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Won't You Please Adopt Me?
Local humane societies and animal shelters are looking for good homes
for a growing number of pets in need.
By Laura Fletcher
It was a brisk October morning in 2008, shortly after the public collapse of financial giants on Wall Street had signaled that the entire globe was heading into a grim economic downturn. North Elm Street, home to the Hinsdale Humane Society, was still silent except for the occasional passing of a pre-rush hour automobile, when Executive Director Lori Halligan opened the door of her facility, only to find yet another abandoned animal left beside the door.
This time, it was actually three kittens in a Rubbermaid bin. The tiny animals had been left overnight. “Most animals are abandoned in the fall or winter,” Halligan explains. “It’s upsetting because they’re exposed to dangerous temperatures. We know in many cases the owners are desperate, but we still wish that they would make an appointment to properly surrender their animals.”
Then again, many shelters are struggling to assist the families that call every day needing to give up their pets. “We have to turn people away every day,” confesses Michelle Groeper, director of Anderson Animal Shelter in South Elgin. “There’s simply not enough space.”
(For full story, see July/August 2009 issue.) |
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Farmed Out
The region’s once proud agricultural heritage continues to gradually fade away
By Jay Copp
Not so long ago, DuPage County was mostly farmland and nearly all residents had some sort of personal connection to farming. But the county’s last working farms — meaning a farmer with a full-fledged operation on his own property — dwindled to none over the last decade as developers carved our new subdivisions.
What’s left mostly are people like Bob Brackmann. Lumbering along in his tractor at 20 miles per hour up and down the roads of the county, the 54-year-old Brackmann draws second looks from passing drivers. As for unduly slowing traffic, most of the roads he travels are four-lane, so that’s not a problem.
A realtor as well as a farmer, Brackmann doesn’t run a traditional, large-scale, stand-alone agricultural operation, complete with a farmhouse and barn. Rather, he grows corn and soybeans on parcels of land he leases, driving his tractor from one parcel to the next. On an average day he hits a half dozen of his properties, traveling in a circular fashion.
Brackmann’s family has farmed in DuPage as far back as the mid-1800s, owning at one time 2,000 acres. But over time, much of the family’s farmland was turned to other uses, such as when the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County acquired the land that became Pratt’s Wayne Woods.
What will happen to the remaining farmland in DuPage and Kane counties?
(For full story, see July/August 2009 issue.)
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Staying Close to Home Schools
Local colleges give area students plenty of reasons to pursue studies nearby
By Laura Otto
For many students, “going away to college” is both a literal and figurative rite of passage, often involving fantasies of moving as far away from home as possible. But these six local students didn’t have to travel far to find their dream schools. They all take advantage of quality academics, diverse extracurricular opportunities and close-knit social communities — without leaving the western suburbs.
To search for a specific school's information, click here. To download the full education guide listings, click here (pdf).
(For full story, see July/August 2009 issue or download a pdf of the full story here)
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Cultivating a Personal Style
Turning your yard into an extension of your home . . .
and a reflection of yourself.
By Sara Pearsaul Vice
When you treat your outdoor space as an extension of your home’s interior and exterior design and functionality, your landscape can become an expression of your individual sense of style and lifestyle. Although landscape designers certainly exert a powerful influence on the design process, it is ultimately the homeowners who set the design direction.
The six residential landscapes profiled here show how west suburban homeowners have created very personal living spaces in the great outdoors.
(For full story, see July/August 2009 issue)
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Well-Dressed Walls
Distinctive colors and treatments create a backdrop for stunning interior spaces
By Lisa Sloan
When it comes to updating the look of your home, one of the quickest and most inexpensive is to paint or invest in creative wall treatments. From artful finishes to fresh new wall coverings, there are myriad ways to personalize your walls.
“The most cost-effective way to do something different is to change your walls and ceiling,” says John T. Olson, owner of John T. Olson Decorators in St. Charles, which has been in business for more than three decades and specializes in the installation of fine wall coverings, hand-painted murals and decorative paint finishes. “The results can be more dramatic than getting all new furniture.”
Janelle Tague, owner of Prestige Faux Design in New Lenox, agrees that wall treatment are one of the most important elements in a room’s décor. “You can have beautiful furniture or fine paintings,” she says, “but the final finish behind everything pulls it all together and adds that ‘wow’ factor.”
(For full story, see July/August 2009 issue)
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Precautionary Measures
Common sense tips for protecting kids against summer injury and illness
By Denise Linke
Nobody wants to spend a beautiful summer day comforting a sick or injured child in a doctor’s waiting room — or worse, a hospital emergency room. Yet pediatricians and ER doctors treat more than 700,000 children for injuries each year in the U.S., with warm-weather accidents causing the most cases, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).
“Summer is the peak time for kids to have accidents,” notes Dr. Laura Lemke, a pediatric orthopedic surgeon with Fox Valley Orthopedics in Geneva. “That’s when they tend to be the most physically active and push the envelope.”
(For full story, see July/August 2009 issue) |
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Town Focus on Oak Park
A welcoming blend of history, architecture, culture and human diversity
By Lynn Petrak
One notices a lot of things not typical of the average suburb when walking through the village of Oak Park — structures of global historic significance, quaint mom-and-pop shops with charming storefronts and residents and visitors from all walks of life.
Oak Park holds a decidedly distinctive place in the general metropolitan area, known for its famous sons like Frank Lloyd Wright and Ernest Hemingway, its stunning and groundbreaking architecture, its diversity of residents, and its welcoming of culture and entrepreneurship alike.
(For full story, see July/August 2009 issue) |
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Q&A with Ralph Covert
By Brittany Ashcroft
Glen Ellyn resident Ralph Covert is probably best known as the lead singer of the kids’ music group Ralph’s World. But while the music might be for kids, Covert prides himself on making the group adult-friendly as well, incorporating influences from The Beatles and The Beach Boys to Chicago blues and folk music.
His philosophy of only “making great records” is evident in the group’s popularity across the western suburbs and beyond. But Covert doesn’t stop there. He’s working on a children’s book and a musical, both due out this fall — all on top of welcoming a newborn son, Jude Scott, to the family back in March and a full summer tour schedule.
Catch Ralph’s World live on Sunday, July 26 at Morton Arboretum in Lisle, and on Saturday, August 29 at Highland Park’s Ravinia Festival.
(For full story, see July/August 2009 issue or download a pdf of the complete interview here.)
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