Naperville rivalry builds unity, supports people with disabilities

The Granato family, of Naperville, stops by the Naperville Blackout for Easter Seals crosstown charity game last fall with Theresa Forthofer, Easter Seals DuPage and Fox Valley Region president and CEO, left, and Chris Roy, of Naperville. Two members of the Granato family, Nora and Abby, use Easter Seals services. (Courtesy of Easter Seals DuPage & Fox Valley)

Abby, left, and Nora Granato, both of Naperville, attend the Blackout for Easter Seals football game at Naperville Central High School against Naperville North High School last fall. The sisters both receive therapy and support from Easter Seals, which has received about $50,000 from the annual fundraiser since it began in 2010. (Courtesy of Easter Seals DuPage & Fox Valley)

The crosstown football game between Naperville Central and Naperville North high schools Oct. 7 will be the seventh annual Blackout for Easter Seals fundraiser. (Paul Michna/pmichna@dailyherald.com October 2014)

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By Marie Wilson (mwilson@dailyherald.com)

The evening before the Naperville Central Redhawks football team takes the field against its rival Naperville North next month, players will spend some time with a family affected by disabilities.

The family, served by Easter Seals, will meet with Coach Mike Stine’s players and talk about their lives.

It’ll be a learning experience before the culmination of a fundraising experience to benefit the charity that has been with families and individuals with special needs for nearly 100 years. It’s called Blackout for Easter Seals, and the campaign to coincide with the crosstown game in Naperville Unit District 203 has been going on since 2010.

“It’s a great message — having our kids work together through competition and athletics and working together to benefit each other’s causes,” said Bob Quinn, athletic director at Naperville North, which lets its rival take the lead in the Easter Seals fundraiser. “It creates more of a community event as opposed to a community rivalry.”

Before 2010, when a former player suggested the cause, Stine said he wasn’t really aware of Easter Seals and the therapeutic, medical and employment assistance it provides to help people with disabilities lead fuller lives. As he learned, so have his players.

“The boys can really understand and just really feel a connection with what Easter Seals does and how it touches other people’s lives,” said Cindy Meier, whose two sons both have played football for Naperville Central, which spearheads the football fundraiser.

With the help of booster club parents such as Meier, who seek sponsorships, and classmates who sell matching T-shirts at both schools, the players have raised nearly $50,000 in six years.

“This generosity helps raise awareness and funds for local children with developmental disabilities,” said Theresa Forthofer, president and CEO of Easter Seals DuPage and Fox Valley.

“We are so appreciative of the Naperville community for dedicating this big event to highlight children’s needs.”

And a big event it is. Naperville native Patti Gustafson remembers the crosstown football game from her time as a basketball player for Naperville Central.

“It’s charged,” she said. “It’s got that energy of a big game, the big-game feel.”

The rivalry strengthened when she married a Naperville North graduate and their children also attended the north side school. And it dove a layer deeper when the crosstown basketball game, for which North takes the fundraising lead, chose two years ago to donate to the foundation formed in honor of her son Michael, who died in January 2013 of a brain tumor.

The basketball fundraiser for the Swifty Foundation takes on much the same feel as the football version. Matching T-shirts donned by fans of two schools instead of one. Unity instead of division. All for a common cause.

“We know the rivalry from 30 years back and how usually it’s an ‘us against them’ type of a feeling. Instead, when we come to the Crosstown Classic now, instead of having this sense of rivalry, it’s a beautiful feeling,” Gustafson said. “Even though we can be rivals, we can work for the greater good.”