General Motors Recognizes Mary, Laura and Beth as the new Heroes Finalists!

June 24, 2011 10:18 am CT

General Motors Recognizes Mary Pocuis, Laura Lutarewych and Beth Drucker as the new Our Town, Our Heroes Finalists!

Summer has officially arrived, but that doesn’t mean you all are taking a vacation from inspiring others! We are excited to announce three new finalists with incredible stories, but in order to name our next hero winner, we need your help! Read through all of the nominations and vote for the finalist who inspires you.

At the end of the voting period, the finalist with the most votes will win a one-week loan of a new 2011 Chevrolet, Buick, GMC or Cadillac vehicle; all compliments of General Motors.

Mary Pocuis from North Aurora, nominated by Ann Kisting
Mary Pocuis has been involved in the Law Enforcement Torch Run (law enforcement fundraising partner for Special Olympics Illinois) for more than 14 years.  She has served as “Leg Leader” for the past 7 years and during that time, Leg 14 has raised more than $662,000 for the athletes of Special Olympics Illinois!  She is an ardent advocate and tireless fundraiser, participating in a variety of fundraising events for the Torch Run including the SUPER Plunge, Cop-on-Top promotion, different Tip-A-Cop events, T-Shirt Days, and others.   Mary always puts the athletes first, and attends many athlete competitions, as well as participating as a Unified Golf partner with a Special Olympics athlete in competition with other Unified teams.   Mary was also selected as Illinois’ Final Leg Runner, participating in the 2011 Special Olympics World Games in Athens, Greece this month.

Laura Lutarewych from Chicago, nominated by Diana Serbick
Laura is the Director of Atia’s Project Ladybug Fund, the Chicago chapter of Project Ladybug, a non-profit organization dedicated to easing the struggles of childhood cancer for patients & their families, founded by Dina Manzo, former ‘Real Housewives of New Jersey’ reality star. In April 2009, Atia Lutarewych, Laura’s daughter & the Chicago Fund’s namesake was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) at the tender age of 17 months. Now in remission, at 3 years old, Atia is nearing the end of her aggressive two and a half year chemotherapy treatment. Laura’s dedication, passion & commitment to fighting & putting an end to this horrible disease is truly inspirational. Laura also supports Flashes of Hope and Imerman Angels in her spare time. She is not only mom to Atia, a true little warrior & son Asher but she also is a cancer survivor/warrior herself, being diagnosed with stage 3b Melanoma in the spring of 2005, resulting in a partial finger amputation & lymph node dissection. She turned her life experiences into writing a weekly published blog to talk about her family’s incredible journey.

Beth Drucker from Wilmette, nominated by Harry Drucker
Beth is a co-founder and current leader of the Wilmette environmental organization, Go Green Wilmette, she helped create and maintains teaching gardens at local schools, and she promotes biking through service on the Wilmette Bicycle Task Force, and locates host families for international exchange students.

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Remember, only one vote per person per round! We have seen some irregularities with voting and do daily monitoring to ensure all votes follow the Our Town, Our Heroes Contest Rules.

Voting for this round of Our Town, Our Heroes ends on June 30, 2011! We will announce the winner and the winning hero’s nominator on July 1, 2011, so be sure to keep checking DrivingtheMidwest.com and follow us on Twitter @DrivingMidwest for updates!

Remember, we’re always accepting nominations for Our Town, Our Heroes, so nominate YOUR hero today!