There are some holiday traditions that are too good to pass up. Like carols around the Christmas tree, or hymns while lighting candles on the menorah.
It is a special time of the year, a time to both look forward and reflect.
So come with me, if you will, on a journey down memory lane, as the Problem Solver embarks on his annual recitation of the What’s Your Problem? Naughty and Nice List.
We’ll start in New Jersey because, well, it seems like as good a place as any to symbolize naughtiness this holiday season.
Naughty: Michael Elder of ME Entertainment in South Orange, N.J.
Elder was the booking agent who signed Patti LaBelle for the GEANCO Foundation’s Dec. 3 fundraiser, unaware that LaBelle had already signed on for a similar gala just weeks earlier for the Chicago Urban League.
Elder charged the Chicago-based nonprofit GEANCO $25,000 to book LaBelle, then agreed to cancel the booking and refund the money after the mix-up was discovered. He sent GEANCO a check for $15,000, but failed to send the rest.
In early October, Elder told the Problem Solver “I’m not a thief.” He promised to return the remaining $10,000 as quickly as he could.
In early December, Elder sent GEANCO a check for $2,000, but still owes the charity $8,000.
Nice: Promoter James Muhammad.
After reading about GEANCO’s situation, Muhammad volunteered his services to help with the Dec. 3 event.
GEANCO’s chief operating officer, Afam Onyema, said the gala went wonderfully, in part because of Muhammad’s help.
“It was terrific,” Onyema said. “It was really well attended.”
Money from the event is earmarked to build a state-of-the-art hospital in Nigeria.
Onyema said he’s still hoping Elder will return the remaining $8,000.
Naughty: Custom Craft Exteriors Inc.
The Bensenville-based company charged 86-year-old Maryann Cervi $3,400 last December to replace the furnace and air conditioner in her mobile home.
The company replaced the furnace immediately and removed Cervi’s old air conditioning unit.
But by early June, with temperatures starting to rise, Custom Craft Exteriors still hadn’t returned to install the new air conditioner. At one point, the thermometer in Cervi’s house reached 95 degrees.
At the time, a company representative told the Problem Solver that Cervi’s air conditioner would be installed when time permitted. When the original column ran June 5, Cervi still had not received the air conditioner she paid for.
Nice: Four Seasons Heating and Cooling
Upon hearing of Cervi’s situation, Patrick Carr of Four Seasons called the Problem Solver and offered to give the Hodgkins resident a free air conditioner.
It was installed just days later, and it kept Cervi cool all summer.
Carr said at the time that he had presented the idea to Mike Cassity, Four Seasons’ president.
“He agreed that sometimes you just have to do the right thing,” Carr said.
Naughty: Caesar Rizzi of Hillside Memorials
No Problem Solver naughty list would be complete without a mention of Rizzi, who is among this column’s most frequent subjects.
He lands in this column yet again after accepting $1,061 from the family of Narciso Paredes, who died Oct. 12, 2010. Rizzi agreed to create a headstone for Paredes, but it never happened.
Rizzi never returned the Problem Solver’s calls seeking explanation.
Nice: A monument company in the western suburbs
When the story about the missing gravestone ran in September, the Problem Solver was contacted by the owners of two different monument companies offering to provide the family a headstone free of charge.
The first call came from an owner who asked to remain anonymous. The Problem Solver agreed not to name the company but was touched by the owner’s generosity.
The gravestone was erected within weeks.
The owner said he didn’t want readers to think all monuments companies are unscrupulous.
In fact, many of them are kind, caring and full of scruples. Thank goodness for the good guys.
Speaking of which, a few more for the Nice List:
Nice: The Dowdle family
Just before Christmas last year, Shannon Dowdle found an envelope on a Skokie sidewalk, stuffed with more than $1,000 cash.
Instead of pocketing the windfall, Dowdle and her Glenview family contacted the Problem Solver hoping to find the money’s true owners.
The Problem Solver wrote about the incident, but no one came forward to claim the cash.
The family said recently it would still like to locate the money’s real owners and reunite them with the cash.
“I know it was an elderly couple and they were very upset about losing it,” Rick Dowdle said. “Hopefully we can find them.”
Nice: Sue Kelly and friends
After walking past Hendricks Academy in Fuller Park one scorching July day, Kelly made a vow — she was going to donate air conditioners to the school so that students could learn in comfort.
But confusion over the donation process stymied her efforts, prompting her to write What’s Your Problem? for help.
In early September Kelly and her friends, Mary Spellman and Eve Moran, bought three air conditioners for the Chicago public school, at a total cost of $1,339. Two of the units were placed in the school’s library, and the third was installed in the computer lab.
Nice: Those who donated to Della Lewis McDonald
The March 13 column about McDonald struck a chord with many of you, who were moved by the 80-year-old Markham resident’s crushing chain of events.
Over the course of several weeks, McDonald’s daughter and husband died, then her 1999 Chevy Malibu broke down.
Several readers stepped forward to give McDonald money anonymously.
“I’m just so blessed,” McDonald said in April. “I’m thankful.”
Fortunately, there are many more who could make the nice list this year, including What’s Your Problem? readers who donated their time, money and expertise to others in need.
Suffice it to say, it’s been a good year.
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