Personal Accounts

Michael Martin, owner of the Mount Prospect LePeep Café (847-797-9990) since 2005, suffered during the COVID-19 pandemic, just like his fellow restaurateurs. With limited dining restrictions in effect, he had to turn to increased carry-out, curbside pick-up and deliveries for his restaurant at the corner of Northwest Highway and Route 83. It wasn’t easy, but limited openings during the summer and early fall gave him hope.

When the state shut down again in November, however, he knew he had to do something differently if he wanted his business to survive during the winter months. He had seen other restaurants pivoting to pizza kits and so forth to stay afloat, so he came up with his own unique service.

“I wish I would have thought of this early on because it might have helped me keep some people employed,” Martin said.

It occurred to Martin that after working hard all day, people probably didn’t want to go home and cook dinner. “This Pandemic has made a lot of people tired of coming up with ideas for dinner menus, going to the market, then prepping and cooking,” he explained.

So, Martin created “Meals, Made, Easy.” He planned the menu, then shopped for the food, prepped and cooked it. By Wednesday, every week through early April, he posted a new menu on Facebook with four different meal plans. The meals were created for two, four or six people, depending on the size of the family or the appetites. Orders were then taken through 2 p.m., Saturday and the prepared food was available for pick-up between 3 and 7 p.m. on Mondays. 

All customers had to do was order, re-heat, and eat. Customers could order for one night or up to all four meal plans and take care of dinners for the whole week.

“We have been doing this for 18 weeks and have offered roughly three to four different menus per week.  We have rerun our popular items a few times, but have tried to offer new items every week,” Martin explained.

“We ended up with between 15 and 20 regular customers, ordering between one and four meals a week,” he continued. “People could purchase one meal plan or all of them. We also offered ala carte items, salads, cold soups, egg salad, chicken salad, salsa, salad dressings, pancakes, cinnamon rolls, etc. The lasagna, meatloaf, sloppy joes, pot roast, tilapia, and all the Mexican items – tacos, enchiladas – were particularly popular.”

“In the beginning we tried to build it all around family meals based on four people.  But we got a lot of people asking about meals for two, so we tiered it for two, four or six people.  Meals for two was our most popular portion,” Martin stated.  

“The Monday after Easter was our last pick-up day for a while.  We have pivoted a lot with this concept, offering catering, frozen meals, ala carte items, and our regular meal plans,” he continued. “It’s a lot of work and currently society is trying to get back to some sense of normal.  We want guests to get out and support their local restaurants.  This idea was never to take the place of dining out.  The idea was all about saving people time, money and effort in their weekly planning of meals.  We will continue to work on the MME brand and again offer it to our guests in the future when we can.  It may return as a weekly feature down the road.  We may also continue to offer limited quantities of refrigerated and frozen meals to be picked up anytime during our normal business hours.”

“There is a lot of extra work required in the planning and production of the MME program and it has become even more challenging since we re-opened indoor dining.  Also, from an ordering standpoint we have had to purchase some things that aren’t on our regular menu and if we don’t sell them, we need to do something else with them,” Martin added. 

The Mount Prospect Historical Society studies history, of course, and objectively knew about the Great Flu Pandemic of 1918. But its leaders didn’t expect to be struck by another pandemic today, any more than the rest of the public did.  We were past those kinds of concerns, weren’t we?

But during March of 2020 it became apparent that residents of this planet weren’t past them and the Society shut its doors, just like every other entity.

During the rest of 2020 and at least the first half of 2021 the Society has adapted. Board meetings have been held online via Zoom and, during the warm months, on the Society’s driveway with everyone sitting six feet apart. They held a retirement farewell for their 17-year veteran Office Manager outside on the driveway and hired new staff via virtual first interviews and socially-distanced second interviews and by the fall of 2020 had welcomed three new staff members to their team.

Society activities were largely cancelled – no Spring Dinner; a bus trip to the Robie House and the Pullman neighborhood postponed multiple times; no 2020 Housewalk – the list goes on and on.

But the Society also got innovative. They quickly put together five different neighborhood walking tours using information collected over preceding years for the Housewalk and posted them on their website for people to download for free and enjoy while walking for exercise and entertainment. The tours’ availability was publicized via lawn signs posted along the various routes and continue to be immensely popular.

The Society’s summer camps for children were successfully done virtually with parents picking up materials in our Education Center breezeway and then having their children participate via Zoom. They also managed to have a Blacksmith demonstration on the Society’s driveway for members of the public to enjoy. Their enthusiastic new Office Manager, Amanda Marcus, even put new emphasis on the marketing and sale of unique, themed “Sammy Skobel’s Hot Dogs” and “Hotter Than Mother’s Pinball” t-shirts via the Society’s social media outlets, bringing in over $1,000 in sales during late 2020 and early 2021.

The Society also kept its membership informed by holding a virtual Annual Meeting in March 2021 (instead of the usual Soup or Chili Supper in the Village Hall) and publishing their financial report in the Society’s spring newsletter.

But the Society’s biggest victory was the Virtual Dollhouse Walk which their new director, Emily Dattilo, constructed around five wonderful Society-owned dollhouses from different eras and one fabulous dollhouse owned by a former Housewalk participant, Julie Michalik.  

The Society’s videographer Board member Ed Johnson used his incredible skill, patience and equipment to create a narrated tour from a doll’s scaled-down perspective which they were able to post on the Society’s website and ask viewers around the country to enjoy for $10 per household.  Their usual realtor Housewalk sponsors even chipped in sponsorship money and all-told, during the months of December, January and February, the Society pulled in $2181.53 to help keep them afloat. A total of 126 viewers paid to see the featured dollhouses.

“It has been a difficult time which has forced us to pivot and adapt, but we have done just that and have ample reason to take pride in our accomplishments,” said Deb Rittle, Society president.

“We have also forged a partnership with the Village, the Public Library and both of the Village’s primary park districts to virtually record for the future the reality of the pandemic’s impact on the people of Mount Prospect in essays, testimonials, photos, artwork and videos.  That work continues,” added Marilyn Genther, Society vice president, and chairman of the Pandemic Reflections project.

The concept of building and erecting small birdhouse-style structures and turning them into lending libraries for neighbors and passersby was born in Wisconsin in 2009 and since then the idea has taken off like a wildfire with numerous groups and individuals adopting the idea and both building and erecting them around the country. The idea is to take a book and leave a book, too.

Locally, Joey Carbone’s name has become synonymous with the idea. His wife, Jen, read about the concept and asked him if he would build one for her and, the rest, as they say, is history!

“I do not have a background in carpentry,” Carbone admitted. “Everything that I know, I learned from my father who doesn’t have a background in carpentry either but is the handiest person I know.  When I was young, I would watch him every chance I got, whether he was fixing a hole in the wall or building a desk.  He taught me everything and still teaches me to this day. He even helps build mini libraries for us.”

Once friends and neighbors saw the Carbones’ mini-library, they began asking Joey to build custom little libraries for them, as well, and he obliged as much as he could, using donated materials and volunteer help from friends and neighborhood kids. He has never accepted pay for a library.

“People call me crazy for not charging for the libraries,” he continued, “but I don’t do it for the money.  I do it simply because it is nice to be nice. Since we don’t charge anything for a library, we are able to reach more families.  That’s what it’s all about — spreading the love of reading and knowledge and giving more access to literature. The payment I get is seeing the happy families enjoy the libraries and that is plenty for me.”

“We have all of our mini libraries in Mount Prospect, except for a few special cases. There is one at Dewey School in Evanston, another at a community garden on the south side of Chicago, and two that are technically in Des Plaines but are very, very close to Mount Prospect. We have a total of 61 mini libraries right now.”

And they are all unique neighborhood works of art, if you will – which get neighbors sharing and talking and helping one another.

“I couldn’t have done this without some wonderful and generous neighbors,” Carbone continued. “This has been a group effort in many ways.  I have an amazing group of consistent volunteers that help cut wood, paint, even dig holes to install the mini libraries.”

“I’ve met so many wonderful, kind and generous people in our community and have even gained lifelong friends.  I’ve also taught my two sons so much about woodworking, art, painting and philanthropy.”

While Carbone’s mini-library pre-dated the pandemic, the worldwide health crisis had an effect on it during 2020.

“The pandemic caused people to become more interested in the mini libraries — because it was a safe and fun thing to do,” Carbone said. “They are able to social distance, be outside and stay safe.  This year we even had “contactless Halloween” where we had over 35 mini library “custodians” supply treats for kids that they could find via Google map.”

The Carbones and those with Carbone-built mini-libraries have even turned them into mini pantries during these difficult times.

“I had seen mini pantries online and since the pandemic made it especially hard for people to go grocery shopping, I thought we could help our community by turning our mini libraries into mini pantries,” he related. “Many helped by stocking canned goods, non-perishable foods, toilet paper, hand sanitizer and many other items in their libraries. These items were available to anyone who needed a little help with no questions asked. Everything is shared through our ‘MP Mini Library Mission’ Facebook group.”

In early February 2021 Carbone was honored for his mini-libraries by Mount Prospect’s Special Events Commission during its first-ever VIRTUAL Shining Stars Award ceremony. He received the “Home Town Award” which recognizes a group or individual that has done something special to promote the feeling of community or to further unify the diverse groups within the community and who exemplifies the village’s motto, “Where Friendliness is a Way of Life.”