Jeremy Marie was our guest speaker at Rotary this week. Jeremy set out in Oct 2007 to hitchhike his way across the world. So far he has been across Africa, the Middle East, Mexico, Canada, and is currently going through the U.S. He's traveled over 80,000 km so far, in almost 1000 different vehicles.  At our meeting, Mayor Pro Tem Furstenau presented Jeremy with an Proclamation from Mayor Pradel making Jeremy an honorary citizen of Naperville. You can keep up with Jeremy's travels by visiting his website at: http://www.tour-du-monde-autostop.fr/   The Naperville Running Company and Reebok, graciously donated a new pair of shoes for Jeremy's travels, thanks so much to Kris Hartner for making this possible.

Joe Raoul and Wendy & Jeff Gross opened their hearts and their homes to Jeremy, who stayed at their homes for 2 days each. Jeremy came in on Wednesday afternoon. Sun Kwok visited them in the evening to make plans and discovered that Joe and Jeremy were having a great time! Joe is an accomplished French speaker. Unfortunately Joe did not sing any French Opera for us!

At our Rotary Meeting on Thurday, Jeremy gave an amazing summary of his travels and was made an honorary citizen by Mayoral proclamation and Mayor Pro Tem Dick Furtenau, and he was presented a new pair of shoes for his travels from The Naperville Running Company and Reebok!  After the meeting, Sun showed Jeremy around town, taking him to the Naperville Municipal Center, Naper Settlement, Naperville Running Company, Naper Nuts & Sweets, Starbucks, the Library, and the downtown area.

Photo & Caption from the Naperville Sun for a newspaper article on Friday February 12th.

We did have a little fun with the cardboard cutouts at the Apple Store

A nice shot by the bridge by the Library and Municipal Center

On Thursday evening, a small group of Rotarians Joe Raoul, Hillary Decent and husband Ross, Rich Stompanato, Sun Kwok treated Jeremy to dinner at another Naperville institution, Meson Sabika, before going back home to rest with Joe Raoul. Hossein Jamali and host Dave were great, and the food and service were amazing as usual!

Dinner at Meson Sabika, Thanks Hossein!

Horsing around with the Cat in the Hat at the Library

On Friday, Jeremy visited Sun's office so he could work on his blog, print photos of his journeys, and update a book of his travels with notes and photos. Grace and Sun Kwok treated Jeremy for lunch at Stir Crazy where we made him make his own food, and then a movie, Avatar 3-D. Friday evening Jeremy had a scheduled presentation at the 95th Street Library to a small audience of about 30 communty members, and Jeff Gross picked Jeremy up for a dinner party at Wendy & Jeff Gross's place, with Rotarians Liz Zienty, Pat Merryweather, and others!

Jeremy Marie at lunch at Stir Crazy with Sun & Grace Kwok. We made him "cook" his own food. :)

On Saturday, Wendy & Jeff's son, Ben, came back from school and brought Jeremy along to celebrate his birthday in some restaurants and bars in downtown Naperville, and John Gallagher's son dropped off a ticket to the Chicago Auto Show for Jeremy that was donated by Liz Zienty, so that he could experience another special treat when he goes to Chicago this week.

Thanks so much to everyone who participated in Jeremy's visit, I hope you all had fun!

-Sun