Mistwood and McWethy's employees step up to help each other

Mistwood Golf Club and McWethy's Tavern are a family run business, but just how large that family is has been illustrated in the last couple of weeks after Illinois Governor JB Pritzker closed of all dine-in restaurants in Illinois on March 17.

The closure of the restaurant forced the elimination of jobs for many of the employees.

"As soon as the order was given that restaurants had to close, there were no jobs for hourly employees. The jobs didn't exist and we take the concept of social distancing serious and that means less people in the kitchen regardless," said Mistwood General Manager Dan Bradley. "We are very proud that we are a family business. We are family owned and we have a very strong family structure here and that is not just from the ownership family, it is the staff. Over the last years, we have built this culture and the staff feels so strongly that they are a family and at a time like this, we take care of our family.

"There were a number of people out of work that use this job to support their family and we take that serious. The managers came together immediately – it was an emotional time. They came together and volunteered a portion of their salary and that spread quickly throughout the company and we were able to generate enough through those donations to support the hourly employees."

Aside from the salary donation, Bradley said Mistwood has three other programs going.

One is a sale of gift cards that will raise funds for the out-of-work employees.

Our thought was that it was better for all of us to suffer a little than some of us suffer a lot.

"We started to go the gift card promotion allowed some of our guests and golf members that wanted to join this," he said. "So, we are selling gift cards and every gift card that is sold, we are taking 50 percent of that revenue and putting it in a fund for the employees so we can keep funding them as long as we can.

The second is something the golf professionals are doing to lend a hand as they raise money with a digital swing analysis offering people all over the state, country or even the globe to have their swing looked at by a Mistwood professional.

"The golf staff has jumped on this, which is really cool. They will offer video lessons. Golfers can send in a video of their swing and our golf professionals will get back to them and offer them pointers and analysis," Bradley said.

The exact donation tiers are still being worked out, but that and the gift cards will be on the website at mistwoodc.com.

Lastly, the chefs are preparing meals at a discounted rate for the employees, cooking basically at cost, proving meals that feed upwards of eight people for only $25.

Part of Mistwood will be opening March 27 after Pritzker amended his shutter in place order to all the opening of golf courses as long as the clubhouse remain closed, it does not provide food or beverage service, including cart service or allow the use of golf carts by golfers.

Golfers can only schedule online or via telephone and golfers and staff must observe social distancing guidelines while at the golf course.

Mistwood will be charging $40 during the week and $55.00 on the weekend. There will be no rakes or ball washers. Flagsticks should not be removed and foam in the cup will prevent the ball from falling to the bottom so golfers do not have to stick their hand in the hole.

It will be a variation of the same game, but will be a small step toward normalcy.

Until the state and country return to normal behavior, Mistwood will continue to help those employees impacted.

I was very proud to see that the family culture that we have developed here is real and there is evidence of that and it was an emotional time," Bradley said "We felt it was better for all of us to suffer a little, than for some of us to suffer a lot."