Learning lesson about charity

Updated: June 9, 2011 10:30AM

Mark Miedona knows exactly how to get the attention of a bunch of wrestlers.

‘‘He took us out to eat and broke the news,’’ Lane senior Matt Finnegan said.

‘‘The news’’ was that Finnegan and his wrestling teammates would be putting their athletic skills to different use by pulling a fire truck.

The Indians will be taking part in the inaugural Pull the Fire Truck to the North Pole event today at the International Association of Machinists Union Hall in Des Plaines. The event is a fund-raiser for Operation North Pole, which sponsors an annual fantasy flight to the North Pole for about 60 Chicago-area kids with life-threatening or terminal illnesses and their families.

The organization was started by some United Airlines employees. It’s now a stand-alone public charity that tries to bring the spirit of the Christmas season to local families who might be pushed to the brink of financial ruin by the costs of treating their children’s illnesses.

‘‘We’re trying to engage the community to try to pay it forward,’’ said Tim Crossin, the group’s treasurer and a retired firefighter and paramedic in Niles.

Public and private entities, including the city of Des Plaines, have taken up the group’s cause and helped it donate about $45,000 worth of gifts to deserving kids
last year.

‘Pretty cool’

Miedona got involved through a co-worker, Mike Schneider, who ponied up the $750 entry fee for Lane’s team, which will be one of several high school groups. Lane’s football team also is taking part, as is a group from St. Viator, according to Crossin.

‘‘I think [Schneider] took a liking for us because of Max Schneider,’’ Miedona joked, referring to the Indians’ star 152-pounder.

After springing for burgers for his wrestlers, Miedona pitched the idea.

‘‘I gave a little speech about how a lot of people have done a lot for them, so we have to give something back,’’ he said.

Finnegan, a 125-pounder, didn’t need much persuading. Neither did his teammates.

‘‘We all thought it was pretty cool,’’ he said.

Ditto for the chance to get together again before the school year ends and the seniors head their separate ways. As Schneider noted, a lot of the Indians thought their last hurrah would be the team state finals in February, when they dropped a tough Class 3A quarterfinal to Harlem.

But the teammates’ ties to each other were forged strong enough to last, Finnegan said.

‘‘We’re all going to be really close for a while,’’ he said. ‘‘We’ll keep in contact. We all knew we were never going to break up as old friends.’’

A good deed

The kind of camaraderie Miedona has helped to forge with his team might not be so unusual among high school squads, but it’s a testament to what the fifth-year head coach has built at Western and Addison because the Indians have overcome some barriers that suburban and Catholic League programs don’t have to deal with.

Many of the kids who join Lane’s wrestling program don’t know each other — or even the sport — before they arrive on campus. Contrast that to wrestlers who start rolling around on the mats when they’re 8 or 9 and who hang out with the same friends from grade school on.

Neither Schneider nor Finnegan had wrestled a competitive match before coming to Lane. Three months after his debut, Schneider was wrestling for a state title; a year after that, he became Lane’s first state champion since 1946. Finnegan, meanwhile, qualified for state twice.

Now they will see how good they are at another athletic endeavor: pulling a brand-new, 80,000-pound fire truck that will be driven down from the Pierce Manufacturing facility in Appleton, Wis., just for the occasion.

‘‘Honestly, I think we’re just going to go and wing it,’’ Finnegan said. ‘‘We’re going to throw the big guys in the back and the little guys in front and see what happens.’’

The reward will be the good feeling that comes from helping others. And some more food. Schneider warned Crossin and other organizers not to skimp on the burgers and brats.

‘‘I’m not sure they know how much wrestlers can eat,’’ he said.

But now we know how much they can do to make the world a better place.

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