Page 35 - August 2018

Behind this door
With White Sox and a beat car door, Chicago Lodge 7 generates even more unique support for Easterseals
n BY MITCHELL KRUGEL
n PHOTOS BY JAMES SVEHLA
What’s that thing Chicago Lodge 7 President Kevin Graham has pulled from the back of his SUV? On this otherwise uneventful – by FOP standards – sur- prisingly sunny, late March afternoon, Graham has pulled up in front of Lodge 7 headquarters on West Washington Av- enue carting a door. A driver’s side front door from a beat car. What the heck is he doing with that?
As the president hauled the door up to the third-floor offices, he carried out a plan hatched eight months earlier. Behind this door was the latest gesture in a nearly 50-year series of creative
and heartfelt tactics the Chicago FOP has generated to support its charity of choice, Easterseals.
Gaining inspiration from an Illinois State Trooper named “Nick” he met last summer, Graham wondered if Lodge 7 could inject serious funds into the Eas- terseals campaign to support its Health- ier Tomorrow project by auctioning off a beat car door autographed by White Sox players. And Blackhawks. And Bulls.
Now, Lodge 7 has a door signed by Jose Abreu, Tim Anderson, Omar Narváez, Yoán Moncada, Carlos Rodon, Avisail Garcia and the rest of the South Side’s favorite sons. In September, the door will go up on
eBay and hopefully capture the fancy of a philanthropic Sox fan, sports memo- rabilia hunter or Chicagoan a big heart and bank book. And Lodge 7 will perpet- uate its contribution to Easterseals by providing for children with autism and other challenges forcing a bumpy road in life.
“We have to come up with new ways to keep that dream alive for kids with autism and other special needs,” Pres- ident Graham reasons. “Easterseals is our charity of choice, and FOP will al- ways do whatever we can to support that mission.”
The door prize might ignite what
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