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In 2019, Sarah Prisby had a small part in Stage Door Fine Arts' production of "Newsies." The experience left a big impression. "Even though it was just a tiny little role, everyone worked together as hard as possible. It was fantastic," the Hinsdale teen said. Prisby continued to put in her own work, and now, three years later, has a considerably larger role in Stage Door's "All Shook Up" the next two weekends at The Community House (see Page 34 for details). Inspired by...
John Augustyn is running out of places to display his collection of trophies, plaques and medals, but that's not stopping the three-time national geography champion from pursuing even more accolades. Augustyn's ascent into the world of academic competition began in fifth grade at the 2018 Chicago Regional National History Bee. Then a student at Notre Dame School in Clarendon Hills, he competed against students older and far more experienced. "I somehow won the whole...
Solstice Magazine has long served as the repository of Hinsdale Central's cultural arts. For the last four years, senior Lauren Peters has helped curate the annual literary and visual arts publication, a pursuit she suggested is a labor of love. "My freshman year a couple of my friends had also joined Solstice, and I went along with them," she said. "I just knew I really wanted to be involved with something that really involved writing and art." The commitment of Peters and...
As co-president of the Hinsdale Middle School Parent Teacher Organization, Kristin McDaniel wants the organization's bi-monthly meetings to go beyond business updates and budget discussions. "I want the meetings to be very valuable for the people who are attending," said McDaniel, who shares the role of president with Beth Folkmann. Along with updates about the many events and projects that the PTO undertakes each year, parents who attend the group's general meetings gain valu...
Hinsdale's Conor Real was at a friend's gathering this fall with some longtime pals. Taking in the scene, he was struck by life's unfolding phases. "Five years ago we're going out in the city. Now all of us are around a backyard fire pit each holding our own kid," he said. The little one in Conor's arms was Cormac, whom he and wife Maureen welcomed in June. Cormac was crowned The Hinsdalean's Happiest Baby of 2021 (look again at the cover to see why), and he's certainly brough...
It's been 11 years since John Grube of Hinsdale retired from his 25-year career with Northern Trust financial services company in Chicago. Since then, he's made volunteering his full-time job. As chair of the Chicago Zoological Society Board of Trustees and the King-Bruwaert House Board of Directors, Grube's days are as full as ever, and every bit as rewarding as the career he enjoyed, Grube said. The pandemic has brought new challenges to both organizations. The Brookfield...
Few 2,000-year-old stories get an annual retelling, let alone theatrically depicted in cities and towns across the country. For many churchgoers, the Christmas Pageant is a cherished live-action reminder of the events giving rise to our modern-day celebration. And for the youth in those faith communities, it's an opportunity to carry on the generations-old tradition of portraying characters in that sacred scene. This Sunday, Union Church of Hinsdale will present the pageant...
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...
