For 30 years, Arlington Heights faith, political and business leaders have come together with community members to strengthen their spirits at the annual Mayor's Community Prayer Breakfast.
Some 300 people attended this year's breakfast Thursday at the DoubleTree hotel -- the largest crowd in the history of the event, organizers say.
The Arlington Heights breakfast started as an offshoot to the national breakfast that began in 1953 under President Dwight D. Eisenhower. And while a number of communities have similar events, perhaps none have had the staying power of the one in Arlington Heights.
"I think it's due to the faith and business community," said Jim Bertucci, chair of the planning committee that organizes the breakfast. "The event has always been important to the community."
Like past years, the 2017 event included prayers, scripture readings and musical selections.
Cindy Schroeder, widow of former Mayor Michael Schroeder, read her husband's favorite scripture passage. He gave the keynote address at last year's breakfast, just months before he succumbed to metastatic cancer at the age of 61.
Attendees also heard from retired Army Maj. Gen. James Mukoyama Jr., founder of Military Outreach USA, a faith-based nonprofit that helps veterans and their families cope with visible and invisible wounds of war.
Faith has been important to him since his days growing up in Chicago's Logan Square neighborhood, when he and his family lived three blocks from their church, where he sang in the choir and headed a youth group.
While a company commander in Vietnam, Mukoyama came upon the bodies of three Viet Cong and realized "something had hardened my heart." At that moment, he recalled the Sermon on the Mount and Jesus Christ's message to love one's enemies.
Amid the fog of battle, Mukoyama said a short prayer for the three men and their families.
"Only moments earlier, these were live human beings. They had emotions. They had loved ones. They had families. They were fighting for something as important to them as I was fighting for," he said. "I also realized that I was praying for myself as much as I was praying for them and their families."
From the battlefields to the offices of his former financial services company, Mukoyama has always emphasized the power of spirituality.
"Every day is a great day. I have my faith, my family, and we live in the greatest country in the world. It's my daily standard mantra."
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