Joe Juarez was trying to find a positive way to respond to the tragic death of Alex Pretti during a confrontation with federal immigration agents in Minnesota this past weekend.
As the owner of the (219) Taproom in Chesterton, which specializes in craft beer and pub food, Juarez regularly runs charitable benefits for the local community. On the first and third Thursdays of every month, he donates all tips to charity.
So he decided that this Wednesday and Thursday, he would donate all tips and match them to create a scholarship fund for local nursing students, in the name of Pretti, who had been an intensive care unit nurse with the Veterans Administration. He will coordinate the donation with a local school.
“No politics. Just doing our part to honor his parents’ wishes and to keep his name alive,” Juarez put out in a message on social media.
Juarez was overwhelmed and a bit puzzled by some of the responses. Most of the messages were positive, but some were angry.
Paulene Poparad, who visited the taproom with her husband and daughter Wednesday, has been around the Duneland, spending 35 years as a reporter when the former Chesterton Tribune was a daily newspaper. She said she was surprised by the harsh tone of some comments on the town’s Facebook page.
“Chesterton is not like that,” Poparad said.
A number of commenters questioned honoring Pretti, and some vowed never to set foot in the establishment. Juarez said one comment, which he thought had a threatening tone, accused him of “virtue signaling.”
“I don’t even know what virtue signaling means,” Juarez said. “I saw a guy die trying to help somebody. I cried when I told my wife, this is what we should do. I don’t think like that. All I wanted to do is do some good.”
Since he opened his establishment 6 1/2 years ago, Juarez said he has run scores of benefits. “Nursing scholarships, that’s it. I never said we were against anything, I never said we were for anything.”
The doors opened at 4 p.m. Wednesday and within an hour, as people ended their work day, it became hard to find a seat. Some, like the Poparads, were coming to the place for the first time because they wanted to show their support.
Some are distressed about the incident and the direction of the country.
Mike and Paula Deiotte, who are both 68 and Chesterton residents, believe the country is going backwards.
“We’ll make it. I don’t know about our kids and grandkids,” said Mike Deiotte, a retired steelworker.
They see the enforcement effort against immigrants as being unfair.
“How do we have a president who has 34 felony count convictions, and they are rounding up people that have less than a traffic violation?” Paula Deiotte said.
The Deiottes decided they had to come to the taproom Wednesday night to show their support for Joe and Teresa Juarez.
“This whole mess that is going on, they decided to step up and do something positive,” Paula Deiotte said.
When Elyse Stuart, a retired nurse from Chesterton, learned about the benefit, she decided to come to the taproom to order a pizza.
Stuart liked the idea of giving scholarship money so that people could pursue a career in nursing. “That’s what matters,” she said.
Cary Knauff, a Valparaiso resident who teaches German at Chesterton High School, enjoys going to the taproom on occasion to unwind after work.
“It feels like it’s hard to talk about politics in this country right now because everybody is on one side or the other. But anytime you have Americans working for the government who are shooting other Americans on the street that don’t appear to be breaking the law, that doesn’t sit well with me,” Knauff said.
Knauff said he had to come Wednesday night when he learned of the benefit for a nursing scholarship. He said his son, after graduating from high school this year, plans to start his studies in nursing at Ivy Tech.
“The fact they are looking at what’s going on in our country and trying to make something positive happen locally for kids going into nursing, like Alex Pretti was, I thought was pretty special.”
The Rev. Greg Arthur, pastor of the Duneland Community Church, wasn’t even drinking beer but came out to order food.
“Love Joe and T. If they are doing something, we’re always in,” Arthur said.
In today’s world, there is so much conflict and social media seems designed to create enemies, Arthur said.
“We have responsibilities for one another. We have an opportunity to build beautiful things. And all the antagonism and arguments that are taking place take us to this place where we start dehumanizing one another,” Arthur said.
Arthur said that Joe and Teresa Juarez found a way with their benefit to try to bring the community together.
“In the midst of all the ugliness and violence that’s taking place right now, it’s nice to find ways to remind us that we’re all part of the same community,” Arthur said.
Jim Woods is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
