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Last summer, Hinsdale's Chase Ackerson was enjoying an evening of music at Ravinia with family when he bumped into a woman he knew through his former violin teacher. Having just graduated college with a degree in music but working in banking, Ackerson was keen to keep his instrumental skills in tune. "She was a member of the DuPage Symphony Orchestra and said, 'We're always looking for more people,' " he related. After sitting in on a rehearsal, Ackerson quickly became the...
The role of Monroe School Parent-Teacher Organization president is a big one. Co-presidents Lara Massouras and Dana Reko work together to get the job done. "I knew how thoughtful and resourceful she was from our interactions there," Massouras said of her PTO partner. Already a PTO board member, Massouras recruited Reko to be the board's vice president of communications. "She was, of course, a great fit and I am so grateful she stepped up to be co-president with me this year,"...
It was Valentine's Day six years ago, and Hinsdale's Bob Klinger had just recovered from prostate cancer surgery. He eagerly anticipated his first post-op outing: Wellness House's annual Valentine's couples dinner. Mother Nature had another agenda. "It was a blizzard, so they called all the couples and said, 'We might cancel the event,' " Klinger recounted. "I told them, 'I will crawl there in the blizzard because I need this.' They said, 'OK, well, I guess we'll have it.'...
On Saturday, April 15, 100 or more volunteers will descend on homes throughout Hinsdale as they distribute thousands of grocery bags for the 10th annual Seeds of Service food drive. Ensuring that each of those bags gets to its intended recipient is Hinsdale resident and St. Isaac Jogues church member Edward Pound. "I've been involved from the get-go," said Pound, who uses his extensive background in operations to divide the village into 31 routes for volunteers to follow on...
In the second half of Gargi Girotra's freshman year at Hinsdale Central, the COVID-19 pandemic changed everything. Amidst the tumult and tragedy, Gargi found herself drawn to issues concerning mental health, joining the Operation Snowball and Strong Minds Bring Change clubs, which later merged to become Evolve. "Being a leader and going on the clubs' yearly retreats and seeing the impact we were able to have amongst our peers and community is what really sparked my interest,"...
Hinsdale Central High School senior Meghna Mitra will serve as liaison to the Hinsdale District 86 school board for just a few more months, but it's a job that she said will follow her into college and beyond. "I'm interested in studying public policy and politics on the pre-law track," she said. One day, she hopes to use all that she's learned to affect health and environmental policy. As the liaison between the Hinsdale Central Student Council and the school board, Mitra...
Kelci Bednar relishes the scenes around The Community House that accompany summer's arrival. "It's great to see the building so full," she said, noting the many activities also are held outside in adjacent Robbins Park. "Parents come and go, 'My kid's here for camp.' And we'll answer, 'Which one?' because we'll have, at any given day, like 15 camps going on." Bednar was recently hired as program director, returning to the organization she served as recreation supervisor from...
Hinsdale's Grace Carstensen and the Nazareth Academy girls basketball team had an IHSA 3A state title in their sights, and winning their first five games by an average margin of nearly 38 points projected the unstoppable will of a champion. Then the Roadrunners met an actual champion in the form of Notre Dame Academy, two-time defending rulers of Wisconsin's hard courts. It didn't go so well. "After we had that one loss to Notre Dame, I think we all started to realize that we...
Hinsdale Central senior Shannon Stover is in no rush to leave the scholastic world. "I wouldn't know what to do without school. It gives me structure," she said. Her studiousness also recently gave her membership to Illinois High School Association's 2022-23 All-State Academic Team, the top academic honor for student-athletes. It took a classmate to let her know. "My friend saw the (school) tweet that said, like, 'Congrats to Shannon Stover for winning,' " Stover said. "I...
Long before she ever set foot in the village, Shilpa Upadhye knew she would one day live in Hinsdale. While studying at the University of Michigan, she became friends with a fellow student who raved about her hometown in the western suburbs of Chicago. "I just heard her talk about Hinsdale all the time," Upadhye said. But she would move many times and live in many states and two countries before realizing her dream of residing in the town that her college friend described as...
TIME for Kids reporter Celsey O'Hare was about to conduct her first big interview, a Q&A by Zoom with Ugandan climate activist and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Vanessa Nakate. The Hinsdale Middle School sixth-grader had permission to interview from school and was ready to go. As the time approached, she suddenly realized her school computer didn't permit recording. "I was like, 'What do I do?!' " Celsey recounted. Smartphone to the rescue. "I just had to record off of my...
If you ever gazed into the window displays at the State Street Marshall Field's store back in the early 2000s, chances are good you were admiring the work of Hinsdale resident Molly Haworth. While working for the Chicago department store, Haworth also decorated several homes in Hinsdale. "The town stayed in my memory," Haworth said, and when she and her family decided to become suburbanites, the village became her home. Haworth designed window displays for Macy's and Saks Fift...
Grace Shin said her ethnic heritage was a subject of curiosity among her elementary classmates in suburban Detroit. "I was asked often, 'Are you Chinese or Japanese?' And I would say, 'No, I'm Korean,' " Shin recounted. "And the other kids would be like, 'I don't know what that is.' " But they quickly learned what mandu was, as Shin's mom would serve the popular Korean dumplings at the school's cultural exchange event. "People loved it, and I remember feeling so much pride,"...
As someone who spent her childhood in Hinsdale and returned after college to live and work in the area, Laura Liss has watched her hometown grow and change. Now, she's helping to keep that growth and change going, both as a business attorney and as chair of the Hinsdale Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors. "It's both a personal and a professional sense of pride to be involved," said Liss, who joined the chamber as a member in 2019 and served as a board member and vice chair...
Hinsdale Central junior Teagan Dunn has long been a devotee of the Chicago theater scene, taking in numerous productions over the years with her mom. During her time with the Central's drama club she's served with the backstage crew, supporting the action on stage. This season Dunn has come out from behind the curtain as a student director for one of three one-act plays Feb. 9-11 in the school's auditorium (see Page 18 for details). An internship last summer with the BAMtheatr...
Whether as a student in its classrooms, a worshiper in its pews or an employee in its offices, St. Isaac Jogues Church has always been part of Lara Krupicka's life. Now a resident of Naperville, Krupicka makes the drive to Hinsdale four days a week to work in the church office. Every Monday through Thursday she takes phone calls, answers parishioners' questions, completes payroll, composes the weekly church bulletin and takes on special projects, including the creation of the...
Mary Osanloo and her family moved to Hinsdale from Chicago right before the new school year, and their fifth-grade daughter knew no one. A touching "Welcome to Oak School" sign appeared on their front yard within the week, courtesy of the school's PTO. Osanloo reached out to the group, hoping to connect with others before the first day back. "(The PTO) responded within 24 hours and they asked any fifth-grade girls available to come to Corner Bakery to meet her," she...
As assistant principal for curriculum and instruction at Hinsdale Central High School, Jessica Hurt knows every day will include a few surprises. A particularly happy surprise came recently when she got a phone call informing her that she had been named the Assistant Principal of the Year for the DuPage Region by the Illinois Principals Association. Hurt didn't even know that Principal Bill Walsh had nominated her for the honor, which recognizes individuals who meet a long...
It took Alyssa Harris a few months to come to terms with settling down in the town of her upbringing, now with offspring of her own. "I felt a bit of impostor syndrome," she confessed of the move in April of 2021, "where I'm walking around seeing my friends' parents or my parents' friends, saying, 'Hi Mrs. and Mr. So-and-so,' feeling like I was a kid playing an adult." Alyssa, husband Alec and son Theo, 2, lately have been adjusting to being a family of four after the arrival...
Like many teenagers, Grant Glowiak didn't consider himself the smartest, most athletic or most talented of his peers at Lyons Township High School. But at his church's youth group, none of that mattered. "Standard cliques didn't necessarily apply in that space," said Glowiak, who grew up attending First Congregational Church in his hometown of Western Springs. Now, as associate pastor and director of youth ministries at Union Church in Hinsdale, Glowiak said he wants to create...
In early October, Nazareth Academy's football team had a unusually scheduled Thursday night game. Hinsdale's Brady Linn, a reserve senior linebacker/wide receiver, recalled his coach's message after the victory. "He said, 'I want to give you Friday off to experience what it's like not having football on Friday, because it's going to be gone soon for you seniors,' " Linn said. "From that point we were playing to just stay together, and that kept us going." The team kept going...
Kristin Sweis discovered her knack for fundraising as a member, treasurer and eventually president of the Elm School Parent Teacher Organization. It didn't take long for others in the village to discover it, too. With two daughters enrolled at Hinsdale Middle School, members of the school's PTO approached Sweis with an invitation to step in as president this year. The invitation likely was a result of her success at Elm, Sweis said, where during her two years as president the...
On the cusp of becoming an empty nester last spring, Terri Sasnau was intent on giving back through volunteerism. "It had been on my list of things to do for a very long time," Sasnau said. "So I signed up for several different organizations." One of those was Hinsdale-based HCS Family Services, which needed help distributing food at its pantries in Memorial Hall and at Anne M. Jeans School in Willowbrook. It wasn't long before Sasnau became a regular presence. "I enjoy the...
Jaclyn McNamara rose to the ranks of president of the Hinsdale Junior Woman's Club quickly. She said that's partially due to her inability to say no, but mostly because of her commitment to the good that's accomplished by the organization's 271 members. McNamara was new to the community when she joined the 73-year-old organization in 2017. She said she joined as a way to meet her neighbors and stayed to make a difference in the lives of neighbors in need. "You don't think the...
Briana Brandt Murray said Christmas Day for her family is a usually a low-key day at home. Christmas Eve? Not so much. "We usually go to my sister-in-law's house nearby. My husband is the baby of 14 kids. My daughter is the 46th grandchild," Murray related, estimating a 65-70 person guest list. "It's large." Growing up in Hinsdale, Murray fondly recalled the holiday season, seeing her St. Isaac Jogues School decorated for Thanksgiving and Christmas, and the town festooned in...
