John O'Sullivan's Worth Township Democratic Party - Fundraiser at Bourbon Street Sept. 9th at 7PM

Make it For Mikey LaPorta - Be At Bourbon Street for a Great Family and Have a Great Time . Now, This is Grassroots!

This Saturday, August 28, 2010, come on out to Bourbon Street 3359 W. 115th Street in Merrionette Park , IL and help a great family.

Here is a note from neighborhood firefighter Jim McMahon -

"There is a benefit at Bourbon Street next Saturday for a young man from West Beverly that got shot in the head last January. I have worked with his uncle, Johnny LaPorta, from time to time over the years on the fire department and just got to know this kids parents recently. The father's a hard working guy and his wife is from my old neighborhood (St. Bede). They're just genuine down to earth people who got a real tough break. This is a real good family and we're trying to get every person we can to go to this benefit to help support this effort. The benefit committee has done their part, it's organized and ready to go, now we just need THE PEOPLE."

Here are the facts -



In the early morning hours of January 12, 2010, a native West Beverly man, Mike LaPorta, was involved in an incident that has changed his life, and his family’s life forever.

He had recently moved out to the town of Sandwich , but came into the city to celebrate his father’s birthday with him and the rest of their family. After a nice evening that included dinner and cake with his family, Mike went out to a neighborhood bar to meet up with some of his longtime friends for a few drinks, a few laughs and to play a few games of bean bags.

They ended up at his former college roommate’s home in Mount Greenwood when tragedy struck. Somehow, 29 year old Mike LaPorta got shot in the back of the head with his friend’s gun, leaving a bullet lodged in the back of his brain. The circumstances surrounding the shooting are unclear, and the Chicago Police Department are still investigating the incident. He remembers being at his friends house, but doesn’t recall the shooting at all, and his family has not shared the details of the incident with him.

Initially, his chances for survival were less than slim, but with our superior surgeons and medical facilities, and by the grace of God, Mike miraculously survived. He spent months in the hospital clinging to life and has undergone several major brain surgeries. Mike has been released from the hospital but still requires around the clock care, so his parents have taken him back to live with them in their West Beverly home, which they had to have extensively remodeled and altered to accommodate Mike’s wheelchair and other special needs.



LaPorta is getting rehabilitation therapy at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago [RIC] and is also going to Next Steps SCI, Rehab Center in Willow Springs, who are connected to the Christopher Reeves Foundation and specialize in teaching people with spinal cord injuries to walk again. Mike’s working very hard in therapy and is making great progress, both physically and mentally. Even though he cannot walk yet and has some difficulty initiating conversation, his long term memory and attitude are good. Mike’s a strong young guy and has a lot of support, so if he can continue to get the right rehabilitation, we’re all hoping and praying for him to achieve a substantial amount of recovery.

Mike LaPorta is a graduate of Brother Rice High School and has always loved the great outdoors. He was an avid hunter and fisherman, but also enjoyed mountain biking. He’d go on several hunting trips every year with another one of his close friends who is also an outdoorsman, Lance Metzger, who these days spends a lot of his time indoors with Mike, and is just grateful that he survived the shooting. Metzger says he is very optimistic now that his buddy has been making such great strides and has even begun to smile again. "I'll always be at his side," said Metzger.

Metzger keeps encouraging Mike's mother, Patti, by telling her “Be grateful for what you have, and you've got to move on and work with what you have." The support from LaPorta’s friends and family has been absolutely fantastic, but things of this nature can become overwhelming very quickly. The LaPorta family are in for a long uphill climb and they can’t do it alone. We’ve all gotta help them along.

As I’m sure you can imagine, the LaPorta family has incurred a significant amount of medical expenses since the shooting, and future costs are going to be astronomical. The emotional strain alone that something like this has on a family is impossible to even explain, not to mention adding the huge financial burden to the equation. When an unexpected and devastating event like this happens in our lives, it’s a complete “game changer.” It affects not only the victim, but every member of the family, their friends and anyone even casually associated with them. It is indescribable!

There’s absolutely nothing that anyone can do to change the past, but we do have a tiny bit of control over the future, at least when it comes to what we will do to help as individuals. So in the spirit of helping out our friends and neighbors, some of Mike LaPorta’s friends decided to run a benefit they’ve very aptly coined, "Miracles for Mikey," to help raise the much needed funds that it will take to help this family.

It will be held next Saturday afternoon, from 3 to 7 p.m. on August 28th at 115 Bourbon Street , located at 3359 W. 115th Street in Merrionette Park , IL .

Tickets are $25 for adults and $15 for age 16 and younger. This event will feature food, beverages, raffles, silent auctions and entertainment. Nobody does benefits better than Bourbon Street , and it’s always nice to get out of the house and see some old friends again. This should be a real good time.

Monetary donations can also be sent to the “Miracles for Mikey” fund at Archer Bank, c/o Nancy Kuzma, 3435 W. 111th Street in Chicago , IL 60655 .

Mike LaPorta’s parents are Mike and Patti, he has a younger brother named Chris, and is also a nephew of the Chicago Fire Departments very own, Johnny LaPorta.

For additional information, please call Lance Metzger at (708) 717-3790 or go to: www.miraclesformikey.webs.com

The “Miracles for Mikey” benefit committee has worked tirelessly to organize this wonderful event, but if they don’t get the numbers turning out, it will not be successful.

This is why I’m asking each and every one of you; to please come out to Bourbon Street next Saturday afternoon, bring along your neighbors and family members, and let’s make it a day to remember. We all know that money is tight everywhere, so if you can’t afford to attend or just can’t make it for some other reason, then please consider opening up your heart and your checkbook and make a donation to the “Miracles for Mikey” fund at Archer Bank, for whatever amount you CAN afford. Because while some can still afford to give a lot, and others can only afford to give a little, every little bit will help…..a lot!

Let’s all join together as a community and support this fine neighborhood family.

Thanks………Jimmy McMahon

This benefit is just one week away from today, so please spread the word and FORWARD THIS INFORMATION TO EVERYONE THAT YOU CAN.


Even if you are tied up with Daddy-Do jobs and tasks, Mom-Car-Pooling to cheerleading, or out of town, click my post title and On Miracles for Mikey see where you can send a check.

This is Grassroots! That other nonsense is political . . .nonsense. Let's help each other. We always do! See you there!

Ed Vrdolyak First to Kick In for Kordas! Get Your Kick In Counted on Sunday, Sept. 27 at Bourbon Street

What: Kick in 4 Kordas

When: 2 to 7 p.m. Sunday

Where: 115 Bourbon Street, 3359 W. 115th St., Merrionette Park.

Cost: $30

Information: Tom Kordas (773) 330-8224 or www.kickin4kordas.com.

I love the south side of Chicago. The very best in human instincts towers above the nonsense, agendas, snobbery, self-interests, disinterested morality and ethics and societal narcissism. I am sure many other communities boast fine human qualities and, empirically speaking, I have experienced similar qualities in other towns and states. However, the close-knit ethnic ( read Catholic), tribal, fiercely loyal southside of Chicago nurtures the very impulses that sparked Chicago's 'do-gooder' imitations - Settlement Houses/Community Organizing/Social Services & etc.

Jane Addams took and imitated the work of the Daughters of Charity's work with the poor and homeless more than she did from the Malthusian Settlement Houses of England.
She also took more from Ward-healer bosses, like Ald. Johnny Power than from radical Progressives.

At this morning's Salon at Kean Gas on 111th & Talman I talked with Tommy Kordas who lost his sister-in-law, Sue to cancer just weeks ago. His brother Pat is a Chicago Fireman and the single-Dad of three lovely girls and a teenage boy. I know the drill. I have been twelve years a widower and my kids are still home with me.

When a south side neighborhood loses a beautiful person to disease or disaster, the tribes band together and kick-in to help the bereaved. My family and friends overwhelmed me with their love and showers of support. When Mary died of brain cancer, the Kordas/McPolin Family swarmed in to help.

Sunday, every family and friend within driving, walking and in some very touching cases carrying distance of Bourbon Street will thicken traffic and bedevil the laws of physics to get into that venue in support of the Kordas Family.

While gulping dark roast with the intellects and Worthies of Kean Salon, Tom Kordas spoke of the first guy in line at Sue Kordas's wake - former Alderman Edward Vrdolyak. Public people tend to make a great show of arrival at wakes and generally have coat-holders pop-in early to set the buzz. Mr. Vrdolyak's early arrival is indicative of a genuine courtesy that too often evades elected and appointed personalities. On the south side, kids are taught that it is better to be a 'person than a personality' and kids learn by the example set by gentlemen like Ed Vrdolyak. Tommy Kordas told me, "Eddie V. and his son stood in the parking lot until all the family had gotten in and waited to offer his condolences, but later I got a call."

You see Ed Vrdolyak is not a WTTW Type and though a political antagonist of many of the Irish pols in my neighborhood is nevertheless one of us. You see, Joyces and Sheahans also take the trip to Hegewisch for such sad matters as well. After all politics is blood sport -life is and doing good at the most radical of levels is what is important.

The call sent Tom Kordas to 35th Street near Sox Park and to a sports memorabilia store to pick 'autographed photos and jerseys.' Gayle Sayers hand picked many of the items. These items are worth thousands of dollars and will be available as part of the silent auction and raffle prizes. Tom said he went with a check to purchase the items with seed money, but was told 'It is all taken care of.'

Ed Vrdolyak lives over in Hegewisch, which requires that a St. Cajetan resident get on the Ryan at 111th, drive north to I-94 take the Bishop Ford to 130th East to Burnham Ave. along the South Shore to & etc. In short, while Ed Vrdolyak and his family live on the south side, to be sure, they live a hell of long way from the Irish Riviera of Morgan Park/Beverly.

The Croatians, Serbs, Mexicans, Poles, Lithuanians and African Americans of the east-south side have the same culture of support as the Mick-thick Morgan Park/Beverly/Mount Greenwood and Evergreen Park folks.

They are not very Progressive politically - they are wonderful.

Get over to Bourbon Street tomorrow, drop a minimum of Thirty Bucks - eat and drink comes with your kick-in -but otherwise enrich yourself through association with the best people on earth.

Click my post title for Rob Rakow's touching Daily Southtown ( Southtown Star) feature on the Sue Kordas Benefit.

Mike Houlihan's Cross-town Classic for the Special Olympics at Bourbon Street -Sunday -June 28th -Noon to 4PM

STEP UP TO THE PLATE FOR SPECIAL OLYMPICS

Houli's pitching his best-selling book and donating a chunk of the proceeds to Special Olympics this Sunday at Bourbon Street.


Crosstown Challenge, Sox vs. Cubs

Sunday, June 28th
Noon to 4PMBourbon Street, 3359 W. 115th Street

Here's what Real Americans can do -
1. Show Yourself! Crack open the wallet and your $25 goes to Special Olympics and gets you food & booze

2. Watch the game!

3. Meet Southside wackos!

4. Laugh!

5. Cry when your team tanks!

6. Spring some dough for the Special Olympics!

There's-Raffles, silent auction, & more.

7. Mingle -Hot chicks, fat guys!

Now this last item causes me more than concern!
8. "Get lucky with local slut Finoola Hooligan!" - is this gambit to unload a cousin who should have 'taken the vail' Houli?????

Valet Parking available - So bring your Valet, too!

See you Sunday!