Dave DiVincenzo’s friendship with Santa Claus is actually quite a bit newer than most folks would believe. He wouldn’t have called himself a Christmas person at all.

Jeff Vogen has been announcing sporting events at Morris Community High School for more than 20 years

A group of Gardner South-Wilmington Students began the Student Assistance Fund in 2017, a fund available to those in need that's been kept up ever since.

It's been a little over a year since the Grundy Eunoia Wellness Center opened in Mazon, and they have been kept busy.

Meet Joshua Jahn. His wife and two small children were struck and killed by a drunk driver in 2008. He's spent most of the past two decades speaking to DUI convicts and getting them to rethink their decisions.

Founded in 1979 officially, Operation St. Nick has been a staple of Grundy County since the early 80s, relying entirely on funding from its annual Christmas radio auction.

Angela Roudis, a sixth-to eighth-grade teacher in the Cross-Categorical program at Coal City Middle School, said she’s worked with Gina Pens the last four years and called her “an amazing person who always puts others before herself.”

The Morris Herald-News honors the everyday heroes making a difference in Grundy County through their hard work, kindness and dedication.

When it was established in 1925, nearly all of the founders of Veterans of Foreign Wars St. Juvin Post 1336 had a common thread — they served in World War I. Fast forward a century later, and the majority of the Coal City group’s members are Vietnam War veterans.

It hasn't been an easy road for Tim Dippon to get where he's at now, living in Vermilion County and spending as much time in nature as he can.

Check out our photos from our Thank You Veterans special section in Grundy County for 2025.

Private John Martin Steele was a Marine, a Gold Star veteran, and the namesake for the Morris VFW Post 6049. He enlisted Dec. 24, 1941 and served on the USS Lexington, a fleet carrier. His primary responsibility in his battle station was using an anti-aircraft gun.

The Grundy County Marine Corps League is a bit more exclusive than some of the other veterans organizations around Grundy County: Commandant Jeff Alexander said it's the only branch-specific veterans organization.

Tara Phelps turned a youth as an army medic into a career as a nurse with Morris Hospital.

Now an assistant baseball coach and substitute teacher at Minooka High School, Wes Anderson spent nearly 32 years in the US Army

The Veterans Legacy Center at the Morris American Legion Post 294, run by the previously featured Carter Corsello, has uncovered the colorful past of many Grundy County Veterans, but few were as colorful as Robert Huston.

Edith Smith Harrison was already well-accomplished when she decided to become a YMCA canteen volunteer during World War I: At 43, she had already become one of Illinois' first female lawyers, a member of the Smith, Smith and Smith Law Firm.

Matt Baker originally thought he’d be a journalist, but a love for the classrooms of his youth was always in the back of his mind, so he changed his plans at the University of Illinois.