This week's Patch Portraits features photos from Allison Williams and Natalie Kaplan. It also features editing and production from Carrie Porter, Natalie Kaplan as well as Andrea Hart. We've featured this portrait as our weekly Thursday video, but check back on Mondays for the next installment.

Also showcased, a diner couple who talks to Wilmette-Kenilworth Patch and a high school band director who opens up to Deerfield Patch.

Ron Novotny has lived on the same street, in the same house, with the same furniture his whole life.

The Morton Grove resident gave his life to one company for 34 years. When the company's packaging plant moved to Mexico, he couldn't find a job.

Today he supplements his pension payments by hunting for golf balls. Novotny has collected 23,000 balls, and sells them at 12 cents per ball to a company in Florida, where they are cleaned up and resold.

In his own words, listen to his story about finding value in the things that people throw away.