Lisa’s sisters, Jamie and Debbie, and their parents shared a letter about Lisa with the Naperville Sun reflecting on the fourth anniversary of her disappearance.  The letter is entitled “Lisa’s Life is a Precious Gift”.

Read it here. 

^{(DiamondVision Artwork shown at U.S. Cellular Field)}

FindLisaStebic.com

Date: August 24, 2007

Chicago’s MLB “Boys of Summer” join the Search for Lisa Stebic as both the Chicago White Sox and Chicago Cubs donate DiamondVision, Big Red Marquee and Scoreboard Message opportunities about her disappearance.

Megan Grzetich & her family of the Jagged Edge Salon in Joliet hosted a superb FLS Fundraising Hair-Cut-a-Thon Benefit on Sunday, September 16th raising $2000!!  Lisa’s Family cannot thank her, her sister & mom… and fellow hair stylists enough for donating their talents to benefit the Lisa Stebic and Childrens Fund!

We had a wondrous turnout…with many very caring folks turning out to enter raffles, buy candles, jewelry/accessories, taste good wine and food…and get their hair cut - all for the very worthy cause of helping to Find Lisa Stebic.

The “Butterfly Release” with everyone joining Lisa’s family - was especially poignant…concerning Lisa’s symbolic love for the “freedom” it represented.

Our heartfelt gratitude to all who came out to support us!

We wanted to, again, thank all of the businesses who participated in the event:

Jagged Edge Salon

Create Your Style - where it’s all about the accessories!

Winestyles in Shorewood

Lia Sophia Home Design

Jennie Branner

Home Interiors Decorating Consultant

McDonald’s restaurants

Gold’s Gym

Chicago Cubs….and many more !!

Here is what Megan originally wrote for everyone to read, when proposing the staging of this event:

The fundraiser will be held at Jagged Edge Salon located at 3579 Hennepin Dr. in Joliet.

We are in the Gold’s Gym Plaza just behind the Westfield Shopping Mall.

There will be 6 stylists doing haircuts for the Cut-a-Thon, which will be Sunday September 16th from 12-5.

Our womens haircuts are $25 and $15 for men and children. We also will be putting together a DJ, Food, many Raffles and face painting for the kids.

Barb Scheff of Creating Your Style accessories will be there with many lovely items for sale - much of the proceeds also going towards Lisa’s Fund.

We will also have a booth with a Lia Sophia consultant as well as the home interiors. Winestyles in Shorewood are coming out to do wine tastings!

We are going to have a tent put up outside where we will serve the food and have the DJ. It’s amazing how many local buisnesses we have found to donate to our raffles.

Among the many items are a patio set, a bowling ball and free games, Mcdonald’s gift certificates, many restaurants, a few gym memberships and that’s not half of it!

We read on the website that Lisa liked butterflies and so they are planning on doing a butterfly release… so everyone can release them together - in hope for Lisa!!!

My mom Sue, my sister Melissa and I opened the Salon 6 years ago.

We were raised in Plainfield and both graduated from Plainfield High School. Even though Plainfield has grown so rapidly, it’s still a small town to us.

We as well as many of our staff have grown up in Plainfield and seen the power of the community when it is brought together to help each other in a time of need, such as the tornado in 1990.

We lost some of our schools as well as thousands of families lost their homes and all their possessions. Although most of the town was affected, even the families who weren’t reached out and gave a helping hand.

In this unthinkable disapearance of Lisa, We are here to give our support and hope that the community will come together once again and help another family in need.

Thank you so much for giving us the opportunity to help!

Please let me know if you or anyone have any more questions, you can call me at the Salon (815) 436-2106

Sincerely,

Megan Grzetich

Jagged Edge Salon

Joliet

Barb Scheff of “Creating Your Style” presented a Booth filled with lovely goodies at this past weekend’s Bolingbrook Jubilee…with many proceeds going to The Lisa Stebic and Childrens Fund .

“Where it’s all about the accessories”.

But Mother Nature had another idea about outdoor festivals trying to endure the rain ! Despite the inclement weather, Barb made all of her lovely accessories AND all of Lisa’s FLS Banners look beautiful for all who braved the showers. See for yourself !

Barb writes: “I am still working on putting together a couple Fundraiser’s for Lisa Stebic.

We are hoping to get in with a business at the Bolingbrook Promenade
Shopping Mall. I understand they have a band performing every Thursday. Would love to hold a Fundraiser at the new mall and we should be able to get some news coverage on that.I will have inspirational jewelry that I will be donating 100 % of the profit to the fund and 20 % of the purses and other accessories.”I am also working on getting together with a business in Plainfield to hold another one.Thank you so much and you and your family are in my prayers.  Barb Scheff  Creating Your Style

Barb Scheff is now hosting the “Find Lisa Stebic Garage Sale” at her home at 682 Lily Cache Lane in Bolingbrook. She is running it the of weekend Oct. 4th, 5th and 6th …and needs donations, customers and volunteers to help!

If you would like to volunteer, get directions and/or donate items please get in touch with Barb at 630-453-8179 / teamscheff@sbcglobal.com Thanks !!

************************

Many, many heartfelt thanks to all who made last weekend’s benefit garage sale such a success! $1,081 was raised for the Lisa Stebic and Childrens Fund.

Tammi Watson held a “Find Lisa Stebic” garage sale at her home in Plainfield on August 10-11, 2007 ..and was helped by so very many caring people.

Here are the Raffle Prize Winner List:

Chuck Danbrauskas…….. backgammon game

Khara…………………….…..Tastefully Simple pack

Karen Ulicky……………….beautiful butterfly bag

(created by Lisa’s friend - Karen Jahnke )

Austin Johnson……………..perfume/Celine cd pack

Donations of items was greatly appreciated

Items Donated by - Denise Plummer
Sharon Bower
Lydia, Craig, and Victoria Brazeau
Carillon Lakes neighbors
Greg and Linda Chellino
Pat Chrisman
Denise and Erik Costantino
Margie and Ray Kosinski Family
Daniel Casillas and Family
Ryan and Carol Evers
Jerri Zimmerman
Tom Webb Family
Bob and Marilyn Guerrieri
Angelica Rameriz
Bob and Gloria Semmler
Christina King
Rachel Rimgate and Family
Gerrie Gorecki
Darice Evers
The Thomas Family
Jim and Ginny Rossi
Indian Trail School
Karen Jahnke
Rosemary Fontaine and her Boys
The Watson Family..and more!

Thank you so much to Tammi and all her volunteers for holding this wonderful fundraiser to help find Lisa!

Man-power - Kevin Watson, Rosemary Fontaine & her boys
Karen Jahnke, Laurrie and Jim Bingenhiemer
Cindy Evans and family & even “a few kind strangers”

Two of the billboards donated by CBS Outdoor Chicago were installed the this morning (July 24th.) 

The Third, and largest billboard, will be mounted on Monday July 30th - the 3-Month Anniversary of Lisa’s disappearance from her home in Plainfield. 

It will be located near the First Avenue exit of I-55, close to the junction of I-294 and is reportedly passed by nearly 100,000 drivers per day.

Melanie Greenberg, Lisa’s cousin,  appeared on FOX Chicago 32 at about 7:20 a.m. on Tuesday, July 24th to discuss the new billboards.

Later in the day, Debbie Ruttenberg, Lisa’s older sister, and Melanie  held a Family Press Conference in front of the US Highway 30 billboard (near the I-55 US 30 exit) at 4:00 p.m. Look for links to our coverage in most Chicago media outlets, on our Recent News/Press page.

Lisa’s family would like to extend again our sincerest gratitude to CBS Outdoor Chicago and its parent company CBS Corp. for the donation of these billboards.

We will not let Lisa Stebic become another statistic, and we will do everything we can to keep her picture and the Plainfield Police Hotline number in front of everyone in the Chicagoland community.

Many of you may have seen the newspaper article in the Naperville Sun, as to the “Find Lisa” garage sale, this past weekend was hosted by fellow dedicated FLS volunteer  - Lenore Long and her family.

The 3-Day benefit sale raised  $2,319 at Lenore’s home in Naperville. ..for the Lisa Stebic and Childrens Fund.

Lenore  put up a poster board showing the sale’s financial progress. ..and even she was surprised at the results!  

Reports of generous neighbors & strangers called to donate items, money and effort is making this first-ever “Find Lisa” Benefit Garage Sale - has led Lenore to exclaim  “I can’t tell you what a thrill and uplifting experience this has been for me!”

“I thought, what if one of my children disappeared? I would want everything in the world to be done.  I still hold out hope that maybe something, some kind of a miracle, that she’s just being held somewhere,” Long said. “This should just never be out of people’s minds, until something has come to a conclusion.  I just don’t ever want people to forget about it.”

We would like to sincerely thank Lenore and all those caring people who donated items to this unique benefit..and want to assure that all leftover items will be forwarded to a similar garage sale to be hosted by Lisa’s friend Tammi Watson, when she stages her own garage sale in Plainfield, next month!

If you would like to add your own items to the Plainfield garage sale, with the proceeds going to help find Lisa - please  e-mail us here at findlisastebic@gmail.com

Here is what Lenore wrote us, today.  Listed below are the names of the winners of the “Find Lisa” raffles:

 The garage sale was a HUGE success! Not only did we make our goal, We doubled it plus some! I just can not tell you how thankful I am to all those who donated items that made this possible.

Our grand total came to $ 2,319.02

Winning names for the raffles:  

Hose handler wall mount

Michelle Wrobel of Naperville

Mary Kay basket Gail of NapervilleThomas Station SetAntonio Castillo of Woodridge,ILHershey’s Kisses Maker

“Last but not least I wanted to give you a preview of the decorative egg I created in Honor of Lisa. It is called “Butterfly kisses for Lisa“ which features five different butterflies and a dove carved on it and is topped with a gold plated filigree crown surrounded with purple and green Swarovski rhinestones.  The egg sets on a gold plated stand on a light box that changes colors to illuminate the egg.”

Hugs, Lenore Long

We would like to say a few words about former WMAQ NBC 5 news reporter Amy Jacobson after the recent news reports concerning her visit to the Stebic home following an invitation by Craig’s sister.

From my perspective on behalf of Lisa’s family, Amy Jacobson has given 1000 percent and never done anything but deliver the most responsible and caring job of journalism during this extremely difficult situation for our family. She has shown compassion to us and always kept Lisa’s children’s welfare uppermost in her mind, which is also our main concern.

Her sensitivity to Lisa’s sisters - Jamie Bouma and Debbie Ruttenberg - during her several one-on-one interviews with them over the past 2 months have been exemplary. This was appreciated beyond words by all of us, Lisa’s relatives.

She has been nothing but professional and extraordinarily caring with us. Through Amy’s frequent reports on the case, we have been able to reach thousands of people in our search for Lisa, and we owe her a huge debt of gratitude.

We are saddened that she lost her job, and that this sensationalistic story by her competitors distracts from the ultimate goal here – to find Lisa and bring her home to her children and her family.

Melanie Greenberg

Lisa’s Cousin and Family Spokeswoman

Former NBC 5 Reporter Amy Jacobson on WLS Roe Conn Show (Lisa’s cousin Melanie Greenberg phoned in to comment)

Amy Jacobson Talks with WGN Radio

 _{(Photo courtesy of the Naperville Sun Staff   Photographer -Beck Diefenbach)}

“The family of Lisa Stebic would like to send out our most sincere thanks to all those who braved the sweltering temperatures and difficult terrain, yesterday, to join us in our desperate search for our missing loved one.

We had originally hoped for 200 volunteers to come to Silver Springs State Park to look for Lisa - nearly 700 answered our plea, with an additional army of professionals to oversee this massive operation!Words cannot express the depth of gratitude we all feel for the outpouring of support and physical effort the Chicagoland community gave us on 7-7-07. 

Despite the fact that luck was not with us, this day, in finding a solid lead as to her disappearance…we will not give up the search.We did have a victory, yesterday…in that we have now eliminated this wild & difficult area where the Stebic family was know to often frequent.  

Our attention will now be turning to other locations where Lisa and her husband’s family were also known to vacation.  We will not rest until every possibility is examined and then exhausted.

Thanks to the generosity of the Community of Plainfield, Illinois & the nation - her reward fund is now well above $60,000.

We hope and pray that someone - who posesses even the smallest clue will come forward & help solve this terrible mystery, which is so painful to so many….

For we, her family, and the World - want to know where to Find Lisa Stebic.”

Lisa’s Family

The reward for information leading to finding Lisa Stebic has been increased to more than $65,000!

 We have had many donations since we announced the creation of the Lisa Stebic and Childrens fund.  The Plainfield Jaycees’ carwash brought in nearly $1000, and the Jaycees’ Pancake Breakfast on Sunday, July 1 has brought in $3240.

The many Find Lisa Benefit Garage Sales in Naperville,  Plainfield & Shorewood brought in over $4,ooo.

The Jagged Edge, Create Your Style & Other generous sponsored FLS benefits have increased the reward even more! 

Thanks to the support of the community, family and friends we are able to increase the amount of the reward to over $65,000.  If the money is never claimed as a reward, it will be converted to a federally-protected 529 fund for the college education of Lisa’s two children.

For details, please see “The Lisa Stebic and Childrens Fund“page.