fill their buckets. It’s great to be here with the community.”

August: Genoa brothers set basketball Guinness World Record

A pair of Genoa brothers this summer set a world record for most bounce passes with a basketball in a minute by a team of two under 16.

Cole Krueger, 15, and Caleb Krueger, 13, completed 80 bounce passes within a minute to claim the world record.

The boys’ dad, Matt Krueger, helped them navigate the requirements of making their record official with Guinness World Records, which included providing continuous footage measuring the distance between their passes and the size of the ball.

“I thought it was good,” Matt Krueger said. “Guinness book of records is very specific. You have to be exactly a certain distance. We had to have it filmed in slow-mo. We had to have witnesses. We had to have all this stuff. The process of working with them is really intense.”

September: Genoa-Kingston cheerleader with inoperable brain tumor hopes to help others

A Genoa-Kingston High School cheerleader had the support of her peers, coaches and teachers at a Friday night football game in September, where they rallied to fundraise and help her through a life-altering illness.

Genoa-Kingston High School and Middle School Athletic Director Philip Jerbi said the fundraising event supported Kalista Breda – a freshman cheerleader who was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor as an eighth grader.

Breda’s mother, Jess Evertsen, wrote in an email to Shaw Local News Network that she and her daughter were blown away by the scope of the fundraiser.

“Kalista was so happy to know that all of these people wanted to support her and cared about her so much,” Evertsen wrote. “Kalista and I were just talking about how so many families going through the same thing don’t always have a community of fighters behind them, so we are so incredibly blessed and thankful for all of these ‘krusaders’ helping Kalista fight this fight!”.

October: Meet the Kingston mom birthing joy for others

When Paula Pacey gave birth in October, she didn’t take home the human she helped create, but she knew that when she signed up to be a surrogate.

Instead, Pacey, 35, of Kingston, helped others welcome the miracle of life into their home: A married couple from Washington now have their first child through Pacey’s surrogacy. Already a mother of five, Pacey, who works as a nurse in Rockford, was nine months pregnant when she spoke with Shaw Local about her surrogacy.

November: Stage Coach Players, DeKalb community donate Thanksgiving meals

A DeKalb-based acting troupe took it upon themselves to give back to the community that attends their theater’s performances by partnering with The Salvation Army to help fill plates for Thanksgiving.

In November, the Stage Coach Players donated dozens of Thanksgiving meals to people who may have otherwise not been able to afford the tastiest parts of the holiday. Although many members of the Stage Coach Players contributed to the more than 50 boxes of meals that were donated, organizers said the wider DeKalb community got in on the endeavor.

Gloria Dennison, a member of the Stage Coach Players and one of the main organizers of the charitable effort, said she was “really impressed with the outpouring of giving from the community.”

On the final night of the donation drive, the basement of the Stage Coach Theatre, 126 S. Fifth St., DeKalb, was packed with nonperishable Thanksgiving meal items.

“They have given cash so that we can get the gift cards for the turkeys,” Dennison said. “They have given us all kinds of, as you can see, mountains of food.”

December: At Cozy Corner, DeKalb seniors gather for fun, relaxation

A new community space designed to provide local seniors with a cozy and welcoming environment to relax and connect opened in early December with the help of Elder Care Services of DeKalb County.

Dubbed Cozy Corner, the space has its home in the agency’s building at 1701 E. Lincoln Highway, DeKalb. It’s also where Elder Care Services staff members can share information about their offerings to anyone who walks in seeking a hangout space.

John Rey, president of the Elder Care Services board of directors, said he’s excited for Cozy Corner because it will allow older members of the community to interact with their peers.

“The Cozy Corner really is more for socialization, having our clients come in and have a comfortable place to socialize with other older adults,” Rey said. “It avoids the isolation if they can come and just have socialization with other adults. It really is a comfortable setting.”