He’s an executive at State Farm and a prolific wish granter for Make-a-Wish Illinois. And now, he’s the Chicago Bears nominee for NFL Fan of the Year.
Corey Schieler of Normal has spent the week at the site of Super Bowl LVII as a guest of the NFL. He was nominated for the award by a former coworker.
Schieler has been a Bears fan since he was 10 years old, when the Monsters of Midway dominated through the 1985 NFL season en route to winning the Super Bow that year.
Since then, he’s been to more than 60 games with many coworkers, friends, and 15 family members. While some games he’s attended have been Bears’ wins and others were losses, he said the community being built is what’s important.
“It’s just about bringing people together and making pretty special memories,” Schieler said in an interview on WGLT’s Sound Ideas.
Schieler credits his father for both his love of the Bears and for his drive to help in his community. As a military medic during the Vietnam War, Duane Schieler and his wife organized an effort to donate toys, clothing, and supplies to children in need at a Vietnam orphanage where he worked when he was just 21 years old.
Duane Schieler died in 2022, but not before attending one final Salute to Service game, a tradition the father-son duo had shared for years. Corey called the moment that the military planes performed their flyover of Soldier Field one of his favorite moments as a Bears fan.
“Being there with him at the game, it was a gorgeous day in late November, it’s just a very special memory for me that I’ll cherish forever, to know that I took him to that game and know what makes Soldier Field home,” Schieler said.
Passion to serve
Schieler compares his passion for the Bears to his passion for granting wishes, something he’s done for years. He got his start by organizing a neighborhood carnival to raise more than $26,000 for his neighbor, a young girl with brittle bone disease, to get a mobility dog.
He’s rappelled off a downtown Chicago skyscraper, dressed up in many old costumes, and raised thousands of dollars to help grant countless wishes across Illinois. It’s based on the same idea of providing excitement, either as a fan of a rebuilding team watching the draft and dreaming of the future.
“They’ve got six to 12 months until they go to Disney World or get their wish granted, and the role of a wish granter is really to provide some wish boosts and things along the way to keep them excited and keep giving them some joy on their journey,” Schieler said.
Schieler called the opportunity to grant wishes “one of the most special things I’ve done in my life,” and hopes to use this new platform as a nominee for fan of the year to “continue to do it for quite a long time going forward.”
While other nominees for Fan of the Year have attended more than 300 games, and some, like Schieler, just got onto the season ticket list two years ago, they’ve all staked their claim to be there through a combination community engagement, an inspirational story and football fandom.
“You didn’t expect to be recognized, these people just want to give back quietly to their community and just do it because they really enjoy giving back in their own special and unique ways, and I think every fan here has found a way to do that and use this platform to potentially make what they do even bigger,” Schieler said.
All 32 nominees from every NFL team were brought out to Phoenix for the NFL Awards night and the Super Bowl. The nominees have had a chance to get to know one another and be honored by the NFL community, but many still found time to volunteer at a soup kitchen, including Schieler and the 2022 winner, Seattle Seahawks’ fan Larry Bevans.
Super Bowl LVII between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles will be played Sunday at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.
For his part, Schieler, thinks the Chiefs will win. He said it helps that Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes also is a State Farm pitchman.
