Citizen of the Month: Dan Stovall
Retired Baptist minister Dan Stovall (with his wife Pat) didn't end his devotion to helping others when he hung up his collar; he continues to help develop a local charity, which helps international students at NIU to settle in when they arrive in America.
Stovall's efforts to find furniture for newly-arrived students -- many of whom bring nothing more than a suitcase or two full of clothes -- evolved into Perpetual Amity, an organization which takes donations of furniture and provides them to these new students.
Many of the donors are large companies which are renovating hotels and office buildings; from a modest effort which involved rental of a couple of storage units, Perpetual Amity eventually moved up to its old building, located in the old Cornerstone Christian Academy location at South Pointe.
Stovall says they also provide a different service to these students...the opportunity for travel in the U.S.A. Using a network of churches throughout the Midwest, they take groups of foreign students on field trips to see other towns and get to know real Americans -- thus helping to broaden their horizons even further.
In recognition of his efforts, the Sycamore Rotary Club has provided $100 for donation to the charity of his choice; he has selected Network of Nations, one of Perpetual Amity's partner organizations.