Zee-Bee Nation can earn a 'Feather' for its cap

Perhaps the anonymous e-mailer summed it up best for the thousands and thousands of you who peruse your local newspaper on a daily basis:

"You think you're a know-it-all, don't you," he/she said. "But you don't know anything."

(In the spirit of full disclosure, let the record show that "anything" was not the word of choice, but it just seemed that at least one of the first 50 words used in this space today should contain eight letters.)

But back to the "you don't know anything" ...

For the record, "you" didn't know how to spell Wal-Mart or WalMart or Walmart, or ... you get the idea.

Had to look it up.

And here's why.

Because if you live in the Zion/Harbor/Beach Park area, you are being asked today to please hold off on shopping at your Wal-Mart on Route 173 in Zion on Saturday.

Shop there on Sunday instead.

Preferably after 12 p.m. The Bears play at noon on Sunday, so mom can hit Wal-Mart while dad watches the Bears battle the hapless Cleveland Browns.

(Random thought: Spent a lot of time riding around this week and decided that the only thing harder to find than a Chuckles candy bar at a mini-mart is a car on the road with a Bears pennant flying from the antenna).

Why Sunday?

Because that's when the Zion-based Junior Zee-Bees youth football team's Featherweight Division players (usually age 11-12 and weighing around 100-110 pounds) will be at the store, asking for donations to defray costs for the team's quest to Cleveland to play in a national age-group tournament.

To get the logistics out of the way, The Z-B Featherweight Division team is 8-1 in its division of play in The Chicagoland Youth Football League, and it will play Grant (5-4) at 9 a.m. on Sunday in Fox Lake.

Figure 90 minutes for the game, and an hour to get organized and drive back to Zion, and it should be around noon when the Junior Bees have their canisters in place in front of the store's two entrances.

The hope here is that everybody who shops at Wal-Mart that afternoon will purchases items totaling whatever dollars and 1 cent, and then will toss the 99 cents change into the can for the kids.

They need it and, 8-1 record on the playing field aside, they've EARNED it.

Here's how it was put by Tim Neargarder, president of the Junior Zee-Bees program.

"We have sent teams in the past to places like Daytona Beach, Baton Rouge, Louisville, etc., and all of the teams had a great time.

"The idea to go this year came from our Featherweight coach. Shawn Zugehoer. It didn't have so much to do with how good they have been this year, but more about the group of kids he has.

"The players and their parents have been wonderful and he thought it would be nice to take this team on one of these trips to compete at a national level for the national title. Our program has always been about developing kids to not only to be football players, but good kids all-around. It's not always about winning for us."

The tourney will be held over Thanksgiving weekend, and the Zion team will play two or three times in that time frame.

The league president knows how important a trip like this is for many of the team members.

"Allowing some kids that don't ever travel the opportunity to go somewhere is a nice thing to do for them," he said.

But, of course, there's the matter of cost -- or co$t, if you prefer.

It's huge, and the Junior Bees have been busy collecting donations and sponsors to help parents who otherwise, wouldn't be able to make it happen for their children.

"Sending a team of young kids to Cleveland is an exciting opportunity that will stay with them forever," Neargarder said. "They will never forget the experience of not only playing football out there, but the trip as a whole."

Already, many in the Zion/Harbor/Beach Park community have stepped up,put the pigskin on the tee and kicked the ball over the goal post, so to speak.

The list of sponsors includes the City of Zion and Mayor Lane Harrison; Cancer Treatment Center of America; Janes License Service; State Farm Insurance agent Randy Nebel; Associates for Women's Health; Dr. Martin Weiner; Partylite; and Dr. Yasir Mekki, OBGYN.

The event Zion will be participating in is the Midwest National Youth Football Championships, and this is the fifth annual event. There is a Web site (midwestnationalyouthtournament.org) for those who want more information.

As for the all-important contributions to the Junior Zee-Bees, there are a couple of ways to help.

• You can contact Neargarder via e-mail at tneargarder@comcast.net.

• You can check out the Junior Zee-Bees Web site at www.jrzeebees.com.

• You can stop and shop at Wal-Mart on Sunday afternoon, and donate your change to the cause before, of course, you start wondering around the parking lot trying to remember where you parked.

Trust me, you're not the first person that's happened to.