During a halftime interview at one of the NJCAA Tournament games at DACC, Danville’s Mayor Rickey Williams, Jr told CIMG about a couple from Lynwood, Illinois who just dropped in at last year’s tournament, and have now joined the annual team of volunteers. We were later introduced to them by Danville Area Visitors Bureau CEO Rhonda Ellis.
Ken Klimowski, a retired steel mill worker and truck driver, said he and his wife Carol were in a hotel last year, helping his mother-in-law move from St. Joseph to Savoy. And they found out about tournament while watching television.
AUDIO: The game happened to come on. And I says, “hey look, it says Danville Community College. Let’s go over there; it’s not far from the hotel here.” So we came over here; we came in the wrong door. That’s how we met Rhonda. She asked us would we like to volunteer this year. I said, “sure, why not?” So, we’re going to be here every year now.
Carol said they were immediately attracted to the entire event.
AUDIO: The people are excellent. And the sport is just marvelous, wonderful talent; very talented young men. And it also helped that we used to work fish frys and bingo halls at home. So, we’re used to doing the volunteer work.
Ken also mentioned that they do some food pantry volunteering back in the Lynwood area as well.
