New Lenox again wins Hometown Award
By Erin Gallagher Correspondent January 16, 2013 10:24AM
Updated: February 19, 2013 1:37PM
The village of New Lenox earned the Governor’s Hometown Award for the second consecutive year.
Mayor Tim Baldermann credited Gary Cheny, chairman of Sharefest, as being the reason at a recent board meeting.
“(Cheny and Sharefest) are 100 percent of why we got the Governor’s Hometown Award,” Baldermann said.
Sharefest is a multifaceted volunteer event that started in 2007 in New Lenox. It has expanded to a network of more than 500 volunteers across more than 70 organizations spanning Will County.
Cheny shared some of the results the volunteers accomplished. For example, in the last two years, four semi-loads of clothing and home goods were donated to local families and Goodwill. More than 4,000 food items were collected.
There were 97 tons of household hazardous waste removed from the community over the past four years. This year alone, a total of 601 vehicles from 639 households rid themselves of electronics, wood, foam, plastic and scrap metal.
“That is a major impact,” Cheny said.
Other aspects of Sharefest were the health fair and the job and resource fair. This year, 30 health organizations gave more than 20 different kinds of screenings and tests. Also, there were 28 employers who met an estimated 400 people at the job fair.
“We are a community that comes together in times of need,” Baldermann said.
