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Hinsdale Central seniors Sarah Lotsoff of Hinsdale and Brody Melia of Westmont are no strangers to the stage, having acted in plays since middle school. The two will make their directorial debut tonight in the drama department's winter performance of two one-act plays, which runs through Saturday (see Page 22 for details). After Central teacher and director Erin Lundin selected the two to direct, their first task was to choose their plays. "She gave us suggestions and said, 'I...
ave to guess how they're performing. This coach doesn't sugarcoat it. "I'm definitely not a passive coach. Everybody's going to work hard," Pacioni said of her Jodie Harrison youth basketball teams. Yes, teams. The Hinsdale mom of three daughters coaches each of their squads. That makes for busy winter weekends with games on Saturdays and Sundays. But she prefers that to the alternative. "I'd rather coach than sit in the stands," Pacioni remarked. And she believes girls...
Herbert Wang said his love of science is something his father began fostering when he was just a child. Rather than quiz his son on the periodic table or test his knowledge of mathematical theories, Jin Wang asked a simple question, over and over again: "How does it work?" The curiosity and knowledge that resulted from asking and answering that question time and again is what Wang believes led him to where he is today - the laboratory at University of Chicago. That's where, as...
From his Oak Brook office at FGM Architects, John Ochoa can gaze into the past. Specifically, Ochoa can see Mid America Plaza at the corner of Route 83 and 22nd Street, which he helped design early in his career. "That was very significant project when I was a young architect," the Hinsdale resident said. "It was a big project and kind of grew my confidence at the time in terms of the scale of projects that I could work on and could handle." Shortly after the building's 1985...
Newcomer is a title that Heather Laughman has held more than once. And no matter how many times she finds herself as a resident of an unfamiliar new town, it's always a challenge to make it feel like home. As a member and former co-president of the Newcomers and Neighbors of the Greater Hinsdale Area, she tries to make that transition easier for those who are new to Hinsdale. Laughman said she remembers feeling a little lost, lonely and overwhelmed shortly after moving to...
Living in southern California the last several years for college, and now for work, has left Hinsdale's Gabrielle Roberts ill-equipped for winter visits to her hometown. "Definitely my blood has thinned out. I come home just in my sweatshirt from L.A. and immediately my parents have to give me a giant puffy jacket," Roberts joked. Later this year, she'll be adjusting to an entirely new culture when she heads to Tsighua University in Beijing for a yearlong fellowship as a...
Becoming an Eagle Scout was never really part of Jack Otten's plan. "I never gave it much thought," Otten said. "I was just enjoying being a Scout." But as he approached his final year of high school, the Hinsdale Central High School senior said earning Boy Scouting's highest rank suddenly seemed like a natural progression to his decade-long scouting career. So he set out in search of a project - a final step in every scout's journey toward the Eagle rank. Otten said he knew...
It was about 14 years ago when Lisa Kolavennu's father was diagnosed with cancer. In walking that journey with him, she discovered Wellness House and, along with it, her vocational calling. "His experience inspired my own passion for wanting to help the oncology population," Kolavennu said. "It felt personally and professionally gratifying for me to move to Wellness House and start a career here." More than a dozen years after launching that career as a program director with...
The Korza family started 2019 living 4,700 miles away. Then in June, Kasia and Andrzej packed up baby Adam and his two older siblings (Alexandra has just finished eighth grade and Ignacy had just finished kindergarten) and left Poland to start a new life in the United States. They chose Hinsdale because it is home to Kasia's uncle and a great school system. Kasia's two sisters and her parents live nearby as well. "We had a very nice life there, but decided to join our...
Breaking bread with loved ones is perhaps the most cherished ingredient of the holiday season - for adults anyway - as millions will take to the roadways or skies this coming week to gather around tables teeming with festive victuals. For many, however, the struggle to make ends meet means such a feast is mere fantasy. But Hinsdale's Mary Lyne and her team of soup kitchen ministry volunteers at Grace Episcopal Church work to make it reality for dozens throughout the year. Ever...
Dick Burridge Sr. lives life as an adventure. The former Hinsdalean, who will turn 91 in March, has a zest for life lacking in many half his age. He still enjoys going into the office several days a week at RMB Capital Management, a firm founded by his son, Dick. Jr. "I go to work anywhere from two to four days a week - when the market needs support. When the market can carry on on its own, I can stay home," he said, his sense of humor shining through. He points to his father...
Hinsdale's Maddie Maturino held up the birthday card she had just printed out at the Hinsdale High School District 86 Transition Center. The balloon-emblazoned card will be among numerous items for sale at a holiday craft fair tomorrow from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Lake Park High School. Asked how it felt to help produce the card, a smile widens across Maturino's face. "Good!" She took time out from her labor to share a little about her experience at the Transition Center, which p...
Seventeen-year-old Akane Rincon said she's always wanted to be exposed to life outside of her hometown of Chiapas, Mexico. And so she's thrilled to be spending this school year living with a Hinsdale family and studying at Hinsdale Central High School as part of a Rotary Club exchange program. "It is a great opportunity to be here and know more than my culture," she said. Rincon is staying with Rotary Club of Hinsdale member Ahsan Karim, his wife Silvia, and their two...
During the summer of 2016, Molly Schnieders and her dad, Rob, set off to serve with Fields of Dreams Uganda, helping at-risk children through soccer and education. To put it mildly, the journey didn't start well. "The plane that we were supposed to take got struck by lightning, so that delayed us a bunch of hours," said Schnieders, a Hindsale Central senior. "We missed our connecting flight from Amsterdam to Uganda, so we had to fly through Germany, Ethiopia and then Uganda. I...
When Alex Levesque approaches a group of young men in his 1967 Mustang, they tend to pay attention. Levesque knows that young men love cars, and for 12 years he's used that knowledge, and his muscle car collection, to steer them away from lives of drugs and crime and into jobs in automobile restoration. Levesque said having something to do isn't enough to keep young men off the streets and out of gangs. "They need something that they love to do," he said. Levesque is founder a...
Hinsdale's Florian Dziedzic saw the photos hanging at Midway Airport Aug. 7 as he and his older brother Sylvester walked through security. "Did you notice on the wall?" Dziedzic asked his sibling as the two Vietnam War veterans headed to the gate for their Honor Flight to Washington, D.C. "What?" Sylvester replied. "Four pictures of you and me as civilians and in the service," Dziedzic replied, prompting Sylvester to march back for a look. That day started at 4 a.m. as he and...
Nancy Nyheim thought she knew her community pretty well when she was introduced to HCS Family Services as a volunteer four years ago. Like many Hinsdaleans, she was surprised to learn that DuPage County is home to the second-highest food insecure population in the state. And also like many Hinsdaleans, Nyheim became committed to doing something about it. Now on staff as the volunteer coordinator at HCS, Nyheim said the second annual Blues, Brews & Barbecue event is an easy...
Life on Purpose. That's the title of Pastor Jason Salyers first sermon series at Hinsdale Seventh-day Adventist Church since arriving from Minnesota in early September. Having an anchored purpose in the face of shifting circumstances is certainly a topic he can speak into. "I don't think that we have lost our purpose. We don't create our purpose. We discover our purpose," Salyers said. "Even in those times when life gets flipped upside down or we take a sudden shift of what...
The young lady in a wheelchair, unable to speak, seemed indifferent as the volunteer handler approached her with the pet therapy dog. The handler left a card with information about the dog and turned to go visit with other patients at the rehab center. "And the girl reached out and pet the dog," said Deborah Kraus, manager of Hinsdale Humane Society's pet therapy program. "She knew quite well we were there. It's just that she couldn't necessarily verbalize it." Those are the...
The Rev. Young-Mee Park spent the past six years as a district superintendent, telling new pastors not to change anything for six months after being assigned to a new church. Then in July, Park was named pastor at the Hinsdale United Methodist Church, where she promptly ignored her own advice. "I changed things my first week here," she admitted with a grin. "I debated, 'Do I change this?' But after talking to some people I decided to change a few things and I was surprised...
Nicole Hladik wasn't sure of her career path after earning a degree in business management in 2016. She just knew the 9-to-5 office life was not her destination. "I had no idea what I wanted to do," Hladik said. Then a family acquaintance suggested a ride-along with a female firefighter she knew in Broadview. One ride led to another and eventually carried Hladik onto her new career path. "I was sold," she said, recounting calls to help a young man with his trach tube and...
Any reader will tell you that books can make the world a bigger place. For those who find it difficult to leave their homes, a book or a movie can provide a much-needed glimpse at a world beyond their own four walls. Pat Allen is one of three local women who bring the world to homebound Hinsdaleans in the form of books, movies and magazines each week. Organized by Hinsdale Public Library patron services assistant manager Martha Kennedy, the library's Doorstep Delivery service...
Hinsdale's' Maureen Hegarty just returned from the National Assistance League Conference in Las Vegas. As a longtime member of the village's Assistance League Chicagoland West chapter, she enjoyed the fellowship with other volunteers from the organization's 110 chapters nationwide. "It's really nice to network and share ideas with the different chapters and see how they do things," Hegarty said. One idea that seems unique to ALCW is the New Start program providing kitchen esse...
Kari Galassi has spent far more time on a soccer field than a stage. Yet somehow she has found herself at the helm of YES! Productions, a new theater program for young people in and around Hinsdale High School District 86. On her path to showbiz, the mother of three spent time leading the charge for the school district's recent referendum. As president of the Vote Yes committee, Galassi said she got to know her community, and the entire District 86 community, on a new level....
If nothing else, Hinsdale's Peter Marcus' overseas study experience this summer taught him one thing: It's a small world. "I was in Rome and we went to this bar on the Fourth of July. I ran into a girl who I hadn't seen since middle school. She had been studying abroad in Rome," he recounted. Pretty remarkable, especially considering Marcus was just visiting Rome on break from his coursework at Trinity College in Oxford, England. The University of Georgia junior took...
