On Jan. 31, Long Grove resident Darlene Bikshorn, along with her husband Barry, son Jacob, and friends Marcy and Greg Diamond, will set their sights high (no pun intended) and climb 80 floors to the top of the Aon Center, one of Chicago’s tallest buildings located at 200 E. Randolph St.
They will be participating in a fundraiser called Aon Step Up For Kids in order to raise money to help the children and families at Ann & Robert J. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. Proceeds from the fundraiser will be directed to K.I.D.S.S. for Kids, an affiliated organization of Lurie Children’s; Bikshorn has been on the board of K.I.D.S.S. (Kindness is Doing Something Special for Kids) for about 20 years, and this is the 15th time she has participated in this event. It’s not too late for you to join in, if you’d like to try. You could register in person between 7 a.m. and 10 a.m. for either a half-climb (40 floors) or the full climb of 80 floors. Bikshorn has trained for the event by using the Stairmaster, but one year, she actually trained in the stairwell at the Westin Hotel in Wheeling. She shared what her experience climbing was like.
“The event has an amazing feel. Everyone is very pumped to get to the top and the event is run very smoothly,” she explained, “Professional timers keep the number of steppers to a safe rate so there is never an overcrowded feel in the stairwell. It is important to know that is not a race and everyone just goes at their own pace. Afterwards, there is a party on the 80th floor, the Mid America Club, with food and music. Of course, the most important thing is that all of our participants raise important funds for the hospital.”
More information on the event can be found at www.foundation.luriechildrens.org or by calling 312-227-4000. Tax deductible donations can also be given online or sent directly to Lurie Children’s Foundation, Attn: AON Step Up For Kids, 225 E. Chicago Ave., Box 4, Chicago, IL 60611-2991.
In other neighborhood news, Super Bowl Sunday is just around the corner. While many will be getting ready for the day’s festivities of the big game, others will be doing something first that morning. Feb. 7 is the day of the World Wide Wrap XV — a unifying day for Jews throughout the world, where men, women and children of all ages will participate at the same time and wrap Tefillin. In Jewish religious practice, tefilllin are small black leather cube-shaped cases with leather straps, which are tied to one’s arm and forehead. These boxes contain Torah texts; wearing tefillin binds the sacred words of Scripture to themselves in observance of a tradition thousands of years old. This ritual is a daily practice for observant Jews, but on Super Bowl Sunday, congregations and Men’s Clubs throughout the world make a special event of it, and the entire community is invited to attend at 8:30 a.m. to 10 a.m., with a bagel breakfast after.
The event will be led by Orin Rotman, a member of Congregation Beth Judea of Long Grove. Rotman, currently honored as the synagogue’s 2016 Man of the Year, is an incredibly learned man who has devoted much of his time to educating youth and adults, as well as being a very active member in the Federation of Jewish Men’s Clubs (FJMC). His creative ways of teaching can be viewed on You Tube — one of his finest is the “Tefillin Wrap Rap”! Rotman was nice enough to answer a couple of questions about the upcoming event.
Do you know how many congregations worldwide will be participating this year?
“I am guessing that about 180 congregations will participate. We have participation from Australia to Hawaii, on all continents…(some) Skype with those in Israel and throughout Central and South America. Then those around the globe share their experiences with other on a World Wide Wrap Facebook page.”
In your opinion, what does the act of wrapping tefillin mean?
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“It solidifies identity and solidarity with a sense of calm security of learning and sharing a unique experience…the styles of wrapping elicit symbols of Torah, history, different “faces” of God and different approaches to God. I am most focused on making this not just a checklist ritual thing to do, but rather focused on integrating the ritual into a life-view of emotion, history and identity that is as relevant today as when it was given to us as law.”
More information is available at www.bethjudea.org or at 847-634-0777.
That’s all for now; please keep in touch and send neighborhood news to Aileen Simons at [email protected].
Aileen Simons is a freelance columnist for Pioneer Press