Helping the People of Pembroke Township, One at a Time

The idea that people living just a few hours away from her didn’t have running water or indoor plumbing disturbed Kathleen Wiedenfeld.

She heard about the people in Pembroke Township, in Kankakee County, on Oprah in October 2005.

“I watched the show and it really affected me,” the Huntley mom of three said.

Wiedenfeld tried to organize a clothes drive, but it never got anywhere.

“I didn’t know how to get it started,” she said.

Her thoughts about Pembroke never faded and her passion to help the people living there was reignited two years ago after she saw a report on a local news channel about their plight.

“My thought was the government did not know these people were poor, living without running water, indoor plumbing or heat,” Wiedenfeld said. “I thought I would bring it to their attention.”

“After a year, I realized it wasn’t as easy as that,” she said.

What Wiedenfeld decided to do is help the people of Pembroke Township herself and launched Project Pembroke.

Lending a hand

Wiedenfeld took matters into her own hands after not getting a response from anyone in government. She decided to find out what people in Pembroke Township needed. So she printed up postcards explaining that she wanted to help and a questionnaire. She mailed a postcard to the 1,200 households in the township.

“I’m not a politician. I am not anybody,” she wrote in the postcard. “I just think you deserve the basics, which are clean running water, indoor plumbing and enough heat to make it through the winter.”

She asked people to respond, gave her phone number and asked for contacts. Wiedenfeld got 100 responses. She began getting a better idea of what Pembroke Township families are going through and what they needed.

“People would call me and share their whole lives with me,” she said. “I sit there and take notes of people just telling me their life, their situation. The response is if you can help me, that’s great. They don’t expect anything.”

The requests were simple, such as enough propane for the rest of the winter to heat trailers. Or help with a well that went dry.

Wiedenfeld met people like Carla whose well went dry. She is a grandmother raising her grandchildren in a mobile trailer. The family did not have any water hooked up to their trailer. She could not flush the toilet or do dishes. They had to bring in water, heat it up and put it in the bath to wash up, Wiedenfeld said.

Carla became one of the people Wiedenfeld helped.

“My goal is to help one neighbor at a time,” Wiedenfeld said.

Wiedenfeld raises money to help Pembroke Township families by making jewelry and selling it. She works at Your Best Friend’s Closet in Algonquin, where she also is selling a cookbook. There is a donation jar at the store, too. Owner Marianne Evans has helped Wiedenfeld’s efforts.

Pembroke Township like a Third World Country

Pembroke Township is located in Kankakee County, about 2½ hours from Huntley. Wiedenfeld said it is a rural township “stuck in a corner of the state that nobody really pays that much attention to” and feels like a Third World country.

The township is encompasses 52.5 square miles with a population of 2,784, according to www.city-data.com. The poverty level is staggering with the median income at $25,427 per household, according to www.clrsearch.com. Hopkins Park is the closest village; it’s only 3.7 square miles, according to www.city-data.com. There are no stores or grocery stores and just one gas station, Wiedenfeld said.

Pembroke Township qualifies for government help, but the people are not getting it, she said. While she is careful not to accuse anyone of corruption, she said, “If an area is continually in need, money will keep flowing into that area.” Township and Hopkins Park officials have running water, indoor plumbing and don’t go cold, she said.

Families living in the township, meanwhile, don’t have the basic services. One woman, Betty Logan, is a 69-year-old grandmother raising three grandchildren. She is living on Social Security. Wiedenfeld has been trying to get work done on her trailer home. She just recently got running water

She has formed a friendship with Logan. Wiedenfeld finds the people of Pembroke Township are thankful for the help but don’t demand things. It makes her want to help all the more. She tells the people they deserve to have running water and indoor plumbing.

“These people are our neighbors and I don’t see how it’s right how they are living,” Wiedenfeld said.

She has been to Pembroke Township a half dozen times but is constantly working on fundraisers to benefit the people there. She has made business connections in the township, including Mosely Construction owned by a man who grew up there. The company has been working with her to help neighbors.

Wiedenfeld’s work in Pembroke Township has opened her eye to poverty. People may think someone in poverty should pick themselves up. It doesn’t work that way, she said. People like Logan are doing the best they can, but the poverty is overwhelming, she said.

Every time she washes her hands or stands in the show, she thinks about the people who cannot do that. People living in this country, just hours away from her Huntley home, she said.

“If we have to do it one neighbor at a time, I would like to do that,” she said.

Helping the people of Pembroke Township

“I don’t get anything out of it,” Wiedenfeld said. “I just can’t believe people live this way and I can’t rest knowing people live this way.”

What she does get is gratitude. Carla called her after the well project was done to tell her thank you.

Wiedenfeld has been spreading the word about Pembroke Township by talking to local groups, collecting money at Your Best Friend’s Closet and selling her handmade jewelry with 100 percent of the profits going to Pembroke Township projects.

Evans, owner of the Algonquin shop, is a big supporter and has helped promote it in the store. Evans’ husband, Mark, also helped Wiedenfeld get a bus purchased for the town. Transportation was a problem for residents so she started trying to find a solution. Mark Evans heard that Elk Grove Village had a bus to sell.

The village sold the bus to Hopkins Park for $1 to get a bus route going, she said.

There are other issues that have to be resolved, like hiring a bus driver and paying for gas, but “the bus is there and we have hopes for it,” she said.

She also is working with groups, like to raise funds. Huntley Bingo is having a special bingo tonight to benefit Pembroke Township. There is also a Culver’s fundraiser scheduled from 5 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, May 22.

Anyone who is interested in having her speak to community groups, school groups or churches can contact her through the website, Project Pembroke.

“I’m not done with Pembroke,” Wiedenfeld said.