Garfield Ridge Neighborhood Watch to Salute Two Local Companies in Parade

While the Garfield Ridge Neighborhood Watch group usually marches in local parades as its own unit, at this year’s Patriots Day Parade they will walk with two local businesses:

ChicagoGlass Blocks and Best Home Insulation.

The parade, set for Tuesday, July 2, is scheduled to step off at 7:00 p.m. from Mark Twain School and head southwest on Archer, ending at Wentworth Park.

“Crime prevention will always be at the heart of what we do,” stated GRNW President Al Cacciottolo. “But we have recently expanded our efforts into neighborhood improvement as a way to fight crime indirectly.

People of all ages enjoy the annual parade on Archer!

“One way to improve the neighborhood is to build bridges between residents and local businesses,” he added. “So we have started an initiative to highlight and salute businesses—especially those that are locally owned, which hire local men and women, and share our commitment to community improvement.”

Headquartered at 6036 South Central Avenue, Chicago Glass Blocks and Best Home Insulation are companies owned and operated by the Basic family, longtime Southwest Siders engaged in building and home repair and improvement since 1949.

“We are pleased to join with the Garfield Ridge Neighborhood Watch in this fun celebration of our nation’s independence,” said Carol Basic, owner of Chicago Glass Blocks, the only

Chicago-area firm that sells and installs American-made Pittsburgh Corning glass blocks. “We help make the neighborhood more stylish and secure, one building at a time; and the Watch does the same in its way.”

“In just a few short years, the Garfield Ridge Neighborhood Watch has established itself as the gold standard of citizen-led crime prevention organizations in the Chicago area,”

added Best Home Insulation owner Brian Basic. “We are honored that they would salute us in such a public way. We share their commitment to making the neighborhood a better place.”

Cacciottolo added that the GRNW plans to highlight and honor at least one local business at each of its monthly meetings going forward. “The Basic family is well known and highly respected in Garfield Ridge and elsewhere across the city and suburbs,” he said. “By saluting them—and others in the months ahead—we are also reminding everyone about the importance of shopping locally for goods and services.

“Whether it’s shopping for groceries, dining at a restaurant, choosing a health care provider or legal professional, hiring a tradesman or home improvement company and so forth, ‘think local’ first. When we spend our money right here where we live, the neighborhood benefits.”

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