Small Town, Big Hearts: Plainfield Unites To Help Palestinian Family

PLAINFIELD, IL — In the midst of tragedy, Plainfield community members are banding together to bring light to a family left devastated Oct. 14 by a stabbing that resulted in the death of 6-year-old Wadee Alfayoumi and critical injuries to his mother, Hanan Shaheen.

As the local government held a vigil Tuesday night to honor the young boy, and local churches spoke out and prayed for peace, residents teamed up to see what they could do to show their support for the Plainfield mother and her family.

Staff at Big Sammy's Italian Eatery is bringing the community together to raise money for Wadee's mother, "in an effort to assist a family truly in need."

The 32-year-old Shaheen, who was renting two rooms from Plainfield landlord Joseph Czuba, was also stabbed more than a dozen times, and was hospitalized in serious condition, in what police and prosecutors are calling a hate crime motivated by the family's Muslim religion, Patch reported.

"We might be a small town, but there are a lot of big hearts," Taylor Davis, a manager at Big Sammy's Italian Eatery, told Patch. "We have no room for hate crimes."

The restaurant, with a location on Lockport Street in downtown Plainfield and another at 14206 Route 30, plans to donate a percentage of all dine-in and take-out sales at both of its locations to Shaheen and her family. Davis came up with the initiative inspired by her work with local schools, with whom she hosts fundraisers as a way to give back to their parent-teacher organizations.

"My family owns Big Sammy's, and we were just like anything that can happen, we just want to be involved," Davis said. "This is devastating."

The plan is to host the fundraiser from noon to 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 25. It was originally scheduled to start at 3 p.m., but Davis said she and Big Sammy’s owners Sam Scianna and Mike Majers decided to widen the timeframe as a result of the response to the event.

"I think at this point, we're at 1,000 shares," she said, adding Big Sammy's sees customers coming in not only from Plainfield but also from surrounding towns including Joliet and Shorewood. "We've been getting phone calls about reservations ... so we're expecting a great turnout."

She continued: "We just want to come together as a community; we truly are devastated at what happened."

Meanwhile, parents of children at schools across Plainfield Community Consolidated School District 202 are working to provide meals to the first responders who were called to the scene Oct. 14 at the house at 16201 S. Lincoln Highway in Plainfield Township.

"Someone else had a great idea; the first responders, they're the first ones on the scene. They had to witness it firsthand," Trista Countryman, a mother who is part of the parent-teacher organization at Central Elementary School, told Patch. "They're going to have to live with this for the rest of their life, too ... and that can't be easy."

The plan is to secure donations from local restaurants, along with snacks provided by neighborhood parents, to send to staff at the Plainfield Police Department, Plainfield Fire Protection District, the Will County Sheriff's Office and the Western Will County Communication Center throughout the next week.

"We're just trying to provide help where we can and support and say thank you to everything they do," Countryman said. "It's not an easy job whether they're teachers, first responders, pretty much anyone in the community that's impacted by it."

Lindsey Hallbauer, a Plainfield parent and the vice president of the parent-teacher organization at Charles Reed Elementary School, joined the effort after word spread about Central Elementary's initiative to support the community.

"A few of the schools' PTOs are working together to try to help out," Hallbauer said, praising Central Elementary's efforts. "They're doing great work."

Some parents also put together gift bags and gathered teddy bears to give to children who were upset by their classmate's death, Countryman said, while local restaurants donated food to support teachers.

"We're really fortunate to live in the community that we do, and [after] what horrifically happened in the community, everyone wanted to band together," Countryman said.

As food donations are secured for first responders, Hallbauer told Patch that the parents' next plan is to work on a drive for Shaheen's personal needs.

Other efforts to support the family include a Launch Good fundraiser that's raising money to help pay for Wadee's funeral expenses and the medical expenses incurred for Shaheen's injuries. A portion of the funds will also be dedicated to providing safe and secure housing for Shaheen, while another part will go toward creating a continuous charity to benefit others in Wadee's name — "a lasting legacy for the innocent child who was taken from us far too soon."

The campaign has raised more than half a million dollars since its creation on Sunday.

"Sometimes out of horrible tragedies can come positive. ... People are coming together," Countryman said.

More coverage:

• Fundraiser For Slain Boy's Funeral Costs, Mother's Hospital Bills
• Conservative Talk Radio Influenced Plainfield Child Killer: Prosecutor
• 'Sickened': Biden, Pritzker React To Hate Crime Slaying Of 6-Year-Old
• Muslim Community Responds To Plainfield Township 6-Year-Old's Killing
• Vigil Planned For Boy, 6, Stabbed To Death In Plainfield Township

Editor's note: Patch published Wadee Alfayoumi and Hanan Shaheen names' based on the spelling in Will County court documents.