Through their membership in the Congressional Youth Leadership Conference, Alyssa Kahl, Tara McCormack and Samantha Krasinski filled out forms, shelled out more than $2,000 each in summer 2008 to be among 7,000 student from around the world to take part in the inaugural experience.

From left, senior Tara McCormack, freshman Samantha Krasinski and senior Alyssa Kahle of Ridgewood Community High School all attended the inauguration of President Barack Obama last week.
(Ruthie Hauge/Staff Photographer)

McCormack and Krasinski, 15, were several blocks away, but they heard President Barack Obama's inaugural address over loudspeakers.

"It was just amazing to watch the whole world come together for just one guy," said McCormack, 18.

The students were bused by the conference to the University of Maryland to hear an amazing roster of guest speakers. The keynote address was given by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Doris Kearns, who spoke of the lives of presidents Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Journalist Lisa Ling urged the students to get involved with global issues. Former Vice President Al Gore and former Secretary of State also addressed the students.

"I liked Bishop Desmond Tutu's approach," Kahle acknowledged. "Very light-hearted."

McCormack admitted sneaking into a reception, where she actually met Gore.

Krasinski talked about going on a dinner cruise, complete with armed Coast Guard officers on board.

All three will remember attending their own inaugural ball. The conference rented the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum. The affair was strictly black tie. All of the girls brought formal wear for the occasion. Kahle wore a "50s meets the 80s" black dress; McCormack had a black dress of medium length with "sparkles" and a black bow; and Krasinski wore a long black gown with a pink bow.

"Chris Daughtry was the entertainment," they said.

At the airport, the girls bought sweatshirts. Krasinski bought shirts, a headband, a pin and a copy of The Washington Post.

"I even saw Obama's face on a pie at a stand," Kahle marveled.

The students arrived in Washington on Saturday before the inauguration. They returned to the Chicago area on the following Wednesday, with souvenirs and some pretty priceless memories.

Article written by Wynn Koebel Foster in the Thursday, January 29, 2009 issue of the Pioneer Press Norridge and Harwood Heights News and online at http://www.pioneerlocal.com/norridge/news/1399951,no-rhsobama-012909-s1.article. Used with permission.

Person	Ext	VM	HH	E-Mail
Ewa Adamska	275	704	804	eadamska@ridgenet.org
Megan Cantos	227	768	868	mcantos@ridgenet.org
Justin Gates	227	775		jgates@ridgenet.org
Mavis Netterstrom Activity Director, Division Head: English, ESL, Social Studies, World Languages	277	277	812	mnetterstrom@ridgenet.org
Robert St. John	227	702	802	rstjohn@ridgenet.org
David Wlodarczyk	227	725	825	dwlodarczyk@ridgenet.org

The tree, which was growing at the Coral Bowling Alley, 4655 North Cumberland Avenue, was cut down in 1995 to make room for a new condominium development. Norridge Village Historian Myron Petrakis, realizing the tree was the oldest in the village, asked Public Works crews to preserve a section of its trunk for posterity.

When its rings were counted, officials learned it was 137 years old in 1995. It began life in 1858 - two years before Abraham Lincoln was first elected president of the United States.

At Petrakis' request, students in Robert Saint John's honors world cultures class at Ridgewood High School set out to discover significant events in science, politics, economics, industry and culture during the oak tree's lifetime. Each student was assigned a five-year time span. The class project, completed last year, was printed in a booklet, which is also currently on display at the Eisenhower Library.

During the tree's first year of life in 1858, Minnesota became the 32nd state, a pencil with an attached eraser was invented by Hyman Lipman, and Macy's Department Store opened its doors for business in New York City.

The oak was two years old when the Pony Express made its first run; 12 years old when the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery. When the first telephone book was issued in 1878 in New Harbor, Conn. - with listings for 50 subscribers - the tree was 20.

The tree was 38 in 1896 when the Tootsie Roll debuted and the first modern Olympic Games were staged in Athens, Greece. The tree was 65 in 1923 when Firestone began producing inflatable tires and "Time Magazine" published its first issue.

The oak was 100 years old in 1958, when the United States launched Explorer 1, its first artificial satellite; the United States and Canada formed the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD); and Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward were married.

During 1995, its last year of life, scientists discovered a galaxy 15 billion light years from earth, using a telescope in Hawaii.

As well as documenting world and national events, the students marked the tree's rings with notable dates in Norridge's history.

Ridgewood students who worked on the tree-stump project include James Konstantopoulos, Krystian Powala, Mike Applehans, Paul Sierbinski, Tom Biel, Anthony Gutierrez, Francis Tylka, Peter Rewolinski, Wojciech Chajec, Marcin Jasinski, Gloria Rodriguez, Ewa Kielar, Stephanie Schweitzer, Katy Orland, Rebecca Carver, Margaret Drag, Kathy Mecinski, Margaret Lechowicz and Kayla Strejc.

After its stay at Ridgewood and the Eisenhower Library, the stump will return to its permanent residence at the Steve Nosko Historical Collection, which is housed at the Estelle Sieb Center, 7774 West Irving Park Road.

Call the Eisenhower Public Library at (708) 867-7828 for further information.

Written by Wynn Koebel Foster in the January 27, 2005 edition of the Pioneer Press Norridge News

"Some people have sent in pictures. For others, there are only names," Lupo said. "We want to recognize those students who have taken on the challenge of the defense of freedom."

At Giles Elementary School, in Norridge, students will observe a moment of silence to honor the victims of September 11, 2001.

"We're discussing what else we might do this year," said Kerry Leiby, principal. "On the first anniversary, we released balloons."

Middle-school students at Giles learn about the attacks in social studies. The events are discussed in the Prentice-Hall series Norridge District 80 adopted two years ago.

Five years ago, Giles' sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade students were very young, Leiby noted.

Things are more low key at Pennoyer District 79, in Norridge.

Shortly after September 11, 2001, Pennoyer purchased CD-ROMs on the terrorist attacks.
Students in middle school watched them and discussed the events.

On the first anniversary of September 11, 2001, the school's middle-school students made a collage in tribute to the victims. But Pennoyer's junior-high social studies teacher Julia Peters doesn't plan to focus much on terrorism this year.

"We'll concentrate more on what it means to be an American," she said. "We'll look at what unites us."

Still, Pennoyer District 79 Superintendent Sue Miceli acknowledges the attacks have made an impact at her school and at others in the area.

"Has our security been beefed up?" she asked. "Oh, my gosh, yes. Absolutely."

Pennoyer's administrators -- and their counterparts at Norridge District 80 and Union Ridge District 86, in Harwood Heights -- are working with their local police departments and with the Norwood Park Fire Protection District.

"We have to have security plans for all sorts of contingencies," Miceli explained. "We practice lockdowns, and we formulate plans for events like bomb threats and hazmat incidents."

In fact, Miceli had a September 1st appointment with the command staff at the Norridge Police Department. They were planning to discuss how Miceli could most efficiently gather all of her students inside the school building and plan alternative sites for her to take them to in case of a threat to the building itself.

Article written by Wynn Koebel Foster, Staff Writer for the Pioneer Press Norridge and Harwood Heights News and published in the September 7, 2006 issue and online at http://www.pioneerlocal.com/cgi-bin/ppo-story/localnews/current/no/09-07-06-1021536.html. Used with permission.

Ridgewood freshman Kasia Blachut throws a bag of recyclables into a recycling garbage truck March 22, 2007. (Photo by Jason Brown, Staff Photographer for the Pioneer Press Norridge and Harwood Heights News)

Kermit the Frog could tell students at Ridgewood High School, in Norridge, that "It's Not Easy Being Green." But he could also tell them that being green is sometimes very worthwhile.

As part of a geography/climate unit in his world history and two honors world cultures classes, Robert Saint John showed students the 2007 Academy Award winning film on global warming -- "An Inconvenient Truth," narrated by former Vice President Al Gore. Afterwards, he asked his students to write reaction/response papers to the film.

Ridgewood freshman Kasia Blachut throws a bag of recyclables into a recycling garbage truck March 22, 2007. (Photo by Jason Brown, Staff Photographer for the Pioneer Press Norridge and Harwood Heights News)

"I was blown away by the overwhelming response of 'What can we do here at Ridgewood to help?'" Saint John said. "We decided to start the World Cultures Recycle Challenge. Our catch phrase was 'Go Green.' Our goal was recycling as much glass, plastic and aluminum as possible."

Freshman Agnieszka Zabielski, 15, suggested Saint John's three classes engage in a little friendly recycling competition with each other.

"We recycle at home -- plastics, paper, cans, just about anything that can be recycled," said Zabielski. "I live in Harwood Heights. We have separate recycling bins."

Saint John offered the 75 students in his classes some incentives -- a penny for each recyclable item, up to $50, plus extra credit on a test and doughnuts for the winning class. Cheryl Flinn, Ridgewood's business manager, told students the school would match Saint John's pennies. They planned to pool the money and use it to purchase a tree to be planted on school grounds, at 7500 West Montrose Avenue, in Norridge.

"Our goal was to collect 2,000 items," Saint John explained. "The project took on a life of its own though."

Twice a week, on Wednesdays and Fridays, throughout the month-long project, Saint John and students Maggie Bobek and Zabielski counted what they'd collected. They put the recyclables in plastic garbage bags. Then, in a move clearly not designed to enhance St. John's job security, they stacked the bags in the office of Brent Anderson, his department's chairman.

"He was a good sport about it," Saint John insisted, "and I kept telling the kids, 'You've got to rinse these things off.'"

Ziebielski even imported some recyclables. Her mother's coworkers at Rainbow Hospice, in Park Ridge, contributed what they could to the project.

"I was really into this," she said. "It was really fun."

Saint John's Block 1 honors class -- which includes Ziebielski -- will enjoy some extra credit and some extra calories. Yesterday, they planned to eat the doughnuts St. John promised the winners for collecting 3,525 recyclables of the more than 5,579 aluminum, glass and plastic items the students turned in during the month. Saint John is hoping some judicious shopping with the incentive money will buy more than just one tree for Ridgewood's campus.

Article written by Staff Writer Wynn Koebel Foster in the Thursday, April 5, 2007 issue of the Pioneer Press Norridge and Harwood Heights News and online at http://www.pioneerlocal.com/norridge/news/326527,no-globalwarm-040507-s1.article. Used with permission.