My buddy Jim (Rock) Quattrocki dropped by the office as I packed things up in advance of my June 1, 2026 retirement and produced this piece. Rock and I traveled the world together telling stories through much of our careers. Thanks Rock.

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Greetings everyone. Tim with Frakes Productions. On June 1st of this year I will turn 65. After careful consideration with family and friends and with a deep sense of gratitude I want to announce my retirement and the end of commercial production with Tim Frakes Productions Inc.

For 42 years, storytelling through video production in the broadcast, corporate and non profit space has been my passion and professional focus.

What a ride it has been! While much of the March, April and May calendar is spoken for there is still some availability. However new projects will need to be completed before June 1, 2026.

My office at 2 S. Park Ave in Lombard will close on April 30 and I will conduct the remaining business from my home office.

Heartfelt thanks to my clients old and new, small and large. The work you do is meaningful and I am profoundly enriched by my association with each of you.

Thanks go out to my family, especially my spouse Julie who has supported me, been an integral part of the business and patiently waited for me to return from innumerable road trips across the United States and around the world.

I would also like to thank my faithful colleague and friend Kathy Gallian with Bookkeeping Essentials. I would have been lost without her expert management of the financial side of the business. Like me, Kathy sees her work as a calling. Her skills allowed me to faithfully serve all of you.

I also wish to thank the many freelance colleagues and summer interns who worked with me over the years on the production side of the business. Most recently that has been Mr. Stacey Adams who made the last three years possible through his diligent freelance assistance on video productions across Chicago, the state and around the nation. All the way Stacey.

Finally, I want to give a shout out to my landlord of the past eight years, Mr. Tom Smith. Working out of the historic Babcock’s Grove House in downtown Lombard with a generous lease agreement has been an inspiration. Tom has been an important advocate of the work I do on your behalf.

One vestige of the business will carry on. Our daughter Emily assumed leadership of our digital transfer business several years ago and continues to do great work preserving VHS and other media in digital formats. Go to Saveyourmemoriesdigital.com to have your memories preserved.

The next chapter in our lives will continue to involve some documentary filmmaking, however family time with our six grandchildren, three children and their spouses, writing, travel, volunteer activities in our faith community and perhaps a chicken coop in the back yard will occupy the lion’s share of my time.

Each of you are encouraged to call or email with questions regarding recommendations of colleagues in the video production industry who can step in as my replacement. I’m happy to make referrals.

For those of you who wish to obtain a copy of your video footage, please contact me soon and we will arrange a transfer process. I do not plan to manage the media after June 1, 2026.

And again, thank you for trusting me with your stories. Through your good work, I too have been blessed.

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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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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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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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This is a video I produced for Mark Brown and the Lutheran World Federation Jerusalem‘s Augusta Victoria Hospital. There is an urgent need for elder care and palliative medicine in Palestine and Israel. Augusta Victoria Hospital is responding to that need by building a 120-bed facility for elder care and palliative care on the east side of the hospital. This facility will help both patients and their families cope with the difficulties of their circumstances.

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Intersections International is a leader in the inter-faith dialogue movement. The staff of Intersections International are good people that do important work at a critical time in our nations history.

I am sorry to see the good name of Intersections International drawn into the conversation. I am also proud of the work I did with Intersections International in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon in October, 2009. I traveled with them as part of  the Iraqi Voices Amplification Project.

I am proud to be associated with Intersections International and believe in its mission which is dedicated to promoting justice, reconciliation and peace across lines of faith, culture, ideology, race, class, national borders and other boundaries that divide humanity.

Here is a link to the video we did on the Iraqi Voices Amplification Project.
http://www.frakesproductions.com/2009/iraqi-voices-amplification-project-short-version/

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