Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 243
After the purchasing frenzy of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Giving Tuesday on Dec. 3 gives us all the chance to do something to help others. Hinsdale is home to seven large nonprofits that work to do everything from feeding the hungry to supporting families facing a cancer diagnosis. Any would benefit from a financial gift on Giving Tuesday, and many offer others ways to help. Just visit their websites for more information. • Assistance League Chicagoland West, www.alcw.org • Candor Health, www.candorhealthed.org • HCS F...
November is National Diabetes Month, a designation designed to draw attention to diabetes and on taking action to prevent health problems related to the disease. As detailed by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases at www.niddk.nih.gov., diabetes occurs when one’s blood glucose, also called blood sugar, is too high. The disease affects about 38 million Americans, both adults and youth, but an estimated one in five people with diabetes don’t know they have it. An estimated 97.6 million American a...
This Veterans Day issue marks the 10th year in a row we’ve honored veterans in a special section. We started with 72 individuals in 2015. This year, we’re running information on three times as many — 216 — men and women who have served in the U.S. Armed Forces, breaking last year’s record of 207. We have space to include only a limited amount of information about these brave men and women — when and where they served, any honors they received and their connection to Hinsdale. Many are residents or former residents....
Tuesday is Election Day, the most momentous occasion that our representative democratic republic observes. The United States is a democracy because its citizens govern themselves. It is representative because people choose elected officials by free and secret ballot. Many of us may take this regular exercise in self-governance for granted, to the point that participation in it feels less than urgent or meaningful. We respectfully dissent from such an orientation. Voting is the lifeblood of our American identity, and the more...
A little more than 90 days ago, Mike Lach officially took the helm as superintendent of Hinsdale High School District 86. His arrival was a long time coming. After former Superintendent Tammy Prentiss was put on paid administrative leave in 2023, the district was left without a full-time leader. Other members of the administrative team did their best until interim superintendents could be found. None of these situations was ideal. When Lach was first hired and in his early appearances as superintendent, he said the right thin...
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, a yearly acknowledgment of the sobering reality: one in eight women in the United States will develop the disease in her lifetime. According to the National Breast Cancer Foundation, an estimated 310,720 women and 2,800 men will be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer this year. You probably know at least one person who has been personally affected by breast cancer. It’s the second leading cause of cancer death for women in this country and an estimated 42,250 U.S. women will die f...
Residents don’t have to wait for the Hinsdale Fire Department’s annual open house Saturday to observe Fire Prevention Week, whose theme is “Smoke Alarms — Make Them Work for You.” Just follow the National Fire Prevention Association’s calls to action — install, test and replace. Smoke alarms reduce the risk of dying in a home fire by more than half (54 percent). About three out of five fire deaths happen in residences with either no smoke alarms or no working smoke alarms, according to the association. Residents sho...
The news on newspapers is not great. The U.S. lost local publications at a rate of 2.5 per week in 2023, according to researchers at the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University in the school’s annual “State of Local News Project.” That’s up from two per week in 2022 and has resulted in at least 204 U.S. counties with no local news outlet. Another 228 are on the brink of joining them in the next five years based on the project’s predictive modeling. Currently...
“I believe that censorship is the enemy of freedom.” — Ava DuVernay Since 2020, the number of documented attempts to censor books has risen significantly, according to the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom. Attempts to censor books in 2023 reached the highest level ever tracked by the organization, with 4,240 unique book titles targeted for censorship. Titles representing the voices and lived experiences of LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC individuals made up 47 percent of those targeted. Against this backdro...
September is Prostate Cancer Awareness Month, a chance to focus the nation’s attention on the most common non-skin cancer diagnosed in men in the U.S., according to the National Cancer Institute. The NCI’s Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results Program estimates that more than 299,010 American men will receive a diagnosis of prostate cancer in 2024, and that almost 13 percent of men will be diagnosed at some point in their lifetime. Prostate cancer also is the country’s second leading cause of cancer deaths in men after l...
Have you looked at your tax bill lately? The answer might be yes, if you’ve paid the second installment of property taxes in DuPage County recently. Or it might be no, if your taxes are rolled into your monthly mortgage payments. Tax bills contain a lot of information. On the right hand side is a column listing the fair cash value of your home, its assessed and equalized value and ultimately its net taxable value, to which the total tax rate is applied. That total tax rate is the sum of individual tax rates for the 13 t...
In 2021, suicide was the 11th leading cause of death overall in the U.S., according to the National Institute of Mental Health, claiming the lives of more than 48,100 people. Even more troubling, suicide was the second leading cause of death among those aged 10-14 and 25-34, the third leading cause among ages 15-24, and the fifth leading cause among ages of 35-44. There were nearly two times as many suicides in our nation as there were homicides (26,031). September is Suicide Prevention Month, shining a light on this often...
We typically don’t write editorials about taxing bodies we don’t cover. But with all that has transpired concerning the proposed TIF district along 55th Street in Clarendon Hills — and its potential impact on Hinsdale school districts — we feel compelled to share a few observations. First, a tax increment financing district — or TIF — is a complicated mechanism Illinois law allows local governments to use to redevelop a certain area to eliminate blight or prevent its onset. Without going into all the details here, the T...
Class is back in session for Hinsdale students, which means youth and families making their morning and afternoon school commutes — often on foot or by bicycle. The urge to hurry often vies for our state of mind when there are tasks to tend to. But let us this season instead tend to the safety of our community’s most precious resource by slowing down, yielding to pedestrians and obeying crossing guards who are depending on us to pay attention — i.e. off our phones — and comply as they escort students. Those driving to and...
Some approach heading back to school with a sense of anticipation and excitement. They’ve already color coded their school supplies, picked out their outfit for the first day and gotten up early for a week to make sure they are ready for classes to begin. Others are a little less enthusiastic. Their school supplies are still in the Target bag, they have no idea what they will wear the first day of school and they’re still sleeping in until 11 a.m. But heading back to school is an amazing time, whether students are able to...
August is National Wellness Month, a designation aimed at inspiring self-care, healthy routines and reduced stress for a more fulfilling life. Hinsdale and neighboring communities are rich in business and nonprofit organizations offering a full gamut of wellness activities. Check out this issue’s Out & About listing (starting on Page 16) to get information on the tai chi chuan and chi gung morning class on Aug. 10 & 24 at The Community House, 415 W. Eighth St., to improve balance, develop posture and alignments, improve m...
Did three Hinsdale High School District 86 Board members discuss board business when they met for dinner at Taco Grill in Westmont a few weeks ago? We’ll never know. The three — board President Cat Greenspon and members Peggy James and Jeff Waters — contend that they were not discussing any board business. And we have no proof to counter their claim. But we have attended meetings ourselves, at work or at church or somewhere else. And we’ve talked about them afterward. That seems to be the natural progression — you and other...
The greatest athletes in the world have assembled in the French capital to compete for gold at the Paris 2024 Summer Olympic Games. In anticipation of the pomp and pageantry of the opening ceremony and the emotional roller coaster tracking the exploits of Team USA, we couldn’t help but let our imaginations run wild with the notion of what an Olympics might look like right here in Hinsdale. Granted Salt Creek may be a bit tighter to navigate than the Seine River for water sports events, and the carillon cupola atop the M...
Camps. Lessons. Team practices. Trips to the pool — or maybe summer school. Appointments at the DMV. All of the above can leave us wondering — just where are those lazy days of summer that they sing about? And with the Fourth of July well behind us and the first day at Hinsdale Central less than a month away, summer seems to be quickly slipping from our grasp. But there is plenty of summer left and plenty of activities to enjoy before it’s time to pull out the wool slacks and cashmere sweaters. Residents have six more oppor...
Feeling the urge to get out and play in the park? Lean into that spirit as July is Park and Recreation Month, a national effort to promote building strong, vibrant and resilient communities through the power of these cherished public resources. For Hinsdaleans that comes in the form of 122 acres of dedicated parkland at 18 sites and the Hinsdale Community Pool. The Hinsdale Parks & Recreation department is highlighting how parks and recreation programs enhance quality of life, promote healthy lifestyles, and foster community...
Katherine Lee Bates, an English literature professor at Wellesley College, was inspired to write a poem she titled "Pikes Peak" after making a trip to Colorado in 1893. The stanzas describe the stunning landscape she saw both on her train trip west and from the 14,000-foot summit. The poem first appeared in print July 4, 1895, in The Congregationalist, a weekly newspaper. Her work quickly gained in popularity. As was the custom at the time, people sang the words to "almost...
Are you a fan of John Grisham? The late Michael Crichton? Danielle Steel? All three have new books out this summer (Grisham’s “Camino Ghosts” and Crichton’s “Eruption” are available now, with Steel’s “Resurrection” due June 25.) Perhaps you have yet to read Hinsdale author Cristina Henriquez’s latest novel, “The Great Divide.” Or maybe you’re a middle schooler working your way through the “Percy Jackson” series or a preschooler sounding out words in your first “I Can Read!” book. Regardless of your age or preference, readin...
Hats off! Along the street there comes A blare of bugles, a ruffle of drums, A flash of color beneath the sky: Hats off! The flag is passing by! — from “The Flag Goes By” by Henry Holcomb Bennett Tomorrow, June 14, is Flag Day. On June 6 our nation marked the 80th anniversary of D-Day, when the members of the Greatest Generation carried the flag into the crucible of the Normandy beaches to turn the tide of World War II. The following year, on Feb. 25, 1945, the iconic photo “Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima” was taken of six U.S....
On this day in 1944, the land, air and sea forces of the United States and 11 allies conducted what became known as the largest amphibious invasion in military history. Some 155,000 Allied troops stormed five separate beaches at Normandy on D-Day, with the Americans landing at Utah and Omaha beaches and the British and Canadians at Gold, Juno and Sword beaches. By the end of June, the Allies had sent 850,000 men, 148,000 vehicles and 570,000 tons of supplies to the Normandy shores. The success of the invasion created a path...
May brought the Northern Lights and noisy cicadas to remind us of just what a fascinating planet we inhabit. Now on the doorstep of summer with June’s arrival Saturday, let’s remind ourselves of how much fun the community rolls out this season. The 51st annual Fine Arts Festival is in Burlington Park this weekend, featuring works by 85 participating artists (see story on Page 21). Monday, June 3, sees the return of the Farmers Market, another chamber event, at its familiar home on Chicago Avenue along Burlington Park. The...
