Support the Eagles Aerie 527 in Bloomington

My name is Donald (JR) Quinn, and I am the Head Trustee for the Fraternal Order of Eagles, Aerie 527, Bloomington, Illinois. I come to you today on behalf of this great organization to ask for your help. Normally, we are the ones to come to for help needed, our motto is ‘People Helping People’ in fact, so it is not easy to be on the receiving end of this request. Yet here we are.

Here is a short outline of some of the struggles we have faced, as well as some of the good we have done in the community over the years.

I’m not sure if you know, but the Eagles has been a big part of the Bloomington, Illinois community for over 100 years. Although it has come into the twentieth century, and is no longer just a gentleman’s club, it still helps so many good causes. Some examples are, ABATE, Guardians of the Children, Big Brothers/Sisters, CISAR, Wishbone, Western Ave. Community Center, to name a few.

Major Setback - Embezzled: (all of this can be fact checked)

Theresa Fitchorn, charged with taking almost $200,000 from the Eagles 527, pleaded guilty and was ordered to pay restitution on April 25, 2015. She is scheduled to go in front of the judge for evaluation at McLean Co. Court House in uptown Bloomington on July 29, 2020 at 10 am, room 4B.

Update on the Theresa Fitchorn case: added 24 months’ probation, ordered to pay $250 by the 25th of each month. Will be revisited Dec 29 2020.

Information from https://publicaccess.mcleancountyil.gov :

Case Number 2015CF000084 Last update June 2023.

Total Assessed Amount 184897

Total Amount Paid 3652.31

Balance Due 181244.31

This case has been referred to collections. The McLean County Circuit Clerk is authorized to collect an additional fee of 30% of the delinquent amount pursuant to 730 ILCS 5/5-9-3.

Balance Due DOES NOT include collection fee. (Good luck with that.)

We were left with $31 and a stack of unpaid bills. As you can imagine, this was hard to recover from, but with a lot of hard work, and some adjustment in officers, we were able to bounce back slowly.

Then the next hurdle…The Pandemic:

Completely closed down for three months! We had a great group of volunteers (not all shown in picture above) step up and do curbside lunches to keep the bills paid. Everyone remembers how it was. We were at 25% capacity for four months, then in November closed again, with just curb service until January, when we were allowed to open at 25% again. In February of that year, we were allowed to be opened at 50% with masks, until it was finally lifted. You can imagine what that did for business. Still, we struggled along. The things we are supposed to do, and enjoy doing, are suffering, because it's an uphill battle to just make ends meet.

A few of the Good Things:

We love to honor our Veterans!

A few pictures above of visits, with gifts.

Honoring them at breakfast, or possibly buy them a drink. Small tokens for sure. More when we can.

Putt Putt for Charity, every year for a lot of years. (photo above does not include all participants)

Annual Children’s Christmas Party:

Something we work hard all year to put on for the kids in our community. Last year we were unable to have a party. It was very disappointing for us as well as the kids.

Scholarships for Local Seniors!

The Eagles 527 is a nonprofit organization. We operate solely on the hard work of our members, volunteers, and contributions from good folks like you. We are located at 313 S. Main St., Bloomington, Illinois, and are open to the public. Feel free to stop in and see us!

Our goal is to raise $25,000. with this Go Fund Me, and with your help, and generous hearts, we believe this is an attainable goal. Thank you for your time and interest.

You’ll find two links below that will take your donations directly to the Eagles account at Chase Bank, or there is always the option of paper checks sent directly to the building at the address above.

https://account.venmo.com/u/Donald-Quinn-33#:~:text=Donald%20Quinn-,%40Donald%2DQuinn%2D33,-0%20friends

PayPal link - https://paypal.me/Eagles527