Something about Lee Frank just makes you want to hug her. It might have something to do with her role as a professional cuddler.
Yes, that’s title’s right—she’s been holding babies who are waiting to be adopted at The Cradle adoption agency in Evanston for the past 25 years.
“It’s part of me, the need to nurture,” she says, which also explains why she is one of the best gardeners in the northern suburbs.
Before moving to a condominium in Wilmette, Lee had a garden in Winnetka where she grew more than 1,000 plants from seed each year. Her garden won a Grand Prize from the Men’s Garden Club of the North Shore, and she beat out full-time gardeners.
She was honored as a Super Senior by the NSSC this year, and she was nominated by the North Shore Garden Club, a group dedicated to beautification, education and conservation. She’s been a member since 1983 and has served as the club’s president since 2006. The club puts on one of the area’s premier garden walks to raise money for scholarship and conservation organizations including the Chicago Botanic Garden.
She is also board secretary and a founding member of Book Worm Angels, a literacy organization that has collected almost 2 million books for 8,000 children in 200 schools in underprivileged area of Chicago over the past 10 years.
And what motivates all this giving back? “It’s almost like a compulsion for me to share,” she says. “To give, that’s what’s meaningful in life. I try to make the world better with the gifts I have.”
