With Owner Ill, Volunteers Staff Elgin Shop
ELGIN, Ill. (WBBM) - Businesses in downtown Elgin have collection jars on their counters, and volunteers have gathered to keep a local institution up and running while its owner is in the hospital.
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As WBBM Newsradio 780's Mike Krauser reports, Keeney's Sporting Goods Inc., at 19 Douglas Ave. in Elgin, has been in business for 125 years.
In recent years, the store has sold an eclectic mixture of sporting goods, antiques and vintage clothes.
Owner Patricia Keeney is presently in the hospital with a kidney ailment. So Tonya Hudson of Elgin's Downtown Neighborhood Association says the shop is being staffed by volunteers in Keeney's absence.
"The camaraderie that exists among our business owners, the personal relationships that our owners have with their customers and just the fact that the community at large, the community of Elgin will come together to help a small retailer in need – you just don't find that," Hudson said.
The nature of Keeney's illness is not fully clear, but from her hospital bed, she says she is lucky.
