15-05-2025
Around the Southland: Lemont students' drafting skills lauded, Master Chorale sets performance, more
After showing off their drafting skills, Lemont High School students were awarded three medals at the 2025 Illinois Design Educators Association state competition at Illinois State University in Normal.
Junior Mirella Miazga was runner-up in Architectural Board, junior Hubert Bydlon won third for Introductory Board and senior Rowyn Page earned third for Architectural Board. Miazga was state runner-up in Introductory Board last year.
To earn a spot in the competition, Miazga won first in Architectural Board, continuing the winning streak in regionals that Lemont has enjoyed since 2014. Page was runner-up in Architectural Board, and Bydlon was a regional winner in Introductory Board. The top two students in individual regional competitions go on to the state contest; first-place finishers in team events do as well.
Lemont has had at least one IDEA state qualifier for the last 17 of 18 years under the helm of teacher Scott Duensing.
South Holland Master Chorale presents 'Requiem' by Maurice Durufle at 4 p.m. May 18 at Thorn Creek Reformed Church, 1875 E.170th St., South Holland. Admission is free but donations will be accepted.
The piece, finished in 1947 by the French organist and composer, is based on the Catholic Mass for the Dead in Gregorian chant. The 70-voice chorale will be accompanied by an organist and a chamber orchestra.
Other selections are Mozart's hymn 'Misericordias Domini,' written when the composer was 19; 'Echo' by contemporary American composer Rob Dietz; and 'Cantique de Jean Racine,' created by French composer Gabriel Faure when he was 19. Chamber members will travel to Carnegie Hall in New York in June to sing Fauer's 'Requiem' as part of a performance with choirs from Canada, Europe and the United States.
Thanks to its eighth-grade Flossmoor Veterans' Time Machine local history program, Flossmoor Veterans' Memorial has won a Best of Illinois History award in public and educational programming for 2024 from the Illinois State Historical Society.
The project, done with Flossmoor School District 161's Parker Junior High School, offered seven days of local history class work focusing on the role Flossmoor veterans have played, especially five World War II service personnel who died and one WWII prisoner of war. The students also learned about Vietnam Lt. Col. Jeffrey Lemon, whose plane was shot down over Laos in 1971; Fireman Apprentice Darryl Dushon Edwards, Homewood-Flossmoor High School's first Black serviceman who died in a peacetime accident in the South China Sea; and Lt. Cmdr. Patrick Jude Murphy, who died Sept. 11, 2001, in the attack on the Pentagon.
Retired Flossmoor Mayor Paul Braun, the organization's president, and Kristine Condon, its secretary-treasurer, met with district faculty in the fall of 2024 to talk about the curriculum. About 300 eighth-grade and seventh-grade humanities students participated in the program in October, completing a report, project, interview or other artifact showing their new knowledge, and designed and decorated custom walls of honor.
The award was presented last month at a luncheon the historical society hosted in Springfield. Construction of the Flossmoor Veterans' Wall of Honor is expected to start soon. Information is at
The Matteson Area Public Library District and Pathlights have teamed up to offer Memory Cafe, a social gathering for people living with dementia and other forms of cognitive impairment and their care partners.
The next session is 2 to 3 p.m. May 20 at the library, 801 School Ave., Matteson. The program is available every third Tuesday of the month. Registration is required at or by calling 708-748-4431.
The program offers engaging activities such as music, travel and art and allows participants to enjoy time together with a goal of decreasing the social isolation that can accompany caregiving and dementia.
Heritage Quilters Guild of South Suburbia will host a meeting at 7 p.m. May 20 at Redeemer Lutheran Church, 651 E. 166th St., South Holland.
After the business meeting, the group will hear a lecture on Victorian undergarments, presented by Chris Moline. A sewing bee starts at 5 p.m. for members who want to gather before the meeting.
Information is at
The Wolf Lake Bi-State Wetlands, Wind & Water festival, celebrating its 25th year, starts at 9 a.m. May 24 with a mile walk between Wolf Lake and Powderhorn Lake and back.
The Association for the Wolf Lake Initiative sponsors the event. The group's president, Phil Willink, will lead the walk from 133rd and Avenue K south to 136th Street and east of Avenue K and back again.
A half-mile-long underground system has been engineered to prioritize safe passage that serves a diverse aquatic ecosystem. Between 2021 and 2024, more than 100 acres of wetlands were restored.
A second event of the Wetlands festival, a hike, begins at 2 p.m. at the entrance to the Mitigation Wetlands in Hammond. It lies a block west of 129th Street and Sheffield Avenue. Park bikes and cars near the entrance. Joe Kruczek, director of this year's cleanup of the Wolf Lake Watershed, will lead the hike, a tour of wildflowers, sedges, and shrubs and spring activity of water fowl and small animals.
Participants should wear long pants, sturdy shoes and long-sleeved shirts. Online registration is required for both events by May 22 and can be done at
Palss Park police officers will once again participate in the annual Cop on Rooftop fundraiser for Special Olympics from 5 a.m. to noon May 16 at Dunkin Donuts, 13029 S. LaGrand Road, Palos Park.
Money raised by donors giving money to officers on the ground will benefit the Law Enforcement Torch Run for Special Olympics Illinois. The run is an intrastate relay with more than 3,000 police officers covering 1,500 miles.
