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Vol. VII No. 25
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JUNE 21, 2023
Black-owned dispensary to open in Broadview
Viola Chi, co-founded by Hyde Park native, will open June 24 By FRANCIA GARCIA HERNANDEZ Staff Reporter
A new cannabis dispensary owned by Viola Brands, a Black-owned producer and licensed reseller of premium cannabis products, will open its first Chicagoland store at 1516 W. Roosevelt Rd., Broadview on June 24. Viola Chi is one of two stores coming to the Chicago area owned by the company, co-founded by Hyde Park native Dan Pettigrew and business partner Al Harrington, a former NBA player. “It’s really exciting for me because it’s a homecoming,” Pettigrew said. “For Viola, it’s an expansion into the Chicago market, one of the biggest markets in the country.” He added Broadview met all the internal criteria for what the company was looking for in a location and the timing was right. “We just fell in love with the location,” he said. “The amount of traffic, the community… It’s an incredible city and it’s incredibly well run.” Viola Brands was founded in 2011 with a mission to increase equity within the cannabis industry by providing opportunities for Black and Brown communities to be part of the industry. Harrington named the company after his grandSee DISPENSARY on page 5
RESCUE ME PROVIDED
Wld foxes, some sick with mange, were trapped in Westchester, nursed back to heatlh and released in the wild. group of Westchester residents 23 years, said. “Through this project Since last summer, locals bywhoa teamed up to help rescue and re- mission, I’ve seen it firsthand and it’s habilitate local wildlife affected by been really special and inspiring to have helped rescue and mange. Since last summer, the volun- see.” She opened the GoFundMe page last teers helped save five wild foxes and a rehab five wild foxes and a coyote as they recover from the disease. summer after a coyote sick with mange coyote sick with mange This summer, they are getting ready to was spotted in Westchester. Thanks to
By FRANCIA GARCIA HERNANDEZ Staff Reporter
“Help save the sick fox!” reads the headline of a GoFundMe page started
help more sick animals, vital to the local ecosystem. “The Westchester community loves and cares for the wildlife here,” Tessa Martyn, a resident of Westchester for
the efforts of Martyn and other volunteers, the coyote was trapped and treated at Kane Area Rehabilitation and Education for Wildlife. At the St. See WILDLIFE on page 9