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Owen Stamer Clarendon Hills When did you first start playing football? I started playing football as early as you're allowed to play tackle football - probably third of fourth grade - with the Falcons. What do you love most about the sport? It's taught me everything. It's taught me a lot about teamwork, leadership, hard work, determination, moral values. You have to put in a lot of hard work to get the results you want. It's taught me so many life lessons beyond it being a...
Joan Roddewig Geary looks back on how her life unfolded in distinct chapters. Her first 10 years in Hinsdale were spent raising her four children and filling a host of volunteer positions, from serving as chair of the Hinsdale Antiques Show for two years in a row to organizing the St. Isaac Jogues dinner dance. Then there were the years she spent as general manager of the Hilton Oak Lawn, a hotel she and husband John owned with another partner. "It was the guys and I back in...
Covering the final Uniquely Thursdays concert last week for the final installment of our Summer Days series brought back lots of memories. Since I've worked in Hinsdale forever, I was around when the concert series launched in 2002. That year, and for the five summers that followed, the event took place on First Street between Garfield Avenue and Washington Street. I remember those early concerts well. So does Washington Street resident Lynette Lovelace, who was involved with...
With the start of classes at Hinsdale Central High School last week came the start of the Red Devils sports season. The addition of girls flag football this year brings the number of fall sports teams to 10. In this, the first of a three-part season preview series, coaches for the boys and girls golf teams and girls swim/dive team share insights on their teams and the athletes they hope will take them into the postseason. Boys golf First meet: Aug. 15 @ Edwardsville Invite (V...
Summer 2024 is over, if you’ve headed back to school, or about over, if you listen to meteorologists. This week I wanted to reflect on some of the highlights that I’ve enjoyed — or plan to enjoy — before summer officially ends Sept. 22. • visiting family After a few years of texting and Zooming, I had the chance to meet my birth mom’s older sister, Barb, while we were in Maryland in June. We traveled there for my birth mom’s husband Steve’s memorial service, which was beautifu...
Even though the Clarendon Hills Village Board continued a public hearing on the proposed 55th Street TIF until September, trustees allowed residents who attended the meeting to speak for about an hour during the public comment portion of the agenda. All but two of the 17 residents — from Clarendon Hills, Hinsdale and Westmont — objected to the tax increment financing district proposed for 55th Street from Western Avenue to Holmes Avenue. They questioned whether the area qualifies for a TIF and how it will impact local sch...
Citing many unanswered questions, Community Consolidated Elementary District 181 Board members officially registered their opposition Monday to a proposed tax increment financing district in Clarendon Hills. The joint review board, comprised of a member of each affected taxing body and one member of the public, followed up with its own vote to recommend rejection of the TIF Wednesday afternoon. Without the board’s support, the Clarendon Hills Village Board needs a supermajority vote, or 60 percent, to enact the TIF. H...
Practice for the Hinsdale Central girls swim and dive team didn’t start out the way athletes or their coaches hoped on Monday. Instead of meeting at the school’s Don Watson Aquatic Center, they were at the FMC Natatorium in Westmont. Crews are still working to replace the tile deck at the 3-year-old pool at Central, which has been closed since May 1. Work is expected to continue into early October. Hinsdale High School District 86 Superintendent Mike Lach offered an update at the Aug. 8 school board meeting. “It’s not goo...
Every two years I, like so many others across the country and around the world, love watching the Olympics. Two seasons of basketball poms were the extent of my athletic endeavors, so it's not an affinity with the athletes that draws me to the television set each night for 17 days. I do love watching people perform at their absolute best - and hearing so many inspiring stories about the athletes. NBC broadcasters and TV personalities (mainly Jimmy Fallon) seem to agree that...
Thirteen kids of different ages and levels of experience and talent started the Stage Door Fine Arts musical theater camp at The Community House Monday. By Friday, director Madi Moran will have the group ready to perform Broadway musicals. “This is my fourth year doing the camp,” said Moran, Stage Door’s education director. “Every year it’s a completely different group, completely different skills. That’s always kind of the fun part for me, because that keeps it fresh, too....
The Hinsdale Community Pool recently received the highest possible rating in an audit from StarGuard, the company that provides certification for lifeguards. The company audits pools randomly, said Mike Hayes, superintendent of parks and recreation. "We don't know when it's going to happen," he said. "In this case, when they did the audit on us, we got a five star, which is remarkable. In all my years in aquatics, I've never actually had a five-star audit. "Getting a three...
The Clarendon Hills Little League 11U All-Star softball team earned three times as many runs as its opponent to win the Illinois State Little League Championship last month. The team defeated Kaneland 16-5 July 21 to capture the title. The girls already had faced Kaneland en route to the championship game. "We were very hyped up and we believed that we were going to win, since we had played them before and beat them," catcher Maggie Quirk of Hinsdale said. The coaches warned...
Eight kids dressed in doctors coats sat around two tables Friday morning at The Community House, learning about prescriptions. Instructor Carey Murphy offered different scenarios to the 7- and 8-year-olds, asking them to determine how many pills a week a patient would need if the doctor prescribed two pills twice a day for three days or three pills twice a day for five days. Those who knew the right answer to the second question - 30 - were excited to put their multiplication...
After two women challenged 11 books available in Community Consolidated Elementary District 181 libraries at an April school board, The Hinsdalean decided to do its own review of the materials. The 11 books range from picture books including "Julian is a Mermaid" and "Ogilvy" to graphic novels like "Drama" and "The Cardboard Kingdom" (see sidebar for full list). According to the American Library Association, the number of books challenged in libraries across the country was...
One of my favorite episodes of The X-Files is called "The Field Where I Died." Usually the show is about aliens (which might or might not exist, depending on which season you're watching), but this one is about an investigation of a local cult that supposedly has a cache of weapons and is abusing children. During the investigation, FBI special agent Fox Mulder experiences deja vu, which leads him to find the cult leader and his six wives, hiding under a trap door and...
Studying a particular subject, like accounting or parks and recreation management, is one thing. Actually working in the field is something altogether different. For college students Ella Horstman and Jeremy Sramek, a summer internship with the Hinsdale Parks and Recreation Department is giving them an opportunity to put what they've learned in the classroom to use in the real world. Horstman, who also was an intern for the department last summer, is gaining experience in her...
The Hinsdale Public Library is a great place to check out a book, use the 3-D printer or pick up a DVD to watch over the weekend. On Sunday night, it also was a great place to hear some blues. The Bear Williams Trio performed outside on the lawn for the library's After Dark event, which also celebrated the end of the summer reading program. "I thought their musicianship was fantastic," Karen Keefe, the library's executive director, told The Hinsdalean this week. "I loved the...
The sun is shining and a cool breeze is blowing the morning of July 18 as Hinsdale Central juniors and seniors arrive for their seventh day of football camp at Dickinson Field. Before camp started July 8, it had been more than eight months since players and coaches were on the gridiron. "It always feels like a long time coming, but once it's here, its such a familiar, comfortable feeling, so it's great," varsity head coach Brian Griffin said. Quarterback Riley Contreras, a jun...
I am sorry to report Hinsdale once again has fallen short of the North Shore. One of those fancy "W" towns - Winnetka - beat out Hinsdale for the No. 1 spot on the latest list published by HomeSnacks. What is HomeSnacks, you ask? We're not entirely sure, but it produces lots of lists - safest states, most dangerous states, even dumbest states. You can read all of these lists on its Facebook page (which contains no information about who is preparing them or why). And what does...
July is National Ice Cream Month. What better way to celebrate than to enjoy some of the frozen treats available right here in Hinsdale? Twisted treats A creamy homemade vanilla soft serve swirled with a delicious fruit sorbet takes ice cream to the next level at Vistro Prime. "Right now we have blueberry from Ellis Farm," Angelyne Canicosa, pastry chef at the restaurant, said of the sorbet currently available. Of course, either flavor can be ordered individually. But the...
When I heard of the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, I mentally ticked off the same list many others did - Lincoln, JFK, RFK Jr., Reagan. Then I heard a news report about an attempt on former President Teddy Roosevelt's life as he sought another term. I was surprised to hear about an assassination attempt that I didn't remember learning about in school. Then I did a little research online and discovered the list of assassination attempts on presidents...
Hinsdale paddle tennis enthusiasts likely will have two new courts to use at Katherine Legge Memorial Park this fall or winter. "We feel like this proposal is a win-win-win situation," said Kevin Parks, a board member of the Hinsdale Platform Tennis Association, citing the village, HPTA and the public as beneficiaries. "Through our partnership with the village, we have been able to create a world-class facility now over at KLM park. "It competes with anything in public...
All three Hinsdale High School District 86 members who met for dinner following their July 11 meeting say they did not violate the Illinois Open Meetings Act. Board President Cat Greenspon and board members Peggy James and Jeff Waters, who gathered at Taco Grill in Westmont, said no board business was discussed. “We all stayed after (the meeting) to help clean up as we typically do — there are any number of board members that stay after to clean up — and decided we were hungry and went to eat,” Greenspon said. “That w...
“Hope you and the family had a terrific holiday weekend,” Susan O’Byrne emailed me Sunday along with her column to run in today’s paper. “We became the new home of three pet rats and a rather large rat cage,” I responded. “Not sure that qualifies as terrific!” Susan was much more enthusiastic about the pet rats than I was, although I have to say they are growing on me. Ainsley brought the rats home July 3 after she and a friend got them for free from a lady outside a pet s...
For most Americans, the Fourth of July is a day off. That's not the case for those on staff in the village of Hinsdale, who were out in full force last Thursday morning for the Independence Day parade. Which employees were working? "Like the whole village of Hinsdale," said Mike Hayes, superintendent of parks and recreation, listing off fire, police, public works, pool staff and administration. This year's parade is the second Hayes has directed since joining the village in...
