Spirito! Singers proudly honors Elmhurst residents

Joe and Susan O’Neil with its 2014-2015 Service Award.

The O’Neils are co-founders of A New Day Cambodia, a charity organization which supports Cambodian children in need.  Joe O’Neil, senior director of ticket operations for the Chicago Bulls, heard about children suffering and living off of garbage dumps in impoverished parts of Cambodia, from colleague, Bill Smith, the Bulls team photographer. Smith had traveled to Southeast Asia to photograph the culture and landscape, but was taken to a dump and saw children scrounging for food or anything of value they could sell.

The friends opened a center for children to live and go to school. Within months, 50 children were living in the center. Staff - including cooks, nannies, security and medical personnel - was hired. ANDC now has two centers with three full-time teachers, where the children go to private school for half a day to learn different subjects. The second half of the day, the children learn the English language. The O’Neils have traveled to Cambodia a combined 23 times and are very well known there.​

Welcome to the Spirito! family, Susan & Joe!