Winthrop Harbor fund-raiser to benefit ‘spoiling packages’ for troops

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1/25/12 Winthrop Harbor Kathy Luke and Jeff Penich organized a lock-in benefit for the Sgt. John Penich Memorial Inc., which help veterans both serving and returned. | Dan Luedert~Sun-Times Media

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Updated: January 27, 2012 2:35AM

WINTHROP HARBOR — Anyone can join in a fund-raising event this weekend in Winthrop Harbor to benefit the Sgt. John Penich Memorial Inc., that helps servicemen and women now serving overseas or those who are now veterans at home.

From 8 p.m. Saturday through 8 a.m. Sunday, there will be a lock-in benefit to raise funds for the Penich Memorial to help fund care packages and special projects for veterans.

“We call them spoiling packages,” said Kathy Penich-Garross of Beach Park. The group is a 501 (c)3 charity so all contributions are deductible.

Nearly 40 people will get “locked up” at the Schlader Recreation Center, 27900 9th St., Winthrop Harbor, until they can make their $500 bail to get released. But Kathy Luke, a village trustee, said anyone can drop by and make cash donations or drop off care package items.

“I’m just a mom and I care,” said Luke, a Blue Star mother whose son Joshua, 24, is in the service now. Her husband, Billy, also served for eight years.

“We count on these kids for our freedom. To me, it’s the least we can do,” she said.

“You can come down to the recreation center and make a donation,” she said, which can also mean dropping off things like warm black or dark green socks (color is important); plastic hand warmers you put inside gloves or shoes; feminine products; batteries; and cans of tuna, beef jerky, ravioli and Ramen noodles.

“Greeting cards are another thing we need so they can send mom a Mother’s Day card or Father’s Day card or their wife or husband a birthday card. They can’t get those,” said Luke.

Kathy Penich-Garross is a Gold Star mother. Her son John died after his superiors were told to halt firing mortars and instead let one last round go. The explosion and shrapnel killed him and injured eight other troops and eight Afghanistan soldiers.

“It’s kind of haunting,” she said of the last time she spoke to him and he was worried about the training his officers had received.

Her son was awarded a Bronze Star, Bronze Star with Valor and a Silver Star, the third-highest honor given to servicemembers for valor. He was killed in October 2008 in Karangol village in Afghanistan.

“We just recently learned that he protected a helicopter from getting shot down,” she said. His Silver Star was for saving lives of his platoon members and repelling an enemy attack.

His patrol was attacked by two groups of enemy fighters, according to an Army account when his Silver Star was given to his family.

Rocket-propelled grenades, small arms fire and machine gun fire had injured half of the 14-man patrol. Penich took charge and fired back at the enemy and gathered together soldiers who were not wounded. He radioed for help and directed fire toward the attacking enemy. He the then secured an area for two medevac helicopters.

Penich was an “absolutely incredible soldier,” said Brig. Gen. Perry Wiggins, 1st infantry commander, who knew of three separate occasions where Penich saved the lives of his fellow soldiers, according to the Killeen Daily Herald that covered his Silver Star award ceremony at Fort Hood, Texas.

After his death, his mother started the memorial charity that runs an annual poker run that starts from Stone Creek Grill in Winthrop Harbor that has increased by 67 percent and then 87 percent last year. “It’s neat what we’ve been able to accomplish,” she said.

Besides over 100 care packages (Penich-Garross is always looking for addresses for troops overseas because the military won’t provide them) that were sent, the group also recently purchased two cooking stoves for the Vets Life Changing Services in Gary, Ind., that helps veterans trying to adjust to life outside the military. The group will use the stoves to teach culinary arts.

This spring, they will be putting together patio furniture with built-in games, a fountain and raised garden beds as an outdoor space for veterans at the Union Grove Veterans Home, an assisted-living home in Union Grove, Wis., operated by the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs.