If Adam Warren has one regret, it`s that he missed standing with the unemployed on the now infamous line at the new Sheraton Hotel.
So when he heard that Jay Leno was coming to town and that Zanies, the comedy club, would on Monday be giving away tickets for Leno`s shows to the unemployed, he made certain to be there.
Warren`s not unemployed, but he came to offer help to those who are. He works for his wife, Karen, who owns KO Promotions and Sales Inc., a new company that places people in supermarkets to dispense product samples. On the Leno line, Warren handed out fliers that could lead to such jobs.
”We`re just trying to help people in Chicago,” he said. ”I`ve been unemployed. I know how horrific it can be.”
Of course, it was altruism mixed with cold business reality. Right now, KO has more work than bodies. But ”we`re here to help,” Warren insisted.
Recessions. Among the worst of times, they can bring out the kindness of strangers to those who are financially strapped. True, sometimes the help has a mercenary tinge. But someone drowning welcomes a life preserver, even one thrown by a used-car salesman.
Traditionally, government, social service agencies and religious groups have responded to hard times. They still do. But with the economy so tattered and government so seemingly feckless, more people, including owners of small businesses, are taking matters into their own hands.
Prompted partly by the steady stream of job-seekers entering their printing shop, the owners of Mt. Prospect`s Welcome Back Printing Ltd. last week started offering up to 25 free copies of resumes.
”We`re doing it because there are just too many people out of work . . . and it costs money to have a resume done,” said Ann Bernard, 41, who owns the shop with her husband, Richard.
”It`s our way of helping,” Ann Bernard said. ”We can`t give someone a job, since there`s not an income to have an employee here.”
Richard Bernard, 44, thought of the idea because ”years ago when he needed help, there were people helping him,” his wife said. ”Now it`s his turn to give back, and now he`s in a position to help others.”
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A hair salon on South Michigan Avenue advertises on a large sidewalk sign a ”recession special” haircut of $9.95, discounted from an already low $12. It began the offer in September when the White House ”was saying there wasn`t a recession. But we knew by our clients what was going on,” said Deanna McDonnell, manager of Supercuts. ”There`s less money out there.”
The sign has drawn the unemployed as well as the working who are cutting back. ”I do tons of people who used to pay $70,” she said.
Peachy Cleaners in Hanover Park recently dry-cleaned and bagged about 4,000 used coats collected by WABT-FM. The coats are being distributed to those in need, many of them unemployed.
”In the mid-1970s, my husband and I were extremely involved in Soviet Jewry,” said Barbara Goldstein, who owns the business with husband Marvin.
”We were always sending stuff over. It`s frightening now to see people
(here) in the same position that people were in over there,” she said.
”Giving something clean and warm to people makes us feel good.”
About four months ago, a home-based Hoffman Estates advertising company began offering to design company logos for new businesses in the area at no charge.
Linda and Robert Cody, the owners of Magic Room Advertising Concepts Inc., wanted to help out people starting their own businesses. ”It was something we could do to help a new business grow,” Linda Cody said.
”Due to people being laid off, there are a lot of new people struggling to get started and knowing what it took for us to get started, we thought,
`what can we do to help them,` ” Linda Cody said.
”Maybe what we`re doing will help get the politicians off their duffs,” said Rick Uchwat, owner of Zanies, the comedy club where Leno will appear next month to do four special shows for the unemployed. The shows were Leno`s idea, born from seeing national news coverage of the Sheraton lines.
Uchwat hopes a private-sector effort to help the unemployed, a movement made of businesses large and small, will grow from the event. Already, Amoco Corp. has pledged 1,000 $5 gas vouchers to the event, and other companies also want to get involved.
Whatever the results, Mark Thomas, an unemployed Oak Park carpenter, plans on having a good time at Leno`s show.
”This is going to be fun,” said the 29-year-old after receiving two tickets. ”Being unemployed can be real depressing. So we`re going to go wild in this place.
”Hey, no one will have to get up for work the next morning.”