Thursday, June 28, 2012
Do you have a photo you'd like to see featured in Snapshot? Send it to andre.salles @patch.com.
On Monday, U.S. Rep. Randy Hultgren, R-14, posed for the above picture with 11 local high school graduates that he has nominated for three different military academies: the U.S Air Force Academy, the U.S. Naval Academy, and the West Point Military Academy. Right out front, to Hultgren’s right, is Riley Vann, co-valedictorian of Oswego High School. She’s been nominated to the Air Force Academy, and you can read more about her here. Others pictured, left to right: Nicholas Vandiver, St. Charles (U.S. Naval Academy) Mitchell Thomas Heaton, Batavia (U.S. Naval Academy) Thomas James Hinds, St. Charles (U.S. Military Academy) Taylor Edward Andrews, Elburn (U.S. Military Academy) Evan James Finnane, Elgin (U.S. Military Academy) Brian Raymond …
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Tom Kozlowicz of Yorkville will carry the Olympic torch for 300 yards through Birmingham, England, on Sunday, one of only 18 Americans to participate in the relay this year.
Tom Kozlowicz calls it the greatest honor he can imagine. On Thursday, this Yorkville resident and Oswego hotel manager will board a plane for Heathrow Airport in London. And on Sunday, he’ll become one of only 18 Americans to carry the 2012 Olympic torch. As you might expect, he’s excited. On Tuesday, he spread that excitement to members of the Greater Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce, breathlessly relating the details of his selection for the torch relay, and rattling off facts about the Olympics. (The first Olympic torch relay was held in 1936, for instance.) And he brought a paper and cardboard replica of the torch, made for him by a young friend, and proudly showed it off. Kozlowicz, 67, is a manager at the Holiday Inn Express in …
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Educators at Churchill Elementary School have teamed up to organize a Saturday benefit for Leah Pierson, an Oswego High School student with severe scoliosis. Leah had surgery last week.
One thing you can say about the Oswego community: they rally around those in need, helping out however they can. This Saturday will be no exception. A group of educators from Churchill Elementary School has organized a garage sale to benefit Leah Pierson and her family. Leah was born with severe scoliosis, a curvature of the spine that can eventually cause significant health problems. According to Leah’s father, Todd Pierson, the family tried braces and back exercises when Leah, now 15 and an Oswego High School student, was younger, but to no avail. She needed surgery to correct the problem, and last Wednesday, that’s exactly what she had. Todd said they made a foot-long incision in Leah’s back, and inserted rods screwed to her vertebrae …
41.683797
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Oswego High School
4250 State Route 71, Oswego, IL
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1349930
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Tuesday, June 12, 2012
The Oswego resident is planning a second Fourth of July living memorial.
Pat Gavros' personal patriotism challenge started with the Arlington West project in Santa Barbara. She saw the crosses erected on the beach, each representing a soldier killed in Iraq. She wanted to find patriotism on a very personal level; she wanted to have faith in a country, in an American Dream, that seemed to be slipping away. She started a 52-week challenge that officially ended May 30. She shared her story Tuesday at a Yorkville Area Chamber of Commerce Woman 2 Woman lunch. As you can see, she's still going strong.
Thursday, June 7, 2012
Friends, friends and community members gathered to remember Alexis Banuelos, Brian Herrera and Tyler Montgomery in Plainfield Wednesday night.
On Monday, three young people were taken much too soon. On Wednesday, hundreds of friends, neighbors and total strangers gathered in the darkness, candles flickering, not to mourn the loss, but to celebrate their lives. Tyler Montgomery, 19, of Plainfield and his 18-year-old girlfriend, Alexis Banuelos, were planning to have dinner with the Naperville teen’s parents on Monday. But first, they went for a ride with their friend and former District 202 classmate Brian Herrera. Herrera was driving a black Ford coupe when he made a turn in front of a semi-trailer heading east on Route 126 near Oswego. The driver of the truck, which carried 40,000 pounds of sand, wasn’t able to stop in time, and the semi flipped onto its side, pinning the car …
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Chairman John Purcell said independent audit not needed.
Kendall County Board member Dan Koukol has agreed to credit the county for three meeting payments - and Chairman John Purcell thinks that should be the final word on the matter. Purcell reviewed Koukol's meeting pay vouchers over the past year and found that Koukol, of Oswego, was improperly paid an $85 per diem three times over the past year. County board members request meeting payments by submitting vouchers, usually once a month, so Koukol is going to attend three meetings without requesting the associated $85 pay, Purcell said. Purcell's review sharply contrasts with Finance Committee Chairman Anne Vickery's review, which found Koukol was improperly paid for more than 50 meetings since taking office in December 2010. Purcell started …
41.639095
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Kendall County Administrative Services
111 W Fox Rd, Yorkville, IL
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Jessica Demes and Riley Vann share the honor of leading the class of 2012.
It takes a special kind of person to be valedictorian of your senior class. And this year, Oswego High School has two such special people. They're tops in a class of 491 graduates. Here, as provided by District 308, is a little bit about both of them. Ladies and gentlemen, Jessica Demes and Riley Vann, co-valedictorians of Oswego High School’s class of 2012. Jessica Demes Jessica Demes is a lifelong learner. She wants to do everything, try everything and learn about all that the world has to offer. She approaches each class as she approaches everything in her life, with equal enthusiasm and excitement for learning. During her time at Oswego High School, Jessica has successfully taken Honors, Accelerated Honors and Advanced Placement …
Monday, June 4, 2012
Ken Mindar of Montgomery runs Photo ER, and brings damaged photographs back to life for a living. Now he's taken on his biggest challenge - restoring thousands of photos from a Massachusetts fire.
Seeing it for the first time is heartbreaking. Wedding photos. Graduation pictures. Family portraits. Thousands of photographs, documenting more than 100 years of the history of a single family from Massachusetts. And all of them are burned, singed, melted and fused, damaged in a massive fire. These thousands of photos now sit in the Montgomery garage of Ken and Barbara Mindar. And over the next six months, Ken Mindar will use every tool at his disposal to restore them. Mindar runs a business called Photo ER, and saving fire- and flood-damaged photos is his specialty. This is the biggest job Mindar’s ever undertaken. His clients built a 12,000-square-foot home in Massachusetts last year, and had just moved in, when a fire wiped out nearly …
Friday, June 1, 2012
Part of the money will be used to buy kits to teach students about sustainable energy, according to Russ Harrison, who procured the donation.
An anonymous donor has stepped up with a second gift this year to a District 308 school. According to Hunt Club Elementary School Principal Phillip Murray, a donation of $5,000 has been made to Hunt Club’s Home and School organization. The donor remains anonymous, but works through Russ and Christa Harrison, an Oswego couple with two sons, Alex and Sachairi, enrolled at Hunt Club. The Harrisons have four children in the Oswego School District, and Russ Harrison has said he has grown tired of waiting for the state of Illinois to pay money owed to the schools. So a few months ago, he and his wife began talking to friends of theirs looking to make some private donations. Harrison said this second grant was offered under the condition that …
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Wendt is currently the superintendent of the Ankeny Community School District in Iowa. He will receive a base salary of $225,000 to lead the Oswego School District.
The Oswego School District has a new superintendent. His name is Matthew Wendt, and on Thursday night, the District 308 Board approved a three-year contract with him to take over from Dan O’Donnell, who resigned in February. O’Donnell’s last day will be June 30, and Wendt’s first will be July 1. Wendt is currently the superintendent of the Ankeny Community School District, located in Polk County, Iowa, six miles outside Des Moines. It’s the 10th largest school district in the state, with about 9,000 students, preschool through high school, in 13 buildings. Wendt has been superintendent there since 2007. Wendt has a doctorate in educational administration from the University of Arkansas. Board President Bill Walsh said the similarities …
Rachael B.
12:25 pm on Friday, June 29, 2012
Exciting news! Congratulations to all of these hard-working, accomplished students and our leaders of tomorrow! more ›