Imagine being given the chance to receive a $100,000 grant for a work project that’s near and dear to your heart. That plus the added pressure of having it hinge on one final presentation, with the results announced on the spot. Impact 100 Chicago gave its first $100,000 grant to Chicago Lights at an event […]
When the earthquake hit Haiti in January 2010, volunteers heeded the call to provide medical care, food and water, and to help them rebuild their lives. But in addition to food and water, Deborah Lazar, a librarian at New Trier High School, says the Haitian people also need access to books. In a country where […]
Gardening is an exercise in optimism – you plant, water, and cross your fingers that something grows. For the 16 young men living at the La Casa Norte’s Solid Ground residential facility in Chicago, that sunny perspective is nearly as foreign as finding fresh food on the dinner table. When a volunteer group from Glencoe […]
You rode the carousel, laughed at the monkeys’ antics and marveled at the majesty of the giraffes. But did you know that the Lincoln Park Zoo—a local treasure that’s open 365 days a year with free admission—is tops for teaching kids about the natural world? This year, one of the zoo’s educational highlights, Nature Boardwalk, […]
The environmental science curriculum at New Trier High School will see an enhancement in the near future. By fall of 2011, New Trier will have a wind turbine system in place on the Northfield campus, funded by a grant from the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation. The Foundation has agreed to fund 90 percent of […]
Winnetka’s own Caitlin Marie Bischoff was crowned May Queen 2011 at the 12th annual Mayfest in Chicago last Friday, June 3. At age 16, Bischoff, daughter of Janet and Barry Bischoff, is a sophomore at New Trier High School. Mayfest was held June 3-5 in Lincoln Square, and is the traditional German celebration of spring’s arrival. […]
Peter Whitney, 18, of Lake Forest, doesn’t think that what he’s doing to save the earth is very special. “It’s what any concerned citizen should be doing,” he says. But Whitney does a lot more for the environment than the average person. At home, he makes sure his family recycles everything they can, and whatever […]
In honor of Memorial Day this month, Make It Better is interviewing local veterans every week during May. This week, we feature John Nash. Nash served with the U.S. Army from 1988 through the end of 1991, and was overseas during Gulf War I, or Operation Desert Storm, from October of 1990 to March of […]
There was a point a few years ago where Max Perkins’ parents asked him if dance was a hobby or something more serious. “It’s for real,” Perkins remembers telling them. Recently, Perkins, a senior at New Trier High School, was one of 20 student chosen from among 7,000 applicants to be a U.S. Presidential Scholar […]
Olivia Passalino, 18, of Lake Forest, remembers the first day she started teaching dance classes. Passalino and her friend, Nina Tannenbaum, had decided to form a new organization, Dancer to Dancer, to offer free dance classes to underserved children in Highland Park. On the first day in September of 2010, a gaggle of little girls […]
