Sunday, June 22, 2003 8:00am Registration 8:30 AM – walk 3K/5K @ Lindberg Park (@ Marion & LeMoyne)

Hosted by The Bill Adams Memorial Foundation.

This year the Walkathon has grown into a festival with entertainment, vendors, and exhibitors. 

The entertainment:  Atiba Y. Jali & the BUSA Family- Afrikan Drumming & Dance 

Billy Adams (the son) 

BRAVO! Brooks International Dance Troupe

Jemilah Ellis, Datrinna Meeks, Raequel Lonstreet, Icey McConnell, Ivana Hill, Aja Chapman, Melissa Elie, Satirah Varner, Chiagoziem Nkamma Cylenium Sean Cusik, Michael Bacol, Matt Puccetti 

Dance 2 Express

OPRF High School Students 

Sax Machine

Lucas Ellman, Gehring, Miller, Tom Patterson, Nathan Bailey, Charlie Kahn, Zach Easty 

The Frogs

Matt Bachman, Joel Meyerson, Mike Strumbas, James Krivchenia 

The No Shows (let’s hope their there)

Steve Browne, Cole Michel, Sam Grimes, Neal O’Hara 

Yogo- The Clown On the Go 

Vendors & Exhibitors

                      Jules Jewlery

                      Oak Park Quilters

                      Studio Padres

                      The Art House 

                      Thirty one & more…. 
 

Check in is in the tennis court area of the park in the northwest corner. This is a worthwhile event that I’ll bet the majority of us could benefit from. Not financially, but spiritually. Have you ever had anyone close to you, someone you admired, loved, looked up to, or was just a friend, die, suddenly or otherwise? I don’t think you can be alive and not answer, “yes” to this question. This is what this event is all about, remembering that special someone or someones, who are not around any more. 

Walking to Honor- who? That’s for you to answer. 

                      Here’s my story: 

       In 1961, when I was 5, my father died suddenly of a heart attack. He was 37. My mom was left with 4 children under the age of 10 to raise by herself. She died only 8 years later of a stroke from high blood pressure. It was just too much for her. 

        As a business owner in Forest Park, (Starship Restaurant) I am constantly receiving requests for donations to numerous charities. Most often we supply gift certificates that can be silent auctioned or raffled off. We rarely give monetary donations because there are just too many and frankly, the money is too hard to come by. 

         Last week I received a notice about the Bill Adams Memorial Walkathon to be held in June. I glanced at the letter briefly and like so many others dropped it into the circular file. Then it hit me. Muriel Adams, Bill’s wife and my mom had something very much in common. It appears Bill Adams died suddenly of a heart attack leaving Muriel alone to raise her two sons. I fished the notice out of the garbage and decided to make this pitch.

         I sat down with Muriel a couple of days later and realized, not only how much she had in common with my mom, but also how much I had in common with her boys. 

         She told me when she first said, “Something has happened to dad,” Garrett, her youngest (8) said as almost telepathically, “Dad died.” A moment later, after they had hugged their mom, as she was crying, Garrett added, “Can I go downstairs and play Nintendo now?” I know how Garrett felt. Until this day (I’m 45 now) I have harbored guilty feelings for having played with some silly popgun at my father’s wake. 

           Once Muriel asked Garrett, “What have you been doing out on the back steps for so long?” He replied, “I was letting out a little cry for dad.”  That was me. For years I would go down my back stairs and sit by myself and cry and say things like, “I miss you,” and “I wish you were still here,” and “Why did you have to leave?” 

          In 1961, as far as my family knew, there was no such thing as “grief counseling.” Well, it’s not 1961 anymore. Back then kids could go to the park to play by themselves too. Not anymore. We live in a different world now and life and feelings are more sensitive. There are groups now that offer ways to help deal with this kind of loss. Muriel Adams, after seeking out these organizations and receiving help has decided that they are worthwhile. The help comes through in support groups where people can share their stories, their questions, their fears, and their advice. These groups provided a much needed shoulder to lean on and even more importantly, some people Muriel could relate to. She is thankful and has decided to repay these organizations that helped her get through, and continue to help her through, an extremely difficult part of her life. Muriel wants them to be there for any of you if you ever need them.

           In honor of her husband, she decided to form a foundation that raises money to fund these grief handling groups. “We don’t do any grief counseling ourselves,” she says, “We send money to help keep these services viable so that they are available to other people that have to deal with the loss of a parent or sibling.” 

           “Why do we need to have grief counseling groups in our communities today?” I asked. It seemed like a fair question. I mean my family never had it and we, my brother, sisters and I turned out okay, (or at least we like to think so). Muriel told me that after Bill’s death, she was inundated with letters from people who prey on survivors just like ambulance chasers prey on the victims of an accident. How cold, I think, but it really doesn’t surprise me         anymore. The world can be a very insensitive place. In order to understand Muriel’s frame of mind after learning of her husband death, picture this: You get hit in the head with a baseball bat, your confused, stunned and not thinking straight. You have to deal with trying to keep your kids lives from turning upside down. You still have to pay you monthly bills, on half or none of your family’s income. You have to double your time and love you give to your children to fill in the gaps in their lives. You now have to become two people instead of one. You might, and probably do have to move from your home, no easy task for anybody, even if you’re single and living alone. There are new schools for the kids if you move, reapply, re-register etc.
           Everything has changed. Your future, as you have envisioned it, is gone. You are truly in a state of shock. And the one person you usually talk with to   help you share the major decisions, the one person you can talk with to hash things out, so you come up with good sound solutions, is not there anymore. You are lost in a sea of indecision at a very critical point in your life. This is what it’s like.

           “Sometimes my brain would just shut down,” Muriel says. She recalled a morning after getting the boys off to school. She was tired and sat down at the kitchen table to have a cup of coffee and think about some of these problems. She looks up at the clock and it’s two o’clock in the afternoon, time to pick the boys up. Where did the time go? 

           As a normal human self-defense mechanism, our minds, when confronted with incredible trauma, don’t function the way they should. We make wrong decisions based on fear or short term motives. Muriel was faced with these problems and reached out. Fortunately she found several organizations she and her boys could go to and seek help from people who have experienced the same things they were feeling. Since then Muriel has started The Bill Adam’s Memorial Foundation to help raise funds for these worthwhile organizations. She has inspected and scrutinized them from an investor’s viewpoint to make sure the donation money she is able to raise will be well spent. So far she has taken the proceeds from the previous walkathons and a silent auctions and given the money to organizations such as: 

                     Buddy’s Place in Western Springs

                      708-354-0826 

                      Good Mourning Group in Park Ridge

                      847-685-9900 

                      Heartlight @ Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago

                      773-880-4309 

                      Willow House in Arlington Heights

                      847-940-0779 

                      And in Oak Park Rush Hospice Partners

                      708-234-2800 

           In addition to the donations to these organizations, The Bill Adams Foundation publishes a quarterly newsletter for children who have lost a parent or sibling. “It’s important that the kids know there is someone to talk to who can relate to them. Also, a survivor packet is provided to grieving families offering a list resources and referrals to organizations in the area. 

            Muriel Adams has decided to honor her husband in the best way that is possible, which is by helping other people in his name. You too can help by walking in honor of your own lost family member in The Bill Adam’s Memorial Walkathon on June 22, at Lindberg Park (Marion & LeMoyne) in Oak Park. The fees are$25.00 for an adult and $15.00 for children. $50.00 for a family of four/includes 4 T-shirts, A Walkathon goodie bag and T-shirt will be given to each entrant (on availability).

             If you have any questions or need to contact The Bill Adam’s Memorial Foundation, you can call them at 708-445-1137. 

           A positive way to honor those people in your life who have passed away would be to participate in The Bill Adam’s Memorial Walkathon.  Remember that our lost family members live everyday in our hearts and thoughts. Come and celebrate their lives on June 22nd with a long walk and a good cry. I can’t think of a better way to help others and your own healing process with the same action.

            The Bill Adam’s Memorial Foundation would like to thank the sponsors for this event:

                     Kolovitz Movers

                      Quebecor World

                      Professional Exhibit People

                      Dribbler/Leirum Enterprises, Inc.

                      Walmart

                      Also these supporters:

Barbara’s Bookstore, Borders Books & Music, Community Bank OPRF, Competitive Foot, Einstein Bros. Bagels, Frame Warehouse, Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust, Great Harvest Bread, Kelly Frame company, Language & Music School, Logos Bookstore, Minuteman Press, NCAA Ahll of champions, Oak Park Athletic Club, Quinos Subs, Oak Park Area Arts Council, Oak Park Conservatory, Oak Park Park District, Oprah- Harpo Studios, Prairie Bread Kitchen, Sallie Wolf, Starship Restaurant & Catering, Val’s halla, & Visual Impact Media 

                   Paul McKenna