pandemic-articles

by Steve Zalusky — March 30, 2020

The Eagle Scout motto, “Be prepared,” has particular relevance for one Mount Prospect business.

A little more than a year ago, Mount Prospect granted approval for two Eagle Scouts to open the village’s first distillery, dubbed Two Eagles Distillery, at 1852 S. Elmhurst Road.

But Two Eagles had to pivot in response to the coronavirus just as the business was getting poised to begin self-distribution. Now the distillery, as others, is devoting its energies to producing hand sanitizers.

“We had a bunch of vodka sitting here,” said Operations Manager Jesse Zien, one of the two Eagle Scouts.

In early March, however, Zien and his partner, Master Distiller Matthew Georgacakis-Nurre of Mount Prospect, sat down and decided to hold off on bottling it.

“We kind of had a feeling that there might be a need for hand sanitizer. We knew that we could make it,” Zien said.

Things then began falling into place. The federal government gave the go-ahead to manufacture the product, but only under a specific recipe calling for such ingredients as glycerin, isopropyl alcohol and hydrogen peroxide in addition to the high-proof spirits.

The company started a GoFundMe page and within hours, $2,000 in donations poured in. As of Saturday, the tally had reached $18,000.

Now, the company is rolling out four-ounce bottles and giving it away to first-responders, as well as restaurants, public works facilities and anyone performing essential services. Zien said gallon bottles are on order.

On Monday, Ten Ninety Brewing Co. in Glenview, which has 10 times the capacity of Two Eagles for making fermented spirits, will start fermenting grain and shipping it to the Mount Prospect distillery.

“It’s going to give us the ability to really start pumping this stuff out,” Zien said.

The manufacturing crew includes the two partners, plus their legal counsel, Agostino Filippone, who also sits on Mount Prospect’s planning and zoning commission.

“We are donating all our time to do this and we are making hand sanitizers as fast as we can,” Zien said. “Everyone is pitching in. Many hands make light work.”

Recipients include Aurora, Des Plaines, Mount Prospect and Wheeling first responders, local restaurants and a home health care provider. Requests have been received from plumbers, sanitation workers and construction workers.

Copyright 2022 Daily Herald (www.dailyherald.com)

By Steve Zalusky — April 24, 2020

Mount Prospect Mayor Arlene Juracek updated the village board this week on the village’s COVID-19 statistics.

She said Mount Prospect as of Tuesday had 142 diagnosed cases, 100 more than two weeks ago, and one fatality, a 57-year-old man.

“It’s very unfortunate to have any deaths. On the other hand, these statistics do say that we do have some effective social distancing going on,” she said.

She said she has seen good compliance when visiting grocery stores, the gas station and the post office. A few residents, however, have pointed out that people are depositing gloves in parking lots.

“This is disgusting. I blame the people who are doing it more than I blame the stores,” she said.

Juracek said the village staff has alerted stores about their concerns. She advised residents to take gloves off when they get to their cars and put them in a bag.

Copyright 2022 Daily Herald (www.dailyherald.com)

By Jean Murphy
Daily Herald correspondent — April 12, 2020

When my son and his girlfriend got engaged during a New Year’s trip to New Orleans 15 months ago, it never occurred to any of us that a pandemic would hit the entire world and threaten the ceremony and party they long dreamed of and planned.

These 31-year-old city residents, who grew up in Mount Prospect and Des Plaines, respectively, are due to be married at Galleria Marchetti in Chicago on June 27. The rehearsal dinner is set for the Chicago Firehouse Restaurant in the South Loop on the evening prior, and a welcome party afterward for the wedding party and out-of-town guests is set for the Near North hotel where everyone will be staying.

The maternal grandparents of the groom also married in stressful times. Andy Murphy’s grandfather was a submarine officer in the Pacific in early 1945. Engaged to a young woman in Ohio, he sent a cable to her (in code) to say he would be there in two weeks and to go ahead and plan a wedding. She bought a dress off the rack and gathered butter and sugar ration coupons from neighbors to have a cake made. Courtesy of the Murphy family

The band, florist and photographer have been paid deposits and the venue has received two large installments of its fee. The wedding dress has been chosen and made, as have the bridesmaid dresses. The tux measurements have been taken and honeymoon reservations for Spain are set. Many out-of-town guests have made their plane and hotel reservations for the big day.

Then this insidious disease struck and now all of us hold our collective breaths. Two showers were planned for late March and late April and both will be rescheduled. The bachelor party was supposed to be at Arlington Park, followed by Rivers Casino in late May. But now Arlington Park is closed until June 1 and no one yet knows when Rivers will reopen. As for the bachelorette party, they are still hoping for a late May girls’ weekend in a downtown hotel and a show.

A food tasting at the venue has been postponed, as has the final design meeting with the decorator/florist. But hopefully both will happen in early May. As for the cake tasting, that was converted into a “deconstructed take out” and the bride and groom-to-be tasted the cakes and filling combinations alone in their condo in late March.

Andy Murphy, originally from Mount Prospect, tries on a tux jacket for his June wedding in Chicago — a wedding that might have to be quickly rescheduled in the fall because of the coronavirus pandemic. Courtesy of Kim Thomson

Fortunately, both the mother of the bride and I have already chosen our dresses, but mine needs to be shortened and I am afraid to ask any tailor to do the job because no one wants to breathe on anyone else. The bride’s dress also needs those last-minute alterations.

The stress on all of us as we watch these daily briefings from the White House is incredible. Is a June 27 wedding doable?

My son, Andy Murphy, and his fiancé, Kim Thomson, have received notes from their photographer and florist, saying their deposits can be put toward a later date if the wedding needs to be rescheduled. But there has been no word from the band they are so excited to have, and the venue has said it will apply the deposit to another date if they are forced to remain closed. But if things are opened up at the last minute and people can’t scramble that fast, who knows?

Recently, Andy and Kim finally went ahead and ordered their invitations because the clock is ticking. But they also decided to do a page on the Zola website to announce any last-minute details, in case things must change, and that web address is noted on their invitations.

“We originally weren’t going to do a wedding website, but under the circumstances, we now feel that it is needed,” Andy explained. “In fact, it was the website that made us comfortable about ordering the invitations, which they tell us somehow take five weeks to print.”

But the really difficult part is that all assumptions about the immediate future have gone out the window. The Olympics have been postponed. Wimbledon has been canceled. Church services are being held online. The list goes on and on. But what does a family do about an imminent wedding?

Andy and Kim are not the only ones in this miserable predicament. Their close friends are scheduled to be married in Ohio two weeks before them and Kim’s co-worker’s nuptials are June 20, also in Chicago. All of these young people and their families are in an exceedingly difficult spot.

Their plight is different, of course, but reminiscent of my own parents’ wedding situation. They got married at the height of World War II when my father’s submarine put into port in California for repairs. With very little warning, he sent a telegram to his fiancé (my mother) saying he would be at her Ohio home in two weeks and that she should plan a wedding.

That story has always fascinated me. It seems Kim and Andy may now have a crazy wedding story of their own to tell.

“I go back and forth between being sad and accepting it. But at the end of the day, we just have to do what’s best for everyone,” Kim told me.

“It’s stressful, but nothing compared to what first responders, health care professionals and coronavirus patients are experiencing,” Andy said. “If we have to reschedule, we’ll reschedule.”

So, we wait to see what happens in April. “If the stay-at-home order is extended into May, we will ask the venue to book a backup date,” Andy said. “But for now, we don’t want to take those dates away from couples who already know their April or early May weddings need to be rescheduled.”

In the event June 27 is eventually deemed “undoable” by the powers in Washington and Springfield who could extend the “stay-at-home” order, or even continue a limit on large social gatherings, the couple will have to go to Plan B. They’ll select whatever Friday or Saturday they can get in the fall. At this point, they are unwilling to entertain another day of the week.

But, as Jeri Thomson, Mount Prospect resident and mother of the bride, recently said: “A wedding is about family and friends coming together to celebrate a joyful occasion. Our biggest concern right now is to keep everyone healthy so we can make this happen.”

Copyright 2022 Daily Herald (www.dailyherald.com)