Board to set to take a hike...

In an unprecedented move, the Village Board, well, most of it, is meeting Friday night.

But wait.  Before you call the states attorney, attorney general or Rob Sherman, take a step back and check it out. A novel idea.

The Board will work as a team.  Literally.  But not to pass resolutions, consent agendas or rezone the entire village into a mega mall.  The Board, along with hundreds of other residents, will be participating in the 2013 Buffalo Grove Relay for Life to benefit the American Cancer Society.

The event begins at 7 p.m. on Friday and is a joint effort between Buffalo Grove and Stevenson high schools.  It will be at Buffalo Grove High School.  The village team, cleverly known as Village of Buffalo Grove, includes Jeff Berman, Jeff Braiman, Andrew Stein, Beverly Sussman, Steve Trilling and Mike Terson.  Bruce Kahn is also a team member as are Steve Trilling, Lester A. Ottenheimer III (whose name will not fit on the back of a T-shirt) and Village Clerk Jan Sirabian.

Participation in the Relay for Life is old hat for some of the Board members.  Take for example Berman who is has been the team’s captain since 1999.  When I found out that Berman was captain, being the Walt Whitman junkie that I am, I immediately thought of Whitman’s classic poem, “O Captain! My Captain,” a tribute to President Lincoln.  Let’s face it, Berman’s no Lincoln.  Lincoln was probably a foot taller than Berman and definitely had more hair.

Whitman and Lincoln aside, Berman’s commitment to the relay has little to do with being on the Village Board.  “I lost my mother to cancer two weeks before my 13th birthday, and her father (my grandfather) two weeks to the day before her. Obviously, I know many others who have been touched by the disease, including three former colleagues on the Board who are survivors,” he notes, adding that his mother-in-law is a multiple-times survivor.

Berman’s connection to cancer is not unique.  If you stop by Friday’s relay, the number of survivors participating as well participants walking to remember someone not as fortunate may overwhelm you.

Attending a Relay for Life is an amazing community event – and not just because there’s on happening in Buffalo Grove.  I attended the Relay for Life in Fort Atkinson, a small town of about 12,300 people.  The Relay for Life becomes a community wide event.  The event typically raises between $285,000 and $300,000, which isn’t the exception – it is the norm

So if you’ve ever wanted to tell the Board to talk a walk – Friday night is your chance because it, along with a lot of residents will be doing the same thing.

Join them.