Students celebrate their favorite Western Springs businesses in rhyme

Chicago Tribune

23-05-2025

An ode is a celebratory poem, meant to express gratitude and appreciation for some idealized notion, whether it be love, beauty, or a special hero.
With roots in ancient Greece and Rome, the writing is often grand and expressive, and loaded with imagery.
But Colin Benka, a seventh grader at McClure Junior High in Western Springs, composed a poem in the most modern American way — an Ode to Starbucks.
'I come here a lot with my family and I enjoy all the drinks and food, and it just seemed like a place that I could relate to,' he said last week.
Benka was part of a group of 50 students from English teacher Tammy Sluis' class who made their way through downtown Western Springs, planting their poems in front of the businesses they chose to honor.
He didn't have to do much research. 'I know a lot about it already, so I just described the things I learned about Starbuck from coming here and just wrote about how awesome it is,' he said.
Benka, who enjoys poetry but enjoys sports more, didn't hide his feelings for the Seattle-based coffee giant.
'I tried to express how great their food and drinks are and how they are really worth it,' he said. 'They always will brighten up your day and get it off to a good start.'
Like Benka, Elliot Meeks has been patronizing her favorite Western Springs business since she was young.
'I really like the Fruit Store,' she said. 'I used to go there all the time when I was little and I love fruit. It's always very welcoming and the guys are really nice in there. It's a nice environment to be in.'
And like Benka, Meeks didn't need to do much additional research.
'I've gone there so many times,' she said.
Owen Hebert wrote his poem about the Colonial Barber Shop.
'I always go there,' he said. 'Actually I went there yesterday and got a haircut. They're super kind there, everyone greets you, and the shop's really cool.'
Sluis talked about the goals of the ode assignment.
'One of the learning goals for the students is working with figurative language in a number of contexts,' Sluis said. 'We were working on odes around the building and giving appreciation for things around McClure, and we just expanded it.
'So often, the community doesn't see all the hard work the students do. This way, the students can appreciate their community and the community can appreciate them as well.'
After previous trips around the school and nearby parks, they decided to focus on the downtown business district.
'Businesses serve a very valuable function within the community,' Sluis said. 'For those businesses they don't know, it gave them an opportunity to research why they are valuable to our community.'
Sluis was happy with how the day went.
'It was quite wonderful,' she said after her last class of the day. 'A few of the business owners came out and took pictures of the kids as I was walking with my students. The kids were really touched to see how appreciative the business owners were. It meant a lot to them.'
Sluis said she had every intention of making the exercise a yearly event, but she's not sure how long the paper odes will remain posted.
'I'm hoping they'll stand up to the elements. We host the Memorial Day Parade and it brings out a lot of the community to the downtown area and it will give the kids some visibility.'