Aurora woman in running to be greatest local hero
Donna Morsovillo is used to welcoming home heroes. Now she's being called a hero.
The Aurora woman is one of five nominees for Standard Bank local heroes award, sponsored by the Chicago Sun-Times.
Morsovillo founded Operation Welcome You Home, a group that provides "respectful, thoughtful, uplifting and joyous homecomings" to returning soldiers. Last month, they welcomed back 10 soldiers with escorts from the airport to their homes all over the suburbs. When they arrive home, neighbors and supporters are there to thank them.
It's a labor of love for Morsovillo, the daughter of a World War II veteran, sister of a Vietnam veteran and wife of a Vietnam veteran.
"It really is a privilege to be able to help these families," she said.
Arranging the reunions often means long hours of preparation, occasionally sitting at the computer until 2 a.m. And it's totally worth it.
"When you do these homecomings and you see the smiles," she said. "Doing this for two years and each one that I do I truly feel like it's the first one. It's just amazing."
Morsovillo found out she was nominated for this award when her husband asked her to go out to dinner. He said he had good news. She thought he had gotten a raise. It was much better.
"I was just overwhelmed," she said.
Through Wednesday, she was the leading vote getter and had collected more than 100,000 votes. (Voting ends Sunday. Go to suntimes.upickem.net/engine/Welcome.aspx?contestid=10257 to vote.)
The grand prize is a $1,000 savings bond and $1,000 for a charity. Morsovillo said her prize money would go toward the Honor Flight program, which takes World War II veterans to see the national memorial in Washington, D.C.
Morsovillo is humbled by the support, but can't picture herself as a hero.
"I don't consider myself a hero," she said. "What these servicemen and women are doing for us is just unbelievable. They're not just doing their job. They're keeping us free."
But you never know what you might see driving by American Science & Surplus on Route 38 east of Geneva, perhaps the most unpredictable store in the Fox Valley.
This week, their sign advertised that they did NOT have any stinking Snuggies! The emphasis was theirs.
Kelly Swayne, who works at the store, said the message was not prompted by hordes of folks asking for Snuggies, which are soft blankets with sleeves and apparently one of the big things for the coming Christmas gift season.
"My manager came up with that," Swayne said, chuckling. "We like to tug at what's hot. It's laughable; it's just our sense of humor. We have things that are hot, too." In fact, American Science & Surplus is known as the store you go to find what you cannot find anywhere else, the place for the person who has everything. They do sell science items, from that beaker or test tube you might need to telescopes for the amateur astronomer.
But the surplus side of the store features things from uniform clothing to motors to office supplies to anything they might have found at a buyout or auction.
What's hot this year at the store? Swayne says it's "fish school" -- yep, a $9.95 package of hoops and even a DVD to help you train your fish.
But, please, don't ask for Snuggies.
"The Pulse" is a compilation of quirky, random or just plain weird happenings in the Fox Valley. If you have a news item you'd like to see appear in "The Pulse," contact Readers' Editor Cindy Goldberg at cgoldberg@scn1.com or 630-416-5276.
