From Sun Staff and Freelance reports January 25, 2012 4:50PM
Ten Naperville Fire Department administration employees have eagerly accepted a wellness challenge from Fire Chief Mark Puknaitis. On Monday, these employees had a group weigh-in on a Fairbanks truck scale in Naperville’s Electric Service Center. | Submitted by the City of Naperville
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Updated: January 27, 2012 2:40AM
Fire Dept. takes on weight loss challenge
Naperville Fire Department Chief Mark Puknaitis believes in the TEAM approach: together everyone achieves more. Apparently, this even applies to weight loss.
On Monday, 10 Fire Department administration employees responded to the chief’s challenge when they joined him on a truck scale at Naperville’s Electric Service Center. The official weigh-in kicked off a team incentive program, to encourage employee health and wellness in the Fire Department.
“I thought it would be nice to encourage people to be healthier, but in a fun way,” Chief Puknaitis said. “We promote teamwork at the fire department — we don’t go on calls alone — it’s all about the team. So why not encourage people to get healthy as a group? The whole team benefits from it.”
Weighing in collectively at 2,840 pounds, the group of Puknaitis, Rick Sander, Mark Ziemnik, Mark Thurow, Kevin Lyne, Dan Nelson, Ruthi Sommers, Soraya McLaughlin, Scott Scheller, Ben DeAnda and Judy Greenberg began the wellness challenge.
“Our goal initially is to lose 10 percent, or about 284 pounds collectively,“ the chief said. “We want to promote losing weight in a healthy way, and we want to make sure that it stays off. This is not a crazy crash diet concept. We are doing this as a group. We can all encourage each other, and the result will probably be that everybody loses something.”
The next group weigh-in is planned for Memorial Day Weekend. Together everyone achieves more, or maybe loses more.
Teens sled like penguins down Rotary Hill
What began as a great idea to keep his legs warm while sledding turned out to be an innovative way to quickly get down the sled hill.
Naperville resident and Lincoln Jr. High student Josh Mueller combined a half day off school, plenty of snowfall, and his new sled he received for Christmas for a day of sledding fun at Rotary Hill. Before heading out, he was at Larry Birks’ house, another Lincoln Jr. High student, and realized he didn’t have his snow pants.
“I looked in Larry’s closet and saw some garbage bags, and decided to use them to keep my legs warm,” Mueller said. “When we got the hill, my new Snow Boogie just wasn’t working that great, so I thought the garbage bags might go fast since they were slippery and smooth.”
Birks said they tried to put them on their feet first and squat down, but it didn’t really work.
“We then cut a hole for our head, and it worked great,” Birks said.
The boys named their new sledding option “penguining” and caught the attention of other sledders who also seemed to be having difficulty with their newly purchased sleds.
Kelly Viton brought her children ages 6 and 8 with their new Zipfy sled.
“It’s just not working that great,” Viton said.
They also tried a friend’s new Spooner board and found it to be challenging as well.
“It’s like they need to be greased or something,” she said. “The old plastic saucer sleds still seem to be the best.”
From garbage bags to saucer sleds, perhaps after all, new and improved still can’t replace back to the basics.
Former Naperville Sun film critic finds voice
It turns out our loss was National Public Radio’s gain.
The wise and articulate Sun film critic Josh Larsen headed off for a new professional opportunity a little over a year ago. His departure ended an 11-year stint sitting in the dark and telling us, with startling acuity, which movies were worth giving up two hours of our lives, and which ticket lines were better bypassed. Josh has flourished in his new role as editor of ThinkChristian.net, and now he’s been deftly cast yet again.
Beginning with last week’s show, Josh and his superbly rich, deep voice are cohosting “Filmspotting,” a movie-centric show featuring smart people sharing their insights on current cinema. The program airs in Chicago on WBEZ at 11 a.m. Fridays and midnight Saturdays.
New Jersey meets Naperville
When reality TV star Melissa Gorga and her husband, Joe, want great Italian food, they head to Café Buonaro’s. The witty and fun-loving cast member of “The Real Housewives of New Jersey” picked the 5th Avenue Station restaurant to host a meet-and-greet Jan. 22.
“They were the most down-to-earth people ever,” said Tina Buonauro McConnaughey. “They were so polite that they kept talking to people and taking pictures until their PR reps made them sit down to eat. The line was long, and it took awhile only because they took time with each person.”
Gorga was signing copies of her CD, which includes the hit song “On Display.” Throughout the event, she didn’t disappoint the crowd of about 140 fans who packed Café Buonaro’s.
Buonauro McConnaughey said the pair chose the Naperville restaurant because they were looking for “an Italian place outside of Chicago that was family-owned.” Café Buonaro’s, founded in 1990 by Tina’s parents Ron and Regina, was the perfect fit.
“They loved the food and with them being Italian, I was pleased,” she said. “We had some good wine and great conversations. All and all, the event was fantastic.”
Café Buonaro’s is at 300 E. 5th Ave. in Naperville. To learn more, visit cafebuonaros.com
Group to performat Rosemont show
Want to get away? The next best thing might be a visit to the Travel & Adventure Show where Naperville’s Indian-style dancing group from Asha Adiga will perform with a showcase of entertainers from around the world.
Adiga, who has taught Indian dance classes at Sonia’s Dance Studio in Aurora for the past four years, will perform numbers with both children and adults, and feature both males and females. Their show will include Indian classical dance, including Bharathantyam, which is a variety of ‘natya’ yoga that reveals the spiritual self of the physical and emotional body.
The Chicago Travel & Adventure Show opens Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont. Adiga’s group will be featured on the Global Beats Stage at 3:05 p.m. Sunday. Adult admission is $9 online with Promo Code: CHPR or $15 at the door. Children 16 years old and younger admitted free.
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