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Gabrielle Pastiak couldn't have an in-person discussion about the economy Tuesday with her fourth-graders at Oak School. So she posted a photo on Padlet and asked her students a simple question: "What's going on in this picture?" Their responses appear as sticky notes around the photo (see art). Other assignments on Tuesday involved calculating the volume of irregular shapes, reading a Newsela article on healthy otters and writing a response to a previous reading assignment...
As a member of the global pandemic executive team for Tate & Lyle, a UK-based food ingredients/solutions company, Tim Fowler spends most of his weekday mornings hearing how COVID-19 is affecting 180 different countries around the world. "Even though we're here, I almost feel more globally aware," he said. "As a part of the food chain, we're an essential business, so it's really important that we keep running, do it safely." On a Saturday night, he might be portraying Charles...
Anxiety and stress can be normal and healthy responses but are often vilified, psychotherapist and best-selling author Lisa Damour said Tuesday night. "This is something that has definitely gotten lost," she said. Damour presented a special webinar edition of The Community Speaker Series presented by the District 181 Foundation to discuss the challenges of parenting during the COVID-19 pandemic. Anxiety works like an alarm system to keep us safe. It becomes unhealthy only in...
Grocery shopping before a holiday always causes me a bit of angst as I try to find the perfect time when everything on my list will be on the shelves and the fewest number of customers will be in the store. My anxiety was exacerbated last week with social distancing on my mind. When would most people head out to buy food for Easter dinner? Good Friday? Saturday? Should I go early? Late? I settled on Thursday after work. I had two hours before our church's Maundy Thursday Zoom...
Many Facebook pages are filled with inspirational messages or coronavirus jokes. Sean Chaudhry's reads like a promotional piece for Hinsdale businesses. Last week, he enjoyed burgers, nachos and banana bourbon pudding from Fuller House for dinner. The week before he encouraged friends to support Page's Restaurant when it opened for takeout the last weekend of March. He's thrown shout-outs to King Keyser's bike repair service, Cafe la Fortuna's coffee and The Salon by David &...
The role reversal that's taken place at my house over the last few weeks has left me a little unsettled. It's also brought me great joy. As I head out for work each morning, I leave Dan and Ainsley at home. He has been grounded from traveling - something that typically occupies about 50 percent of his time - and she and students across the state have been banned from school. They've set up their work stations at the dining room table, side by side so he can make sure she does...
Thirty-six hours. That's how long Executive Director Lisa Kolavennu and the staff at Wellness House gave themselves to convert all the programs they offered in person into ones that could be delivered online. "We challenged ourselves in a pretty bold way and gave ourselves 1 1/2 days to figure out how to turn every program we offer into an online virtual experience for participants," Kolavennu said. The decision was made the afternoon of March 12, the day before Gov. JB...
Dealing with the loss of a high school coach would be difficult for students at any time. The Hinsdale Central varsity volleyball players who are mourning the loss of coach Tracey Marshall are finding it even more challenging during the COVID-19 pandemic. Marshall passed away unexpectedly at home April 2, according to a brief obituary posted online by the McCauley-Sullivan Funeral Home in Bolingbrook. She was 42. "It's a difficult time to pass away," said senior Natalie...
For people who wonder whether staying home, practicing social distancing and washing hands makes a difference, the head of Hinsdale Hospital says it does. "That is critical to us at the hospital. I can't stress that enough," Mike Murrill, president and chief executive officer of Amita Adventist Medical Center Hinsdale and La Grange, told The Hinsdalean Wednesday. This is obviously a challenging time for everyone at the hospital, but staff are rising to the challenge, he said....
Despite my attempts to keep a positive attitude as we shelter in place, I'm not doing as well as I'd like. My husband's cousin was hospitalized Monday with COVID-19. She is on an antibiotic, her brother told us, and the doctor is optimistic about how her lungs sound. My mom, her sweetheart and my father-in-law are all in lockdown at their assisted living facility. So far no cases have been reported in their building, but someone in the nursing home across the parking lot has...
Mike Sullivan hasn’t been traveling to his office in the Loop for a few weeks now, but he’s been busier than ever. “I have been crazed all day and am going to be even crazier after 3 p.m. when everyone calls to see what they should do after the shutdown,” Sullivan said the afternoon of March 20, minutes before Gov. JB Pritzker issued his stay-at-home order. Sullivan has been an attorney for 29 years and currently is head of the labor and employment group at Goldberg Kohn Lt...
Even before Gov. JB Pritzker announced Tuesday that Illinois schools will remain closed through April 30, leaders in Hinsdale High School District 86 were preparing for an extended period of online instruction. One of their decisions was to cancel spring break, set to take place this week, opting instead to have students participate in e-learning. Superintendent Tammy Prentiss said she responded to 200 emails Sunday from parents and students about the decision. She said she is confident she made the right decision. “I feel t...
HCS Family Services has been closed for almost a week, but that doesn’t mean families aren’t receiving the groceries they need. An employee who had worked closely with a number of volunteers and other staff went home with flu symptoms March 19, Stan Cook, executive director, said Tuesday. “We told everybody at that time to wrap up what they were doing and go home,” Cook said. “That was the trigger that caused the difficult decision to close down.” Staff members will spend at least 14 days working from home, with the office sc...
This past week has been a week of firsts - for me and so many others. Ainsley had her first experience with e-learning and Dan had his first experience as her teacher/dean/principal. The three of us participated in our first FaceTime live worship session Sunday. We were new users of Zoom for Ainsley's Sunday school class in the morning and an evening celebration my two neighbors (we all have March 18-22 birthdays). I watched as my mom had her inaugural experience with...
Hinsdale's Chuck Goudie, an investigative reporter at ABC 7 Eyewitness News, is used to broadcasting from wherever the news takes him. He covered the days following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks from Ground Zero in New York. He's reported from war zones in the Middle East and from behind the walls of the Vatican. These day's he's reporting on the COVID-19 pandemic, broadcasting from the library of his Hinsdale home. "There is one big difference, though, between this...
Trinity Sober Living can have nine residents at a time living in its sober house at 111 N. Grant St. while legal battles with the village continue, a DuPage County Circuit Court judge ruled March 17. “(A)s one resident moves out, a replacement resident may move in, up to a maximum of nine at any one time,” the order from Judge Brian Diamond read. The order was a clarification of a preliminary injunction Diamond issued Feb. 7, stating only those individuals who resided at the property could remain there, and no new res...
Interested in ordering a bottle of wine or six-pack of beer with your carryout order from a Hinsdale restaurant? You can, thanks to action Village President Tom Cauley took last week. The sale of beer and wine in original sealed containers will be allowed until April 17 or the expiration of Gov. JB Pritzker’s ban of on-site dining, whichever is sooner. The sale must be in conjunction with a food purchase. The move was prompted by a call that assistant village manager Brad Bloom received from a Hinsdale restaurant manager a...
My dog is exhausted. It's one of the unexpected side effects of the "social distancing" we're all doing. Dogs are experiencing, as one Facebook post called it, unprecedented levels of People Being Home. And it's wearing Lizzy out. I feel somewhat exhausted by this COVID-19 situation, too. I've been trying to spend more time outdoors, get as much exercise as I can, keep things in perspective and get lost in a good escape novel (currently Dan Brown's "The Lost Symbol"). I've...
Disappointment and heartbreak. Those two words describe how many are feeling as entertainment venues are closed, restaurants are limited to carryout and performances and fundraisers are canceled due to COVID-19. The Hinsdale Auxiliary chapter of the Infant Welfare Society of Chicago had planned to hold its annual fundraiser, Tablescapes, this Saturday. The board met last Friday and voted unanimously to postpone the event until Sunday, Sept. 20. That was a tough decision for...
Hinsdale High School District 86 was scheduled to conduct a second pilot day of e-learning this spring. Now students at Hinsdale Central and those in Community Consolidated District 181 are relying on digital learning every day while schools are closed to help close the spread of COVID-19. Schools in both districts will be re-open April 6 at the earliest. Dave Lapetino, instructional innovation coordinator and architect of the e-learning plan in District 86, said he's glad...
What a difference a week makes. Last week, Gov. J.B. Prtizker banned events with more than 1,000 attendees, canceled Chicago’s St. Patrick’s Day parade and urged businesses to allow employees to work from home. The state had only 32 confirmed COVID-19 and no deaths. This week, the governor has closed schools, restaurants and bars. The number of cases in Illinois is approaching 300 and the state reported its first COVID-19 death. Hinsdaleans, like Americans across the cou...
Spring is just around the corner, much to the delight of athletes on 13 teams at Hinsdale Central High School. Swimmers on the boys and girls water polo teams face their first competition this week, and the boys and girls track teams will finish up their indoor season this month before heading outdoors in April. Other Red Devil teams will be featured in the March 19, March 26 and April 2 issues. Boys track First meet: Feb. 14 indoor, April 7 outdoor Last year: 8th at...
Sometimes the pain of loss is too difficult to express in words. So Laura Cottrell, bereavement director at Amita St. Thomas Hospice, might ask participants in a grief support group to use a hammer to shatter a bowl. "Then they put it back together. The bowl is never the way it was before," she said. "It is held together, but there are holes in it and there are pieces missing. "The creativity gives them an outlet for emotions they might not know how to talk about or what to...
In the midst of a possible moratorium on teardowns and changes to the zoning code, the Hinsdale Historic Preservation Commission conducted a regular slate of business at its March 4 meeting. The commission's task last week was to review applications to demolish three homes in the Robbins Park Historic District, all of which are listed as contributing structures. Public hearings were scheduled for the homes at 716 S. Oak St., 419 S. Oak St. and 641 S. Elm St. The hearing on...
Walk into the Hinsdale Middle School gym and it's hard to know where to look. The striking blue Spartan logo painted on the west wall. Abundant natural light filtering in from the windows. Fitness equipment lined up along the railing of the fitness mezzanine. And a gleaming wood floor that looks like it wouldn't be out of place at an NBA stadium. It actually wouldn't be, said Mike Duggan, facilities director for Community Consolidated District 181. When the new school was bein...
