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With a full-time job, three children, a husband, a house and a dog, Walker Rediehs was busy enough already. In the weeks following the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, she and fellow moms everywhere found out just how much busier life could get. With kids learning from home, parents working from home and the stress of the whole situation, Rediehs decided her fellow moms were deserving of an award. "It was a made-up award for my girlfriends. The Homeschooling Mom of the Day...
Compiling a high school yearbook against a backdrop of limited in-person instruction and extracurricular activities thanks to a pandemic takes some artfulness, to say the least. Erin Palmer, Hinsdale Central teacher and advisor of its yearbook, The Diablo, said the staff has risen to the challenge. "We had to rethink how we do yearbook this year. We had to rethink the process and revamp the curriculum in many ways," Palmer said. "It took a great deal of time and thought to...
When it comes time to apply to colleges later this year, Hinsdale Central junior Shivani Rao's list of accomplishments will include presenting her own medical research study at the American Society of Hematology's annual meeting. Rao planned to spend the summer of 2020 in a laboratory as part of her summer Science Inquiry and Research class at Hinsdale Central. With classrooms, laboratories and most other things closed due to COVID-19, Rao found a way to complete the class...
As a longtime Hinsdalean, Bob Lassandrello knew little about the food pantry operating out of the village's Memorial Building, Then five years ago his neighbor, an HCS Family Services board member, invited him to get involved in stewarding the organization behind it. "I had no idea the extent to which HCS was doing what they were doing," Lassandrello said of his subsequent education after joining the board. Currently chair of HCS' board of directors, he now tries to spread...
Doctors go to medical school, police officers attend the police academy and chefs go to culinary school. But for most people, being a citizen of their community requires no training at all. Hinsdale Central junior Suzan Nofal thinks that should change. Nofal is one of more than 20 high school students from across the country chosen to help draw attention to the need for civics education through the inaugural Equity in Civics Youth Fellowship. Throughout the yearlong program fu...
Sarah Blatchford submitted the entry for her daughter, Lily, to be on the cover as Hinsdale's happiest baby at 12:08 a.m., after she finished her shift at Loyola University Medical Center. Her husband, Marcus Quek, is a surgeon there, and with two small children at home, the couple's schedule is full. "I think medical school and residency was great training for raising kids," Marcus said. "We're used to not getting a whole lot of sleep." Since the two moved from River North...
December 23 is a date that holds a place in Hinsdale's culture and history. For generations the evening has been reserved for the Hinsdale Assembly's annual ball - the culmination of a year's worth of work and involvement by the program's debutantes and honor guard. "In 57 years the ball has never not been held on Dec. 23," said Laurie Eichelman, chair of the 2020 Assembly board. She said the decision was made back in August to stray from tradition in the interest of safety....
Hinsdale's Jackelyn Kastanis spent a year helping care for childhood best friend Brooke Bolley in their native Detroit area until Bolley succumbed to cancer in 2011 at the age of 27. Kastanis moved to Chicago for work, but her desire to provide comfort remained deep within. "Every time I would pass all these hospitals downtown, I kept wanting to go inside," she said. In 2014, she launched Simply from the Heart, a nonprofit that honors Bolley and her cosmetology/hair styling...
Kathy Graham was never a Girl Scout herself. But the Campfire Girls played a big part in the life of this Minnesota native. She became a Bluebird in third grade and worked her way up through the ranks of the organization until senior year of high school, learning lessons and new skills along the way. “I definitely had just a wonderful, fulfilling experience as a young girl. It taught me a lot about the world,” Graham said. Today, she’s dedicated to providing some of those...
The season of the wreath has come around again, that symbol of continuous life with no beginning or end woven of enduring evergreen boughs. Every year a sizable one adorns the Graue Mill and Museum building just north of Hinsdale in Oak Brook. The wreath, suspended high up and illuminated, is a holiday hallmark casting out Yuletide vibes for both visitors to the grounds and those motoring past on York Road. Hinsdale resident and Garden Study Club of Hinsdale member Pamela...
To Kristen Laakso, rooms are filled with much more than furniture and buildings are made of more than wood and steel. For this lifelong student of art and architecture, rooms are full of questions and buildings tell a story. As president of the Hinsdale Historical Society, Laakso hopes to share the stories and answer the questions hidden within the village's oldest and most interesting buildings. "This town has a story to tell," said Laakso, who moved to Hinsdale in 2012 with...
"The best beloved of all things in my sight is Justice." These are the words of Bahá'u'lláh, the 19th-century founder of the Bahá'í Faith, which emphasizes the value of all religions and the oneness of humanity. It's a belief system that Hinsdale's Gordon Coates found compelling as a young man and which he now supports professionally as a correspondence coordinator for the Baha'i National Center in Evanston. "We assist Bahá'í communities through the United States in applying B...
George Floyd, the man whose death at the hands of Minneapolis police officers sparked demonstrations across the country, didn't identify as a member of the LGBTQ+ community. He wasn't victimized for his sexuality and his rights weren't compromised because of his gender. Yet as a person of color, Floyd had a great deal in common with the members of Hinsdale Central High School's Gender Sexuality Alliance, said Bridget McBride, co-president of the club. "The purpose of the club...
On a rookie mission at the start of his combat tour in Vietnam, U.S. Marine pilot Bill Trader was jolted in his cockpit by bright tracers of anti-aircraft fire in the skies ahead. His veteran bombardier/navigator next to him brushed it off. "He said, 'Oh, that's far away, don't worry about it,' " the longtime Hinsdale resident recalled. "Because it's at night, you see the tracers streaming and it's like, 'Ooh!' " Trader had been deployed to Da Nang, Vietnam, in September of 19...
Julie Curran has never considered herself an artist. But she knows and appreciates the important role that art in all forms has on people, families and communities. That's why she's been part of the DuPage Foundation's Arts DuPage Advisory Committee since it was established nearly five years ago. 'It's one of the things I like about living in Hinsdale and about living in DuPage County," Curran said of the area's vast and varied opportunities to enjoy art in its many forms....
A virtual networking tool brought to Jacqui Wooldridge's attention a very real need earlier this year. The Hinsdale resident saw a call for helpers to join a group of Downers Grove women's outreach to the dozen or so homeless citizens that gather near that village's downtown train station. It was an invitation her servant-hearted spirit couldn't refuse. "I felt like (God) opened a door for me to help here," said the deeply faith-driven Wooldridge. Once a week since June, she...
Music was an important part of Lisa Pomeroy's life throughout her years at Hinsdale Central High School. She was a member of the madrigal singers, concert choir and musical casts, sang in the school talent show and further honed her vocal skills with private lessons. It wasn't until she had graduated from University of Illinois with a degree in French commercial studies that Pomeroy considered music as a career. As she prepared to embark on the world of international...
Wellness House Board of Directors Chair Lauren Haarlow has had a front-row seat to the Hinsdale-based nonprofit's evolution since its early years helping those with cancer live and thrive. Her father-in-law, Bill Haarlow, was instrumental in the organization's founding in 1990, and Lauren Haarlow cherishes contributing to that legacy. "Wellness House was always part of what we did as a family," she said. Many families would undoubtedly attest to the vital role Wellness House...
Anton Riegger loves just about everything about being outdoors. Everything, that is, except for the plastic waste that litters the forests, lakes and oceans that he so loves to explore. A few months ago, Riegger decided to get behind a movement to decrease the amount of plastic waste in the environment by taking a pledge to reduce his own use of plastic and encouraging others to do the same. After taking the No Plastic Drinks pledge himself, Anton signed on as a youth...
Mayslake Forest Preserve in Oak Brook is overlooked by locals as a destination for decompressing, according to volunteer Anne Cahill. She's been reminded of that recently amidst the renewed popularity of open spaces. "When Fullersburg (Woods) parking lots were full, I would go to Mayslake and there would be, like, three, four or five cars in the parking lot," Cahill said. She surmised the reason is that the historic Peabody Mansion is closely associated with the site. "People...
A Friday morning get-together with a group of fellow Christian men changed Charles Lewis' life for years to come and the lives of thousands of Chicago residents forever. It was at one of these weekly gatherings that Lewis heard Glen Kehrein tell the story of Circle Urban Ministries and the good work it was doing to make the Austin community of Chicago a better place to live. It wasn't long before Lewis was part of the Circle Urban mission. "Circle really had a calling on my...
Hinsdale's Alexandra Collins was quite familiar with the Sterigenics industrial sterilization facility in Willowbrook when she learned about its decades of emitting ethylene oxide, a gas linked to cancer risks. "I used to run on the street across from the Sterigenics facility in Willowbrook," said the Hinsdale Central junior. "I realized that my health could actually have been getting worse when I was doing something to try and improve my health." Deeply concerned, she and her...
Adam Maycock said the decisions his parents made about raising children have shaped his life in more ways than one. His mom stayed home for years with him and his two siblings, even though his dad didn't earn all that much as a Seventh-day Adventist pastor. "I think that's a big part of who I am, that commitment that they made early on in our childhood," Maycock said. "It sticks with you and creates the framework on how you want to be a parent and create your home and lead,...
A low-income background should not dissuade a young person from aiming for a high-level college education, Sally Guglielmo asserts. That belief inspired the Hinsdale resident two years ago to co-found Green Halo Scholars, an organization that comes alongside promising but under-served high school seniors to help them navigate the college application and admissions process. "There's no way things are going to change unless we change the education," Guglielmo said. As a...
Author and historian John Horn compared his recounting of the Jerusalem Plank Road Operation of June 1964 to reconstructing a shattered piece of glass. The result of this long, intricate and painstaking process is part of Horn's latest book, "The Petersburg Regiment in the Civil War." Published in 2019, the Hinsdale attorney's work was recognized in June with the Army Historical Foundation Distinguished Writing Award, an honor that Horn called "one of the happiest, most...
