2023 year in review: The stories and people of our communities
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Throughout the year in 2023, we reported on a variety of people and organizations who have made history or are making a difference today.
We've called many of them Chicago's Hidden Gems. And to paraphrase what our late CBS 2 anchorman and reporter Harry Porterfield may have said, they're all people and groups you should know.
Admired Chicago photographer John H. White chronicles the humanity of history
It's fair to say there's hardly a veteran journalist in the country who doesn't know the name John H. White.
The photographer is admired for his work, for his character, and for encouraging everyone he meets to "keep in flight." In February, White invited CBS 2's Jim Williams into his home to see his art and hear his story.
A John White photograph can make time stand still for a moment, but its impact can last a lifetime.
"People need to understand who we are, where we are. We're here for this time, this short time," he said. "We leave. What we leave is forever."
White has not only chronicled history, he's made it.
In 1982, while at the Chicago Sun-Times, White won the Pulitzer Prize for photojournalism. It was the first Pulitzer ever awarded for a collection of photographs.
His work embodied life in Chicago, often focusing on the Black experience. The joy of a baptism at the 31st Street Beach, the terror of a gas explosion at Cabrini-Green, the beauty of young ballet students in a quest for perfection.
"Pictures are my friends," White said. "They speak to me. They have a language of their own and they're living moments."
White also hopes to enrich the photographers that will follow him. He's taught at Chicago's Columbia College for the last 45 years. He said he'll keep on learning and finding beauty and believing in the good.
Young man with autism thrives as dad joins him in college art classes
Kevin Blahetka loves art, is great at photography, and has autism and special needs. He wanted to take photography and other art classes in school, but it was clear that he would need some one-on-one help to make it work.
So Kevin's dad, Ken, decided to step in as that one-on-one help. Ken Blahetka enrolled in classes himself with Kevin at Joliet Junior College. When CBS 2's Joe Donlon met them in April, they were attending classes together every Thursday night.
It all started with a pottery class last year.
"And after a couple of weeks, it was clear he wasn't doing well on his own. So rather than pulling him from the class, I finished the class with him. I signed him up for his first credited class. I signed me up for my first credited class in like 25 years," said Ken. "I have to do the same homework he has to do. My student ID is over there by his."
After a long day at work, going to school was a lot for Ken. But he said it was worth every minute.
"It's amazing – just seeing him do well, you can't put a price on it," said Ken. "He's being graded the same as all his peers, and he's pulling an A. It's amazing. He knows he's doing good things, and that's pretty incredible."
Kevin created the photo below for an assignment requiring students to find objects that look like letters. It lives up to the word it spells out.
The father-and-son students even had work on display in the school's gallery.
"We do one class a semester, so we'll be at this for the next few years," Ken said. "We'll continue to see where these adventures take us."
Chicago woman documents her journey battling cancer on her blog
It seemed that everyone who knew award-winning news producer Jessica Zellermayer was in awe of her optimism and, ultimately, her courage in the face of cancer.
She was just 47 when she died. But Jessica's parents, Marlene and Sherwood, said their daughter's kindness still touches people.
One way Jessica's memory lives on is through her blog, "The World According to Jaz."
"She loved writing," Marlene told CBS 2's Joe Donlon. "And it made her happy thinking people would benefit from it. Plus, she also felt good writing it herself, because she got some of her feelings out."
Jessica started her blog in 2011. Five years later, everything would change.
She wrote, "August 22, 2016. I'm at work. My cell phone rings. It's my radiologist. I know I'm about to learn some life changing and breaking news. 'You have cancer,' says the doctor."
"Her hope was that would help her get through whatever she was going through, but most importantly help other people," said Sherwood.
In entry after entry, Jessica wrote of joy, hope, and gratitude.
"Be thankful for your parents and friends," she wrote. "Remind yourself that bad days are just temporary. Nobody fights alone."
Family and friends said that was what Jessica was like up to the very end.
"She was a very, very positive human being despite what she was going through," Sherwood said. "And she was going through hell. I mean, she never showed it to us, never showed pain."
To read Jessica's blog, visit theworldaccordingtojaz.blogspot.com.
Skokie church offering help to people experiencing homelessness
A in downtown Skokie is offering help to people experiencing homelessness.
The people receiving help were sleeping on the street before they found Bonnie Kahn Ognisanti, a caring township official. She was the impetus behind the day shelter for people who are experiencing homelessness in Niles Township.
Ognisanti told CBS 2's Joe Donlon even she didn't realize so many people here were experiencing homelessness, until one day about two years ago.
"A gentleman walked into our office. He had six garbage bags full of all of his belongings...I thought that they were donations for our food pantry but it was everything that he owned," she said. "I realized really quickly that he didn't have a space where he could just feel like a human being and get his body clean and wash his clothes and sit down and get a sandwich and rest."
She headed to St. Paul Lutheran Church in downtown Skokie to talk with the pastor.
"I thought St. Paul's has a parochial school that's just sitting there, empty that's not being used. They already have showers, lockers, community space and we already have a partnership," Ognisanti said.
That thought and a year's worth of planning resulted in a day-time respite center for people who are experiencing homelessness. It's a place to feel dignity, even when there's nothing else.
Paseo Boricua tour highlights culture, history and Puerto Rican pride in Chicago
Chicago's Humboldt Park community is home to the first Puerto Rican cultural district in the U.S., and a walking tour of the community is a step into history.
"We have the largest concentration of Puerto Rican eateries. We also have one of the largest concentrations of public art," said Eduardo Arocho of the Paseo Boricua Tour Company.
Arocho is the neighborhood's biggest cheerleader, and he leads the tour. CBS 2 Chief Meteorologist Albert Ramon came along in September.
But why a walking tour?
"Everybody likes to walk, get to know the neighborhood and obviously see up close the wonderful art and smell the great cuisine," said Arocho. "Ours cover six blocks on Division, from Western to California."
It's officially called the Paseo Boricua. That's "Puerto Rico Street" in Spanish and it's bursting with art, including 80 different murals on walls and on the ground.
Tours are set to last an hour, but they almost always run over. Because there's so much to see, and so much to say.
Arocho said the murals show how long, and hard, Puerto Ricans had to fight for respect, fair housing, and even schools. It's a challenging history, marred by exclusion.
"It's a statement on gentrification and how it erases the history of the community," Arocho said. "When the Puerto Rican community started to come to Chicago in the late 40s, early 50s, we had a neighborhood on the South Side, the Loop, and in Lincoln Park but because of urban renewal, what we call gentrification nowadays, the community kept being moved."
But there's also a very proud, joyful history of Paseo Boricua. At "La Casita" there's a garden and performance space and a statue of independence leader Doctor Pedro Albizu Campos. And that just scratches the surface of all the artwork you'll find.
If you want to tour beautiful Paseo Boricua, you can learn more about Eduardo Arocho's company Paseo Boricua Tours by going to its website.
South Side native documents stories of Black Chicagoans
What would you do if someone walked up to you with a camera and asked if they could tell your story? That's exactly what South Side native Nikki Carpenter does.
On any given Sunday, you can see the lifelong South Sider heading out of her home and walking down the street with her camera and curiosity in tow. She's been gathering stories for her passion project, "Black Citizens of Chicago."
"What I do is walk up to random Black people and ask if I can get their Black Chicago stories," she told one of her potential subjects.
And the answer is almost always "yes."
Carpenter unearths those stories on her Instagram page, like a custodian who is so proud of his work, and a woman whose love of gardening goes back generations.
"It's people," she told CBS 2's Joe Donlon. "It's moments."
They also include people like a 100-year-old man who just voted, or a cool cowboy-type whose "ride" is a 1968 Cadillac, and even a Tina Turner lookalike.
Carpenter said her ultimate goal is to make Black Citizens of Chicago into a coffee table book, then bring the work to documentaries. To see her work, visit her Instagram page @blackcitizensofchicago.
Woman on a mission to give away donations to neighbors in need
Shelly Williams' mission in life is to give to neighbors in need – and she says everyone can be her neighbor. She's there to help.
CBS 2's Joe Donlon came to talk to Williams just before 11 a.m. on a Wednesday morning, and people were lined up as far as the eye could see at 76th Street and Ashland Avenue in Auburn Gresham.
"The Mississippi Delta Youth Organization is giving away household products, blankets, office chairs, toys, Christmas trees," Williams said.
They were giving and giving and giving. And that's what Williams does once a month at these events. She reached out to people, most of whom she didn't even know.
She puts out word on social media and a company called Front Door links her with Walmart, which gives her donations of all sorts of household items.
"They give me returns," Williams said. "They give me things that are left on the shelf... and I give them away."
But how does she get them?
"I go pick them up myself," she said. "I load the van or I load the UHaul, whatever I have to rent that day, and they'll give me two, three pallets, sometimes four. I load it up, bring it over here, and give it away."
The Mississippi Delta Project began more than 20 years ago, with Deacon Sammy Sutton, Shelly's longtime friend.
Shelly's been with the project for three years, helped by her husband, Mike, and the woman she calls her right hand, Ernestine Allen.
CBS 2 wanted to know why Shelly does it.
"It means the world to me to just be able to give," she said. "It means the world. God's desire for us is to help one another."
South Side Chicago business owner wants neighborhood to bloom with flower business
South Side Chicago business owner wants neighborhood to bloom with flower business
At first glance, one would never guess what's inside a modest building at 62nd and Morgan streets in Englewood, but if they come inside, they can smell the flowers and enjoy.
"We're growing beautiful flowers here in Englewood," Quilen Blackwell, co-founder of Chicago Eco House/Southside Blooms, told CBS 2's Ryan Baker.
What Blackwell and his wife and co-founder Hannah are trying to do is build community and alleviate poverty. They run five small flower farms on the South and West sides – after observing that there is so much vacant land in the city, and thinking growing flowers would be a good use of some of that land.
They have beautiful buds and colorful creations for events at top locations throughout the city. Blackwell said they create products for weddings, corporate events, and retail deliveries.
They're also planting the seed to help young people grow a budding career by teaching them the trade and then watching them bloom.
To learn more about Southside Blooms, its products and opportunities, visit SouthsideBlooms.com.
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