Kudos | July 2018

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July 2018 View more

Photo Finish
Two local teams have statewide bragging rights for the next year as Illinois’ top high school track athletes. Varsity girls from Naperville North High School and varsity boys from Neuqua Valley High School both took first-place honors in May at the Illinois High School Association Track & Field 3A state meets at O’Brien Field in Charleston.

Raising Awareness
Members of the west suburban chapter of Moms Demand Action held a rally June 2 at Knoch Knolls Nature Center in honor of National Gun Violence Awareness Day. In support of the Chicago-based national Wear Orange campaign, the City of Naperville’s Millennium Carillon glowed orange for 24 hours, honoring the lives of Americans taken by gun violence.

Language Leaders
The National Security Agency and the National Foreign Language Center have given North Central College a $112,500 grant for its role as a Chinese language teaching and learning hub. The funds will enable the Naperville private school to offer a blended model program—one of only 28 in the nation—that combines online and face-to-face workshops in its STARTALK professional development offerings for K–16 teachers of Mandarin.

Patriot Pride
More than 40 members of the Daughters of the American Revolution Fort Payne chapter—who are all descendants of Revolutionary War patriots—recently celebrated the local organization’s 90 years of service to the community at Naperville Country Club. The Fort Payne chapter got its name from Captain Morgan L. Payne, who led a group of 50 men to help settlers build a fort on the land that is now Naper Settlement.

Honoring Soldiers
Local retailer Southern Tide and national nonprofit Folds of Honor recently joined forces to host a Stand to Honor fundraising event. Back-to-back volunteer participants stood in silence for 13 minutes—a number that reflects the folds in the American flag presented to the family of a fallen solider—over the course of the day. The nationwide event was held in 10 cities to raise money for educational scholarships for the children and spouses of our nation’s fallen and disabled soldiers.