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Sofia Giannini has always been one to toss her cans, bottles and papers in the recycling bin. But like most people, she knew little about what happened to those items once they were dumped into the recycling truck. Giannini's entrepreneurial studies class at Hinsdale Central High School offered the opportunity to answer some of those questions, to follow those bottles and cans through the recycling process and to learn how she and others can become better recyclers. The...
Pop quiz: Where was the Declaration of Independence adopted? What amendment to the U.S. Constitution instituted the national income tax? What number president was Calvin Coolidge? If you need to phone a friend, Hinsdale's Blaze Burt would be a wise choice. Blaze, 12, honed his civics knowledge this fall preparing for The Coolidge Citizenship Challenge, designed to encourage young people's scholarship in U.S. history, our democratic system, domestic geography and more. The...
For some, the holiday season begins with the first snowfall, the radio's transition to songs about Santa or the first spotting of an evergreen tree tied to the top of a minivan. For dancers like Samantha Leddy and Kylie Norman, the holidays begin with rehearsals for the annual production of "The Nutcracker." "I love that 'The Nutcracker' has always been part of my holiday season," Norman said. But after this year, the holidays will never be quite the same for Leddy and Norman,...
Immigrant, veteran, architect and author are just a few of the words that can be used to describe Hinsdale resident John Gachich. Another, Gachich said, is lucky. "I was lucky beyond belief," said Gachich, recalling the time he spent fighting in Vietnam. Unlike so many other young men, Gachich lived not only to tell his story, but to write about it. "One February Morning" is an account of the 14 months he spent there, much of which he seldom shared until December 2020, when...
Safina Uberoi was visiting Los Angeles this summer when she got an alert from the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy that an important early work from the famed architect's canon was for sale in Hinsdale, Ill., and at risk of demolition. Uberoi - with husband Lukas - had spent the last five years restoring Wright's 1954 "Usonian Automatic" Tonkens Home outside Cincinnati. But Hinsdale's Bagley House, constructed 60 years earlier by a young Wright beginning to articulate...
For the Haralampopoulos family of Hinsdale, Halloween is much more than a holiday. It's a whole season filled with planning, preparation and pageantry. The Haralampopouloses start considering ideas for their family Halloween costumes in September. Most of that decision making is left to 7-year-old Athan. "Ever since he could pick, he picks our costume theme and I run with it," Athan's mom, Rachel Haralampopoulos, said. Athan's choices have included characters from Indiana...
Martha Phillip doesn't know what it's like to lose a child. But she has witnessed people close to her mourn that loss. "I lost my brother two weeks before his 16th birthday, suddenly," she said, noting she was 13 at the time. "I watched my parents grieve this." While her parents had support from their church and friends, they lacked resources specifically designed to help parents after the death of a child. So when friends Rebecca and Andy Wells lost their son, Ian, two years...
Hinsdale Central senior Bella Insignares was grateful to return to the class this year to finish out her high school tenure. As a member of the Hispanic Student Association, she felt inspired to foster fellowship around cultural awareness by sponsoring activities to mark Hispanic Heritage Month, Sept. 15-Oct. 15. "The thing I love about Hispanic culture is it's so about togetherness - family and friends and just everybody coming together," Insignares said. "What we wanted to...
Don Bartecki is part accountant, part entrepreneur and 100 percent advocate for the work of UCP Seguin, a nonprofit agency serving people with disabilities across the Chicago area. For more than 20 years, Bartecki has offered all of these skills, qualities and more to the betterment of UCP Seguin. UCP Seguin provides life skills training, community-based residential services, employment services and foster care to adults and children in need of care and support. Bartecki and...
Hinsdale's Roseann Coyner was driving her daughter to her new job in Seattle in mid-August when they passed through North Ogden, Utah. In 2018, North Ogden's mayor Brent Taylor was killed in Afghanistan while serving as major with the Utah Army National Guard. In tribute, a nearly 12,000-square-foot flag was hung over North Ogden Canyon. "When we drove past, I saw the flag," Coyner recounted. "A significant number of people from the town carried this mammoth flag up to the...
Employers aren't only concerned with what they can get from their employees. Good employers also want to ensure their employees are getting all they can from their workplace. That's where Amanda Lannert and Jellyvision come in. Lannert is CEO of Jellyvision, a Chicago-based software company that licenses a platform to large employers who want to help their workforce make the most of the company's benefits packages. "The average employer offers 200 to 400 point solutions,"...
British ex-pat John Baderman operated lighting and sound for community theaters back in his native London, including for his uncle's troupe, which performed shows in a synagogue. After his wife's career brought them to Chicago and they settled in Hinsdale, Baderman was introduced to the Theatre of Western Springs, complete with its own building and stable of accomplished actors. "It's almost professional theater," said Baderman, a set construction volunteer at the theater for...
Alana Wett's 32-year career is driven by one simple fact. "I just really like to help people," said Wett, the new director of philanthropy at The Community House. Wett, who joined the staff of the Hinsdale nonprofit in June, said her primary job is to raise money for the facility's wide range of programming. But she also wants to draw awareness to all that The Community House has to offer, and to the fact that all Community House programs, from youth recreation to family...
"Volunteers do not necessarily have the time. They just have the heart." That quote hangs in the mudroom of the Anderson family's Hinsdale home. The words resonate keenly with mom Kim Anderson. "I don't sleep enough, and I'm super overcommitted," she said. "But it's kind of what drives me, and it makes me happy to be able to balance things between my family and my work life and volunteering." Anderson has been committed to the Hinsdale Central Boosters board for eight years,...
Grace Richards and Vyktoria Saulis have always found ways to share their love of song with the world around them. A pandemic wasn’t going to change that. Richards and Saulis are co-founders of Song for a Smile, a nonprofit dedicated to bringing joy with personalized video recordings of requested songs, as well as concerts, performed and recorded by Richards, Saulis and their musical friends. Richards has been singing for nursing home residents since she was 11 years old. B...
The north end of Hinsdale felt more rural than suburban when Virginia Feller and her husband, Bernie, moved there in the 1950s. "This was like a country town then," said the 102-year-old Feller. "The Salt Creek Club was a meadow." The village could boast at having three grocery stores, three drug stores, a bank "and reasonably priced clothing stores with nice merchandise," she noted. Just as today, one just had to make sure not to exceed the downtown parking limit. "They had...
Living across the ocean from your family is hard enough. Add a global pandemic, and keeping in touch becomes a real challenge, especially for those who aren't yet old enough to have their own cell phones and social media accounts. Eliana Villone wasn't about to let COVID-19 get between her and her young cousins living in Italy. So while she was unable to visit in person, she found another way not only to keep in touch, but to help her young cousins learn English in her...
Singer Patricia Hurd had just returned to Chicago from a multi-year working tour of Europe in the late 1980s. She needed to earn some money before pursuing a new opportunity across the Atlantic. Then Hurd got word auditions were being held for the runaway Broadway hit "Phantom of the Opera." "It was like 'Hamilton' was the first year. You couldn't get tickets to save your life," Hurd remarked. She gave it a shot. "I went in literally 36 hours after I'd gotten back from...
Running for office wasn't always part of Julie Renehan's plan, but doing what she could to help her community was. In 2017, she determined the best way to do that was to pursue a seat on the DuPage County Board. "I decided I was going to take my community service to the next level," said Renehan, who had volunteered in many capacities, including with the Hinsdale Junior Women's Club and as an election judge prior to placing her name on the 2018 ballot. After a successful run...
Nancy Parkinson has learned that helping children heal from the loss of a loved one is less about leading and more about listening. "Really what you're there for is to just normalize things and to help them feel like they're not the only one this has happened to," said Parkinson, a volunteer group facilitator for Buddy's Place childhood grief program. "You're not the therapist for these kids." Buddy's Place is a dimension of Pillars Community Health, which is celebrating 100...
Looking back on her adventures is one of the many things that Barbara Riegger loves about travel. But sometimes, photos and videos just don't tell the story. "I wanted a journal that is easy to use and doesn't take a huge amount of time to fill with content," said Riegger. Instead of simply wishing for the perfect travel journal, she decided to use her vast experience as a traveler to create one of her own. "Travel. Experience. REMEMBER: A fun and inspirational travel diary,"...
Everyone is just one storm, one fire or one accident away from needing the services of the American Red Cross. That's why Hinsdale resident Hilary Chidi makes membership on the organization's board part of his already busy life. An executive vice president at TransUnion and a father of two young boys, Chidi recently joined more than 30 civic and corporate leaders on the volunteer board of the American Red Cross of Illinois. "The importance of the work they do cannot be...
Volunteering and community service are important parts of Shriya Mehta's life. Period. The Hinsdale Central High School rising senior recently received the National Community Service Awards Ambassador Award from the United Nations Association after logging more than 100 hours of service between June 2020 and April 2021. Many of those hours were spent at the head of Hinsdale's local chapter of Period. Period is an international organization that strives to eliminate period...
Nick Newlin had a rather strenuous introduction to fatherhood 19 years ago with the birth of his daughter, Emmanuelle. "She didn't sleep outside of our arms for the first two, if not four, months," he related. Today, as dad to twins Henry and Sloan, 15, and William, 12, in addition to Emmanuelle, Newlin regards his parenting debut as a precious experience that marked the start of a new life chapter. Father's Day is an opportunity to reflect on the unique individuals he's...
Julianna Waters is eager to play the Cat this weekend in Stage Door Fine Arts' "Honk" at The Community House. She got a taste of being in front of a live audience last week as a member of the ensemble of "Emma," also a Stage Door production. "This is the first opportunity we've all had to get back on stage and perform again," she said the morning after opening night. "It's really nice to perform again and just see the audiecne and stuff like that - and see all of your friends...
