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Picnic gives hospitalized vets a day of sun, fun

FOX RIVER GROVE – Thanks to a group of dedicated local AMVETS, what started in 1988 as a picnic for about 40 hospitalized veterans has grown into the largest event of its kind in the country.

Hundreds of hospitalized veterans from Illinois and Wisconsin spread out over Lions Park on Wednesday for the 24th annual AMVETS Pearl Harbor Memorial Post 245 hospitalized veterans’ picnic.

“The picnic is one of the gifts we look forward to all year,” the Rev. Calvin Chears said.

The Presbyterian minister served with the U.S. Army from 1954 to 1956 and was injured after his service. Today he is a quadriplegic and has lived for the past 10 years at Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital just west of Chicago.

“I am really proud of the way people are recognizing the troops today and the veterans now with events like this and by sending love and prayers,” he said.

Chears, along with fellow Hines patients and Army veterans Bob Gralik of Justice and Jermey LeGrand of Earlville, were grateful for the opportunity to get outside.

“Some people, when they get in the hospital, they just sequester themselves in their rooms and become complete lumps,” Gralik said. “The picnic and opportunities like this are good ways to get people out.”

Gralik was not injured during his time in Vietnam in the 1970s, but he recently lost the lower half of his left leg and a toe to diabetes.

In addition to a healthy helping of sunshine and socialization, the picnic offers charcoal-grilled hamburgers and brats, bingo and the opportunity to boat and fish on the Fox River.

“It is so good to be able to get these guys out into the community,” said Mary Terese Squeo, a certified therapeutic recreational specialist at Hines.

The picnic is the largest event the Cary-Grove AMVETS Pearl Harbor Memorial Post 245 takes on each year, and it has grown each year since it began.

“The first year, we filled about three picnic tables,” Kenny Srch said. The U.S. Navy veteran from Oakwood Hills was one of the four AMVETS members at the very first picnic.

“Chris Chigas, owner of Chris’ Coach House, he provided food the first year,” Srch said. “Chris said we should do it again, but with more guys.”

The next year, Srch said, “Chris said the same thing.”

“It kept going that way,” Srch said, “and this is the result.

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