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Like so many facets of life since COVID-19 hit, blood drives and blood donation centers were shut down or severely restricted as a health precaution. Thankfully, those activities have resumed, and individuals are being urged in January — National Blood Donor Month — to help meet the need for blood, which the pandemic did not suppress. Those who have recovered from COVID-19 are particularly encouraged to give blood because of the potential antibodies it contains. One step further would be a plasma donation to help address the...
If there’s one thing the past 10 months have taught us, it’s patience. We learned patience when we were told, after staying home for two weeks in March, that we would have stay home longer in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19. A lot longer. We learned patience on Nov. 4 and in the days that followed as we waited to see who would be the next president of the United States. We learned patience this week as votes were counted in the Georgia Senate run-off, with the Senate majority hanging in the balance. Of course, som...
A recent Saturday Night Live featured Kate McKinnon playing Madame Vivelda, a fortune teller, as she met with a group of clients in 2019. “2019 has sucked but I think 2020 will be our year,” one of them says as the skit opens. Of course the predictions she shares for 2020 — someone washing a bag of Doritos with soap, a road trip with no bathroom stops and indecent Zoom incidents, to name a few — make absolutely no sense to her clients. If only we had known. And now we again are on the cusp of a new year, and much uncerta...
'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the town The Hinsdaleans were scurrying, they rushed all around. For last-minute gifts and cards they did sprint, Armed with lists and ideas and maybe some hints. Gateway and Grant squares and downtown they traveled. But with each stop, their nerves did unravel. The hustle and bustle had dampened their mood. They were tired and cranky and needed some food. They stopped for some lunch and looked over the list. To finish their s...
Experience any hotly contested elections lately? Granted, the presidential race was certainly a spectacle not seen before (which goes for most of 2020!). But it also got two-thirds of the electorate to the polls, the highest turnout since 1900 when Republican incumbent William McKinley defeated Democrat William Jennings Bryan. Healthy turnout is healthy for a democracy, And so is a robust roster of citizens willing to throw their hats into the candidates’ ring. The window to file for candidacy in the April 6 Consolidated E...
On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me — a Hinsdale shopping spree! Yes, yes, we know the song is really about the 12 days between Christmas and epiphany. Forgive us for this slightly corny set-up for a message we present on this page each December: Shop local. This year more than ever Hinsdale merchants need our support. The coronavirus pandemic not only closed many shops in the spring, it has affected business since. And this is the time — the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas — when merchants expec...
No matter what challenges we’ve faced this year as individuals, family members, business owners and community members, we still have countless reasons to be thankful. Here’s our list — one for each day of the month leading up to and including Thanksgiving. Nov. 1 — the health care workers whose professional and personal lives have been so much more difficult since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March Nov. 2 — Sammy Hanzel and Heather Bereckis, the creative minds at the village’s parks and recreation department,...
No matter how many ways the question was asked, the answer was the same. Let the public speak. Maryam Judar, executive director and community lawyer for the Citizen Advocacy Center in Elmhurst, attended the Hinsdale High School District 86 Board meeting Oct. 29 to speak on “Public Comment: Good for Democracy.” Her presentation was part of a settlement agreement reached earlier this year with several district residents over alleged First Amendment and Open Meetings Act violations stemming from a Dec. 12, 2019, board mee...
On Veterans Day, Nov. 11, we pause to give thanks to those who have served both to defend our nation’s liberty and to aid in protecting the flame of freedom around the world. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are more than 18 million veterans living across the country and about 600,000 in Illinois. The Veteran’s Health Administration is the largest integrated health care network in the United States, with 1,255 health care facilities serving 9 million people each year. But the level of care accorded to veterans has...
It’s hard to imagine 2020 could get any scarier than it already is. But the never-ending pandemic will not deter us from our annual Halloween tradition of imagining a Hinsdale that is significantly more frightening than the one we know and love. So, with Oct. 31 just two days away, we share our visions of events we would be scared to see in town. • the U.S. Department of Education discontinues the National Blue Ribbon School program before all nine schools in Community Consolidated District 181 are able to earn the honor (th...
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. We probably don’t need to tell you that. With one in eight women in the U.S. battling breast cancer at some point in her life, you most likely have a friend or loved one who has faced that diagnosis. What is important to be aware of this month? The statistics are staggering. Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women in the U.S., accounting for 30 percent of newly diagnosed cancers. In 2020, more than 276,000 new cases of invasive breast cancer are expected to be diagnosed i...
Cooking is the leading cause of home fires and home fire injuries in the United States, mostly from the ignition of food or other cooking materials, according to the National Fire Protection Association. The majority of those incidents occur when the cooking is unattended. Those alarming statistics has prompted the NFPA to theme 2020 Fire Prevention Week, “Serve Up Fire Safety in the Kitchen!” This year’s observance of the annual nationwide campaign started Sunday and runs through Saturday. Almost half — 44 percent — of re...
We get it, Kevin. We agree it’s inconsiderate — bordering on rude — for citizens to come to Hinsdale High School District 86 Board meetings, complain about something during public comment and leave. And we know, board President Camden, that you have the authority to set the agenda. But moving “audience communication” to the very end of school board meetings (item 21.1 on Sept. 24) is a disproportionate response to this discourteous behavior. At best, it reads like punishment for a misbehaving child. At worst it could be...
Perhaps you’ve seen the photo of Ridgway Burns on his bike, pulling a small book trailer, on the cover of the Hinsdale Public Library’s fall 2020 newsletter, “Beyond Books.” Burns is wearing his helmet and — thanks to COVID-19 — his face covering. The picture says it all. Library board members and staff have worked hard to continue serving residents during this unprecedented pandemic. And residents aren’t willing to give up what they’ve come to expect from this amazing community asset. September is Library Card Sign-up Mo...
Wow, is it really true that September bursts on the scene next week? No doubt many of us are still trying to keep up with day, let alone the month. And with every new month means a fresh set of obscure holiday observances in our country. Thanks to websites like nationaldaycalendar.com, all these fascinating and highly questionable designations are curated for our convenient reference. Like National Blueberry Popsicle Day on Sept. 2. We haven’t done a deep dive to see if other popsicle flavors have been deemed worthy of s...
Was that a cough? A sniffle? Did it take place in a classroom? Or a school hallway? Then that student — and her siblings — must be sent home to quarantine until a COVID-19 test comes back negative or a doctor makes an alternative diagnosis. “Probable cases” (kids with COVID-like symptoms who are epidemiologically linked to a known case) will have to be quarantined, with siblings, for 14 days. Any time kids experience any one of a dozen other symptoms (that also could mean a cold or flu), the same thing will happen. They wi...
Less than 24 hours after the Illinois High School Association had released its plans for high school sports during the 2020-21 school year, people already were complaining. The plan certainly is not ideal. Instead of a school year with three seasons that last a dozen weeks or so, the IHSA is proposing a year with four shorter seasons. Non-contact fall sports like golf, tennis, cross country and swimming will be played this fall. Other sports that typically open the school year — football, boys soccer and girls volleyball ...
Parents of school-age children have been riding the “What will fall look like?” bus for months now. Most likely boarded hopeful they’d be let off at the “Back in class with safety measures” stop. Crossing from spring into summer, the combination remote/in-person model appeared on the horizon as an alternative destination as COVID-19’s persistence compelled some rerouting. In recent weeks, a number of Hinsdale’s surrounding school districts have announced plans to — at the risk of straining the metaphor a bit more — essentia...
Summer Brew & Q — canceled. Taco Tuesday — postponed. Independence Day celebration — canceled. The messages stamped in red in the online summer brochure indicate which programs are not taking place this summer. No pool memberships. No group swimming lessons. On some pages, one or two programs carry the red notice; on others, all are affected. This seems a strange moment, then, to celebrate the Hinsdale Parks and Recreation Department. But July is Park and Recreation Month across the country, and the National Recreation and Pa...
If you’ve ever wanted to be a masked superhero, the time has come! Most of us, of course, have been donning our facial coverings faithfully since April. It was a strange and somewhat annoying measure to adopt initially. But we collectively overcame comfort concerns or hang-ups over our freedom being muffled to bring the state’s COVID-19 positivity rate low enough for a partial reopening of many businesses and to entertain the potential of a return to in-person schooling this fall. The operative word for just about eve...
“Bueller? Bueller?” The Zoom public hearing about a potential moratorium on the demolition of historic homes reminded us a little of the film classic “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” as Hinsdale Plan Commission Chairman Steve Cashman often had to repeatedly call out names of residents when it was their turn to give public comment. We certainly hope Zoom public hearings will soon be a thing of the past, but the format did give an unusually large number of people a voice in this debate. And we heard the same message over and over:...
The parades won’t be marching past nor fireworks bursting overhead for most of us Saturday. The Fourth of July is next in the unyielding procession of “This is not our normal (fill in the blank)” occasions. Backyard barbecues and pool parties that are held will hopefully by socially distanced or face-mask friendly or both as we find ways to gather while balancing socializing with safety. The COVID-19 pandemic continues to alter life as we knew it. The freedoms we once had when it came to our comings and goings, our excha...
Like everything else since mid-March, the summer reading program at the Hinsdale Public Library looks a little different than it did last year. The program, which began earlier this month and continues through July 31, offers a philanthropic incentive for adults to participate. “We’re in this together!” the library website reads. “Help turn your reading, listening and viewing into assistance for the community.” Readers are invited to share any five reads, listens or views with the library by sending an email listing t...
Happy 110th Dads! That’s the ripe old age Father’s Day turns this year if the occasion’s birth is traced to June 19, 1910, when the state of Washington was the first to mark it. Partying for Pop lagged behind its maternal counterpart because, quoting a early 20th-century florist, “Fathers haven’t the same sentimental appeal that mothers have,” according to https://www.history.com, Fair enough. But, perhaps partly out of pity, state governments did gradually come around until Father’s Day was recognized as a nationwide ho...
We’ve heard residents say all manner of things at board meetings. So when a district resident was precluded from making public comment at a Dec. 12 meeting in Hinsdale High School District 86, we were surprised. When two more residents were prevented from speaking as well, we stopped being surprised and started getting angry. It’s true that the letter the three wanted to read (written by another district resident) was quite critical toward Carol Baker, assistant superintendent for academics. She and the board had been und...
