Take a 5K run or walk to help the Nicarico Literacy Fund

It's time to blow the dust off your running shoes and plan to participate in the seventh annual Jeanine Nicarico Literacy Fund's 5K run/walk for reading.

This is the main fundraiser for the literacy fund, which has been around since 1996 and over the years has been able to award more than $100,000 to the private and public schools in Naperville's two school districts.

And it's all thanks to some generous sponsors as well as the folks who don their running - or walking - outfits to help the fund meet its goals.

This year, some $16,000 in grants from the fund will be handed out Tuesday at the Naperville Education Foundation Awards Night.

The fund is named for and in honor of Jeanine Nicarico, the 10-year-old Naperville girl so brutally kidnapped from her Naperville home and murdered in 1983.

During her all-too-brief life, Jeanine had learned to love school and reading - and a fund that helps to promote literacy is certainly a fitting tribute to her.

The run will begin at 7:30 a.m. May 18 at River Woods School.

Registration is at 6:30 a.m. at the school on the day of the race, or you can register or get more information, including how to make a donation, by logging on to www.nicaricoliteracyfund.org or www.signmeup.com.

• n n In Sunday's column I posed the question of who performs both in the Martin Scorsese movie "The Last Waltz," released in 1978 and a tribute to the Band, and in his new movie "Shine a Light," which is a Rolling Stones concert film.

Reader Alan Bugbee came forward right away with the correct answer - Rolling Stones guitarist Ron Wood.

There is no prize connected with this other than the satisfaction of Alan knowing that he alone came forth with the right rocker.

Alan writes that he thinks Wood and Bo Diddley were touring about the time the film was made, or shortly thereafter.

He also writes "I agree with you. The Stones are much better than The Beatles ever were. The Beatles were such that parents did not mind that their kids had the records. Indeed, they may have bought the records for them. I always thought that this might account for the inordinate popularity of The Beatles."

Yes, as is well known, I take the side of the Stones in the eternal battle of Stones versus Beatles.

For the record, in some other epic battles of modern culture, I also take Ford over Chevy, and Pepsi over Coke.

• • • On the other topic of last Sunday's column, hummingbirds, Bev Frier wonders what those tiny birds eat since no flowers are in bloom.

I don't know what they find in nature, but I would guess that it's even more important that we feed the earlier birds on their migration track given the lack of flowers in bloom in this neck of the woods.

We put a mixture of sugar and water, brought to boil briefly so the sugar dissolves and then cooled to room temperature, in our hummingbird feeders.

I haven't seen any hummers yet, but it is still very early.

Contact Tim West at west@scn1.com or 630-416-5290.