Roadie Randy here...

Yesterday's Random Randy has moved over for today's Roadie Randy.  Whazzup wit dat?  Well, there are lots of ways to find Good News stories.  Going Random is one such way.  Being a Roadie is another tried and true technique, too.  We like to mix it up a little bit.  So, this morning we decided to begin to tackle Good News on Route 66!  WHOA!  Talk about a tall order.  Of course, it will take weeks to peruse each and every little city and town along Route 66. 

First, of course, we needed to find a complete list of cities and towns along Route 66.  Then we decided to start from Chicago and head west taking the route that's the best.  Legendary Bobby Troup's included only a scant few of the route's communities.

Now you go through Saint Looey

Joplin, Missouri

And Oklahoma City is mighty pretty

You see Amarillo

Gallup, New Mexico

Flagstaff, Arizona

Don't forget Winona

Kingman, Barstow, San Bernardino

But there's more--a LOT MORE! So today we're covering only the first two west of Chicago and that would be Cicero and Berwyn, Illinois.  It sure didn't take long to find a nice Good News Story in each of those suburbs of the Windy City.  So, here we go, Roadie Randy rollin' on Route 66...

Tonight's the 17th Annual Cicero Father-Daughter Dance!

The Valentines Father/Daughter Dance is a unique opportunity to strengthen the relationship between fathers and daughters. It is the one night girls are able to transform themselves into princesses and spend a one of a kind evening with their dads.

On Friday, February 9th, 2024 around 500 Fathers and daughters came together at the Cicero Community Center joining each other to celebrate an evening full of music, dancing, dinner and of course a lot of fun! Tonight's 17th annual event will be larger.

Fathers and daughters are able to check in with ease, pick a corsage of their choice, take great pictures one of which is framed and the other picture is available with silly props. The pictures are printed instantly for families to take home. In addition, dinner and dessert are included.

The gym is decorated full of hearts and the dance floor is taken over by dancing enthusiasts all evening long. Families are able to enjoy an evening like no other.

Source:
https://thetownofcicero.com/2024/02/12/cicero-celebrates-annual-father-daughter-valentines-dance/

For over 75 photos of one of the Father-Daughter Dances, plus some fun narrative see:
https://www.facebook.com/TownofCicero/posts/pfbid0ZFjNRnqzPRjTKGsVitZ3jTEwkDUYL2gcZZ2d9NCvjSWyPvLFzouvsiJyKXsaQMVjl

Now let's move on down the road to Berwyn, Illinois.  Berwyn is basically Cicero's next door neighbor.  It didn't take long to find Mario Manfredini in Berwyn.  He's about as close to a celebrity fire house chef as you can get.  Plus, Mario makes and sell his very own pasta sauce.  It's in about a dozen stores in the area and also marketed at the Downer's Grove Farmers Market.  Mario's not a bit camera shy.  In fact, he lights up when the camera points his way.  He's a classic, almost stereotypical Italian guy.

His fire house chef days started early in his fire fighting career when someone on his shift was fixing lasagna.  Mario's fire house life change when “One of the guys was making lasagna. He went and bought some jarred sauce. I was like, ‘What the [heck] are you doing?’ That’s a no-no in our family.”

Then Mario joined Berwyn's Parks Board which had staged a spaghetti fundraiser. When he first joined the board, he said he was floored to learn the previous year’s dinner lost $3,000. “How do you lose money selling spaghetti?” Manfredini said. “Well, they had a restaurant do the cooking, didn’t have enough people to attend. ... I said, ‘Let me do the cooking this year.’ The first year I did, we made about $3,000."

That's what started it all and now Manfredini a locally famous.

Here are a couple of GREAT videos featuring Mario Manfredini.  I think the second one is even better than the first one:

https://youtu.be/dAbPZzgAMec?feature=shared

https://youtu.be/Grg5EwXQuDQ?feature=shared

  

And here's the story that jumped started this feature:
https://www.shawlocal.com/my-suburban-life/thank-you/first-responders/2024/05/02/berwyn-battalion-chief-finds-success-in-the-kitchen/

These two stories are about as far as we're gonna git today.  Thanks for reading.