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After spending months with a classroom full of 3-year-olds, summer is a particularly quiet time for Kathy Behrens, teaching assistant at Hinsdale Covenant Preschool. Behrens was a preschooler herself when her family first moved to the village. And while her life has included stints in Texas, Minnesota and London, Hinsdale has always been home, Behrens said. It's where she and husband Chris, a Darien native, raised their three children, and where Behrens found her unexpected...
For recent Hinsdale Central graduates and Stage Door Fine Arts veterans Sam Romberger and Hannah Turek, exhaustive research was not required for their upcoming roles - as high school students seeking true friendship in "Bring It On!" "This is the show we're ending our high school careers with, and we're about to go off to college into a whole new world of people," Romberger said of the parallels to their own reality. That's not to say preparation wasn't required for the...
Denys Kang of Hinsdale said she was shocked and humbled to learn that her volunteer work at Oak School was being recognized with an Illinois State Board of Education Those Who Excel award. "I was in complete disbelief. I stood in my kitchen wiping away tears of gratitude," said Kang, a member of the Oak School Parent Teacher Organization. The annual awards recognize non-teachers who work within their local schools. District 181 had winners in all five categories. Kang said she...
Hinsdale Central senior Maurice Tobiano's transition to high school was complicated by transition to a new home in a new community. "I only knew like a couple people from swimming," she said. "I went in blind. It was a little scary at first." Tobiano soon discovered that Red Devil Nation was a welcoming place comprised of broader ethnic representation than she had previously experienced. "I just remember being very impressed by the diversity," she related. "I was one of, I...
It takes a number of skills and talents to conduct an orchestra. The most important quality, according to Hinsdale Central High School junior Alex Olguin, is focus. There's no place for distraction when leading dozens of musicians in a performance. "The conductor is the anchor of the orchestra," said Olguin, who began directing the Hinsdale Central orchestra ensembles as a sophomore, under the tutelage of orchestra director Serge Penksik. A cello player, Olguin said he now...
Keen to acclimatize to her new Golfview Hills surroundings after moving from Chicago, Eleanor Nadbielny signed up for a local garden tour. "It seemed like almost all the ladies on the tour were from the Garden (Study) Club, and they didn't know who I was," related Nadbielny, who had unwittingly made herself a club recruitment target. "I've been a member ever since," she said. That was 10 years ago, and for most of that time Nadbielny has held an officer's post in the...
May flowers aren't the only things adding a splash of color to the Hinsdale landscape in the coming weeks. The Community House's annual Walk the Walk event will become a color walk when it returns for its 15th year on Sunday, May 15. "Walkers will be showered with different colors of powder," said Karin Rohn, a member of The Community House board and the Walk the Walk committee. Four color stations will be located along the 1-mile route, offering participants ample...
Tomorrow, April 22, is Earth Day, the annual celebration of our planet. At Hinsdale Central, sophomore Ritvi Khurana is helping light the way toward a healthier globe as vice-president of the school's Ecology Club. She is among the cultivators of this week's Earth Week activities dress days, and was clad in all black when interviewed on Tuesday for the Lights Out! theme. "(Monday) was wear blue and green. We're promoting a clothing drive every day. We're promoting riding your...
Annie Koziel describes her character in Hinsdale Central High School's spring musical as melodramatic, narcissistic, insecure and oddly endearing. "She's so ridiculous, but also relatable," Koziel said of Rona Lisa Peretti, a lead character in "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee," opening April 22 on the Hinsdale Central stage (turn to Page 22 for details). The show centers on a fictional spelling bee at the equally fictional Putnam Valley Middle School. First produced...
Marna Slawson was driving into her job as manager of The Courtyard a little over two years ago when she got a call. "We're going to have to shut it down," said voice on the other end, as the curtain of the pandemic closed operations at the Hinsdale furniture resale shop. "Me and volunteers went ahead and looked at what our options were," she recounted. The shop, after all, was an important source of financial support for Wellness House's programs for cancer patients. "They...
What started as a part-time job at the Hinsdale Public Library became a career for Ellen Smith - a career that will end with her retirement on March 31, exactly 25 years after the day she first reported to work at 20 E. Maple St. Smith was a single mother between jobs in 1997 when a friend, Hinsdale resident and former children's librarian Barbara Delongis, suggested she take a position in the library's technical services department. Now known as collection services, Smith's...
Sue Boutin was ready to enter a more philanthropic phase of her life after her retirement three years ago. She wanted a role that would help serve the needs of others and give her a sense of purpose. Boutin found Assistance League Chicagoland West, and this publication is proud to have assisted, albeit unwittingly. "I started looking around and actually saw an article in The Hinsdalean on ALCW," remarked the 25-year Hinsdale resident. "I went, 'OK, that's local. I'll go to tha...
Extracurricular activities can help students make new friends, explore their creativity or hone their athletic skills. They also can save lives. Hinsdale resident Emma Gerhard is a junior at Benet Academy in Lisle and co-president of the Young Hearts For Life Junior Board. Founded by Dr. Joseph Marek in 2006, YH4L performs cardiac screenings on thousands of high school students each year. In its 16-year history, YH4L has screened more than a quarter million teenagers and...
Loren Williams joined The Community House as director of social impact late last year, but her work toward the organization's mission began more than a decade before. As a volunteer with the Community Consolidated District 180 Saturday reading program and later as a part-time clinician at The Community House, Williams has shared the organization's goal to provide social services throughout Hinsdale and the surrounding communities. When the search for a director of social...
Paul Jepsen answered a lot of calls during his decades with the Oak Park Police Department. Now the retired sergeant is responding to a different calling that connects him with prospects instead of suspects. Jepsen serves as team chaplain for the Chicago Dogs, a four-year-old independent professional baseball franchise in Rosemont. "I'm a layperson, I'm not an ordained minister," he's quick to point out. That didn't stop Dogs' manager Butch Hobson last year from approaching...
In the early part of the pandemic, the Hinsdale Humane Society and its then-business development director Jacki Rossi took extreme measures to meet the spiking demand for rescue pets from homebound residents. "I was literally, on the weekends, driving to Kentucky to meet our partners in the south to get animals," Rossi said. Finding forever families for so many animals was rewarding. But with veterinarian offices closed or limited during lockdown, the rate of spaying and...
Jui Khankari was used to people mispronouncing her name. But when her mother's phone followed suit, she decided to do something about it. After just a few tweaks, Khankari had taught Siri the correct pronunciation of her name, and Siri had introduced Khankari to the world of artificial intelligence. Several years later, Khankari's study of AI as a tool to detect ischemic stroke garnered the country's most prestigious science award for high school seniors - the Regeneron...
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...
