A visitor to this near-west-side neighborhood won’t be long deceived by the colorful sign at 2454 W. Harrison: “B and E Country Store: Specializing in Country Ham and Loose Chitterlings.” The door and windows are shuttered, testimony to a steady economic deterioration in the neighborhood that gives some streets an eerie ghost-town atmosphere.
The partnership’s founding members are Darrell Rupiper, a priest at the neighborhood’s Precious Blood Church, and Jim McKeown, a Naperville marketing consultant who phased out his own successful business in order to work full-time for the partnership. Despite a drastic life-style change, McKeown is still very much the businessman–he gets up at 5:30 in the morning, often wears a suit and tie at the partnership, works 10- to 12-hour days, and talks about “putting product lines to bed.” He believes in the system that made him wealthy and thinks it can work for others. The partnership is an opportunity to “plug people into the power system,” he says. “If we can plug them in, they can capitalize on opportunities, generate further connections, business, and assets. They can have some direction to their lives.”
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For Nina, running a business requires risks she never imagined taking. In April, through McKeown’s contacts, she spoke to about 85 businesswomen and -men at the Naperville Rotary Club. She was the only black person present. In the middle of her talk, her voice cracked and she lost her train of thought, but when she told the people “I’m afraid and I’m struggling,” they gave her a round of applause. Afterward people were quick to congratulate Nina on her business sense.
Unlike Nina, whose style is measured and relaxed, McKeown is very much the aggressive, persistent entrepreneur. Before he started his own business, McKeown had been a marketing consultant for several Fortune 500 companies, and in some ways he still seems to be dealing with them. At the June meeting to plan the grand opening, he interrupts Nina’s explanation to give his own version of the plan. He has big ambitions: he wants to raffle off 30 to 50 gifts, but the rest of the council says 3 to 5 is more realistic.
Recently the partnership received a much-needed shot in the arm–a $20,000 grant from the Campaign for Human Development. That will help them with other projects in the works: a transportation company for the disabled, elderly, and others; a furniture- refurbishing and -resale venture; and a cookbook project that would collect recipes from various neighborhood culture. Nina and Friends is already gearing up for an expanded Christmas season, including cards, decorations, ornaments, and wreaths. The partnership has also started to explore buying property in the neighborhood through city programs available to community groups.
