Premier Promo Secrets of Hidden Lake from Tim Frakes on Vimeo.Hi, I’m Tim Frakes. For 30 years, my family and I have lived across the road from the DuPage County Forest Preserve’s Hidden Lake. I’ve trekked nearly every square inch. And on my walks, I became curious about the people who lived here in the past, the indigenous people, the homesteaders, the wheat king, and a gambling czar. The more I learned about their stories, the more I began to appreciate this sacred public trust, and I hope you will too.

Join us under the Stars for the outdoor premiere of the Secrets of Hidden Lake, the story of the DuPage County’s Hidden Lake Forest Preserve.

Friday, September 6, 7:30 p.m.
Glen Briar Park at the Butterfield Park District.
Registration is free, seating is limited.
Go to lombardhistory.org to register.

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Proud to work with and support the Lombard Historical Society. Check out our new video which introduces Lombard to the LHS Carriage House Expansion Project.

In 2020, LHS received a $750,000 Illinois Public Museum Capital Grant to be used to expand and upgrade the Carriage House at 23 West Maple Street. The funds will be used to update the archive, provide more storage for the collections as well as new offices for staff and volunteers, a new gift shop space, modifications for ADA accessibility.

While the grant covers much of the cost, LHS needs your help to cover a ($100,000) shortfall. The additional funds will allow LSH to add a new fully functioning kitchen for events, new technology for presentations, and specialized storage structures needed to protect the artifacts that tell our community’s story.

Please help make history by making a donation in any amount that you can afford. Thank you! Go to: https://www.lombardhistory.org/donatecarriagehouse

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Recently I treated myself to a present. It’s a framed map by Albert F. Scarf titled Indian Trails and Villages of Chicago and of Cook Counties (1804).

It’s part of a new documentary we are producing with the Lombard Historical Society on the history of the DuPage County Forest Preserve Hidden Lake.

This beautiful piece of land and the adjacent Morton Arboretum today, are lovingly protected from the ravages of indiscriminate development. Once, it was home to a Potawatomi village. Imagine Potawatomi braves, hunting plentiful deer and buffalo and Potawatomi women cultivating corn and other crops along the fertile banks of the East Branch of the DuPage River.

Following the 1821 and 1833 treaties of Chicago, the Potawatomi people were forcibly removed to Missouri, Iowa, Kansas and later Oklahoma. Today, their descendants thrive in places like Shawnee, Oklahoma and Crandon, Wisconsin.

After rapid agricultural development in the mid 19th century, much of what is now Hidden Lake was purchased in 1912 by Arthur W. Cutten, once the second richest man in America. Cutten was known as the Wheat King at the Chicago Board of Trade and built an amazing country estate known as Sunny Acres on the property.

After the crash of 1929, Cutten was the target of Federal investigations surrounding the practice of short selling. He defended himself and avoided conviction on technicalities.

As America plunged into the Great Depression, Cutten and his wife Maud were attacked by a band of robbers who raided a dinner party at Sunny Acres, robbed them and left them and their servants for dead in an air-tight vault in the basement of the estate. After a staff member freed himself from his bonds and pried open the vault’s door, Cutten tapped into his vast resources and launched a campaign using private detectives to bring the gang to justice.

After Cutten’s death in 1936, the property was sold to an associate of infamous Chicago gangster Al Capone. The gambler, William R. (Big Bill) Johnson, went to jail after being convicted of tax evasion in the 1940’s.

The property remained in his family until the late 1970’s when the DuPage County Forest Preserve purchased the land, demolished Sunny Acres and discovered two giant stone goddesses depicting commerce and labor, buried in the overgrown woods. The goddesses reside today in front of the Chicago Board of Trade at LaSalle and Jackson.

It’s a story of conquest, greed, and sacred commitment to the land. It’s an American story that has been largely lost to history, needs to be understood and appreciated, and then passed onto future generations.

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This Wednesday evening we will show a portion of our documentary, Common Good, followed by Q&A.

Elmhurst Art Museum
150 Cottage Hill Ave.
Elmhurst, Illinois 60126

Wednesday, September 22, 2021
6:30 PM – 8:00 PM
Free. No registration required

In partnership with the Backyard Caucus, video producer Tim Frakes presents his newest documentary about the York Center Co-operative, based in suburban DuPage County, which aimed to provide fair housing, community, and opportunity in an era of white flight, redlining, and restrictive covenants that effectively prevented non-white Americans from fully participating in the American dream. Discussion will follow.

The full film will be premiered on YouTube October 1, 2021.

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Lombard Cycling Classic 2021 from Tim Frakes on Vimeo.

Tuesday, July 20, 2021, we were out recording as the DuPage Sports Commission brought competitive cycling to Lombard with the Lombard Cycling Classic.

As part of the Intelligentsia Cup Series, the Lombard Cycling Classic was a one-day, all-day, event that welcomed amateur and professional cyclists, and their guests, from around the world creating a racing circuit that included St. Charles Road, Main St. Michael McGuire Drive and South Elizabeth Streets.

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What a privilege to help Hephzibah Home in Oak Park, Illinois produce a video presentation for their Hephzibah At Home Together 2021 Virtual Heart of Gold Gala!
For more than a century, Hephzibah has offered short- and long-term group homes for abused and neglected children; child welfare and family services; foster care, adoption programs, and day care for families of all income levels. Hephzibah is about transforming lives in an environment where children can grow into beautiful, strong, caring members of society.

This year’s At Home With Hephzibah Gala event was their most successful fundraising event, generating more than $285,000 plus a generous $200,000 anonymous match to support the critical programming that serves more than 1,400 vulnerable children and families each year.
An expanded version of this six minute program will air in Chicago on ABC7.2 Localish Network in Chicago every Sunday in March 2021 at noon.

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Let us transfer your legacy VHS,VHS-C, 3/4, Hi8mm, Digital 8mm,
8mm and 16mm film, DV tape, DVD, BetaSP, or vinyl LP’s to modern digital formats.  Prices start as low as $12 per item for 7 items and up.

• Digital delivery via dropbox is free.
• Deliver via thumb drive or DVD is $15.
• Shipping charges apply for return of legacy media.

Conveniently located in downtown Lombard in the historic Lombard Hotel above Babcock’s Grove Restaurant.

Call 630-418-2439 today for an appointment.

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RCAP/RCAC Mora Cooperative from RCAP on Vimeo.

Here is a video I produced for the Rural Community Assistance Partnership. The Mora Cooperative exemplifies how RCAC, as a partner with RCAP, is working in rural communities to provide training, technical, and financial resources and advocacy so rural communities can achieve their goals and visions. Hear their stories. RCAP is a national network of non-proit organizations working to ensure that rural and small communities through the United States have access to safe drinking water and sanitary wastewater and solid waste disposal.

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Happy autumn from Tim at Frakesproductions.com

I’m pleased to announce that another Greater Chicago Broadcast Ministries documentary I produced for air on ABC7 Chicago has been nominated for a 2015 Chicago Emmy Award. The 57th Annual Chicago/Midwest Emmy Awards are Saturday, November 7, 2015 at the Redmoon Theater in Chicago. This years entry is titled: The People’s Resource Center: The Faith Response to the Reduction of Hunger and Poverty

Peoples Resource Center operates one of the largest food pantry programs in Chicago’s
western suburbs, meeting the basic human needs of nearly 32,000 low-income DuPage
County residents.

This fall I’ll also be telling stories about the great work of Lutheran Social Services of Illinois. LSSI is the largest social service provider in the state, and last year served 73,000 people through 190 programs at 85 sites across Illinois.

In November I’ll be headed back to Mizak, Haiti to work with Haitian Aritisans for Peace International. HAPI is a faith-based community development ministry that empowers Haitians to grow their capacity, lead with integrity, and develop solutions to their own problems.

Work also continues on Gods Glory, Neighbors Good: The Story of Pietism. This fall we recorded interviews with Gracia Grindal
Professor Emeritus of Rhetoric at Luther Seminary and Christian Collins Winn (Associate Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology)at Bethel Theological Seminary.

Then in January, I’ll join the Rev. Eric C. Shafer on Jerusalem’s famed Via Dolorosa telling stories about the Palestinian people, the Stations of the Cross and the great work of the Lutheran World Federation Jerusalem.

Thanks again to all of my clients, friends and supporters who make this meaningful work possible.

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