Student journalists from Oak Lawn, Lemont shine at state
The journalism team from Oak Lawn Community High School brought a top-5 finish home to the south suburbs after six of its members were judged among the best of their peers at the 2023 IHSA Journalism State Finals last week at Heartland Community College in Normal.
OLCHS’s Brendan Gallian placed first in Sports Writing and Christian Sweis took first place in Editorial Cartooning. Senior Ash Argueta earned fourth place in Copy Editing, junior Grace Tynski paced fifth in Feature Writing, and the dynamic duo of Mia Reyes and Staci Sandquist took fifth place in Yearbook Theme development.
It was the third year in a row Argueta reached the state final.
“Even though I didn’t win first place, it was still exhilarating to finally get called up onto the stage and receive a medal. It was an exciting conclusion to my high school journalism career,” he said in an OLCHS news release.
Lemont High School senior Andrew Kula became the first two-time journalism state champion in the history of his school after he captured the Radio News category at the state competition. Kula was a repeat winner in the event, which was titled Broadcast News when he won the state title in 2022.
Lemont Junior Caroline Vranas placed fifth in Headline Writing to earn a state medal, while senior Reagan Russell (Review Writing) and juniors Ella Murray (Newspaper Design) and Leila Rexhepi (Photo Story Telling) also participated in state finals competition.Kula and Russell both made their second state finals appearances, while Murray, Rexhepi and Vranas all were making their state finals debuts.
Palos students collect 1 million tabs
After eight years of collecting aluminum pull tabs for Ronald McDonald House, students at Palos West Elementary School have reached a big milestone.
After this spring’s drive the students have now collected over 1 million aluminum tabs, the equivalent of 790 pounds, which qualifies them to have their school’s name placed on the “Thanks a Million” tree at the Ronald McDonald House in Oak Lawn. This year, students collected a total of 109 pounds of tabs giving them an 8-year total of 921 pounds.
Palos West Nurse Terri Segredo has organized the drive each year and said that she was happy to reach the 1 million mark before she retires this June. She said the pull tabs from pop and soup cans are worth quite a bit of money to the Ronald McDonald House which recycles them for their aluminum.
Many Palos 118 families save the tabs year-round waiting for the school’s annual collection drive, which includes a friendly competition each year to see which classroom can collect the most tabs. This year, preschool teacher Lee Harwig’s class was the winner with 32 pounds of tabs.
Marian Catholic fundraiser nets $100K, lots of service hours
Marian Catholic High School in Chicago Heights recently raised $100,000 through its annual Day of Giving Day of Giving, making it the school’s the most successful drive to date.
The drive also included a day of service by students, staff and faculty, who contributed more than 3,000 hours of volunteer work to the community. Some of the activities included planting trees around the school with the Morton Arboretum, visiting local grade schools, creating care packages, helping clean a local church, volunteering at an animal shelter and painting a mural.
Bridge Teen Center holding membership drive
The Bridge Teen Center, 15555 S. 71st Ct., Orland Park, is offering teens and families a chance throughout May to tour the center’s 9,600 square foot facility, meet the staff, learn about its free programs.
May Membership Month is the precursor to The Bridge’s summer semester that offers over 120 programs and events from June through August, including art programs, music lessons, culinary programs, trades-focused programs, hangout events and more.
Friday night events are scheduled every other week from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. starting June 2 and typically include live music, karaoke and restaurant food samples.
The Bridge also offers students job readiness training opportunities at The Bridge Thrift Store.
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Membership free and open to students who will be in 7th-12th grade in the fall. Information is at thebridgeteencenter.org.
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