ROCHELLE — Living in a smaller town, Pete Alfano knows the importance of having strong and responsive police and fire forces to help residents in need.
And to show his appreciation for local law enforcement and emergency personnel Alfano is donating his 2017 Chicago Bears season tickets so several Rochelle officers, firefighters and EMT staff can attend a game this year.
“The men and women who serve and protect us are the first line of defense when we call them for whatever reason, and often times until you personally need them they are taken for granted,” said Alfano, who owns and operates Alfano’s Pizzeria in Rochelle. “We just wanted to show our appreciation for the work they do and thought giving some of them a chance to attend a Bear game would be nice.”
Alfano met with Rochelle Police Chief Eric Higby and Rochelle Fire Chief Dave Sawlsville on Friday morning to split up the tickets and give each department their respective allotment of games, which includes two United Club seats to each game and a parking pass.

“The seats are on the 20-yard line and they are padded and there is also an area where you can go inside if it’s cold and watch on big screens while also having a large variety of food options,” Alfano explained, adding that he thinks the Bears are improving on the field too. “It’s just a nice atmosphere in the club area, so I know whoever goes will have a great time.”
With eight home games on the schedule, Higby and Sawlsville will have to devise some type of system to decide which of their staff members get chosen to go.
“I think we will just set up some type of lottery plan in order to give everyone in the department a fair chance at winning them,” Higby said.
“Yes, I’m including not only our full-time staff but the on-call members too, so we will give everyone involved with the department an opportunity to win them,” Sawlsville added.
“I wish I had enough tickets to send all of your staff members, because they all deserve it,” Alfano told the two chiefs. “My family and our restaurant employees really appreciate what all of you do and we thought this would be just a nice gesture. These aren’t just from Alfano’s, but consider it a gift from all of our friends and customers, because without them we wouldn’t have these tickets.”
On behalf of their department staffs, Higby and Sawlsville both expressed their gratitude for the donation.
“This is great! We really appreciate the tickets and want to say thank you to Alfano’s,” Sawlsville stated. “I’ve lived here my whole life and it’s things like this in a small town that go a long way and make it all worthwhile.”
“Yes, it’s nice to be recognized for your service,” Higby added. “You don’t get that everywhere.”