Two Riverside-Brookfield High School seniors won Crystal Pillar Awards from the Chicago/Midwest Chapter of the National Association of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) in April for their advanced television projects.
Haley Buntrock won for her music video ‘Falling” and Marisa Pelayo won for producing the ‘RBTV News.”
RBTV students also won four honorable mentions for their work. Senior Mitchell Herrmann took home two honorable mentions for his talk show ‘DVD Review”; junior Marie Morganthaler won an honorable mention for her movie trailer ‘To the Tempo”; and Buntrock won an honorable mention for her movie trailer ‘LACE.”
The Crystal Pillar is the highest award a high school student can win from NATAS.
RBTV students also won top honors from the 2012 Illinois Radon Video Contest. Students produced 30-second public service announcements. Herrmann took first place; juniors Stasha Morales and Helen Moscinski took second place; and juniors Joe Marino and Jordan Mannes took third place.
All of the videos can be viewed on the RBTV website or on YouTube at www.youtube.com/myrbtv.@
Top cops
On May 2 the Brookfield-LaGrange Park Lions Club presented its Firefighter of the Year and Police Officer of the Year awards to personnel from both LaGrange Park and Brookfield.
Brookfield firefighters receiving awards were Brad Pacyga and Brian Baldwin. Receiving an award for Police Officer of the Year was Brookfield Officer Raymond Paton.
The Lions Club also awarded grants to each of the fire and police departments. The grants will fund roof ladders for the Brookfield Fire Department and crossing guard rain jackets and stop signs for the Brookfield Police Department.
The Brookfield Auxiliary Police is awarding two of its officers the Presidentfs Volunteer Service Award for ‘sustained commitment to civic participation,” according to a press release issued by the organization.
The award recognizes individuals, families and groups that have achieved a certain standard, measured by the number of hours of service over a 12-month period or cumulative hours earned over the course of a lifetime.
For the year ending 2011, Auxiliary Officer John Cisneros and Auxiliary Officer William Klein are recipients of this award. Cisneros volunteered a total of 183.25 hours to the community in 2011, while Klein volunteered 202.75 hours.
Riverside Police Chief Thomas Weitzel participated on a panel on violence reduction and prevention at the 2012 Police Executive Research Forumfs (PERF) Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. on April 27. The conference draws more than 200 police executives from across the country. All expenses for Weitzelfs travel were paid for by PERF, according to a press release.
In April the Riverside Police Department announced that Detective Sgt. David Krull was awarded a nationwide grant for law enforcement agencies and municipalities to attend the International Homicide Investigatorfs Conference in New Orleans in June.
The award was made through the National Institute of Justice and the national Law Enforcement and Corrections technology Center System. Krull is also a team supervisor for the west suburban West Suburban Major Crimes Task Force (WESTAF).@
Ifd be honored
At its annual meeting in April, the Riverside Branch of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) honored Jean Sussman, of Riverside, as its named gift honoree. A $500 gift has been made in her name to the AAUW Educational Foundation, which provides money to advance education, research and self-development for women and to foster equity and positive societal change.
Sussman has been a member of the branch since 1994 and is a member of the Literature Group and the new In-Between special interest group. She holds a Ph.D. in agricultural and applied economics from the University of Minnesota and was a director at Quaker and PepsiCo for many years.
And the winners are …
Twenty-four patrons of the North Riverside Public Library were the lucky winners during the annual National Library Week raffle in April.
Janet Kosik won a Lettuce Entertain You gift card, donated by Newman Architecture; Ellen Cullinane and Rosa Martinez won North Riverside Mall gift cards, donated by the Friends of the Library; and Jeff Chrusciel, Arlene Grosser, Christine Lojewski, Sylvia Noth and Kaila Sweeney won tickets to the North Riverside Players presentation of Guys and Dolls, donated by the North Riverside Players.
In addition, Garrett Foy won a Hunger Games T-shirt; Alexandra Kusnierz and Grace Watylyk won Adventures of Tin Tin shoulder bags; and Zammy Arcos, Paige Beggs, Teresa Hall, Paulette Marszalec, Alex Mercado, Kylie Ondra, James Orth, Amanda Palandri, Regina Pineda and Katarina Todorovic won passes to the North Riverside Mall Theater, all donated by Classic Cinemas.
Connie Garcia also won a reading light and Philip Cwik and Malgorzata Janas each won a ‘Read” tote bag, all donated by Demco.
Patrons were given a raffle ticket for each book they checked out during National Library Week, which was celebrated from Monday through Saturday, April 8 through 14.
Adult winners of the Library Foundation drawing are Jane Kasal, who won a gift basket, and Lily Salinas, Carolina Ondra and Dennis Kalinoski, who each won a cookbook. Child winners are Emilio Azevedo and Amaya Gonzalez, Barnes and Noble gift cards, and Mike Labellarte and Shane Gaughan, Toys R Us gift cards.
On campus
Riverside-Brookfield High School seniors Jonathan Kingzette and Margaret McLaughlin received honorable mention recognition for the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) Academic All-State team. Each school can nominate two students for the team. To be considered, students must have at least a 3.50 GPA on a 4-point scale, have participated in at least two IHSA sponsored activities and possess outstanding citizenship qualities. Kingzette was on the Bulldogs’ soccer and track teams, while McLaughlin was on the school’s cross country and track teams.
Brookfield resident Michael Quintana received his certification in massage therapy from the College of Allied Health Sciences at the National University of Health Sciences commencement ceremony on April 19.
Several local students were named to the honor rolls at Trinity High School in River Forest for the third block of the 2011-12 school year.
Attaining first honors (3.75 GPA or higher) were Riverside residents Olivia Jordan, Magdalena O’Connor, Amelija Siliunas, Isabelle Bacidore, Hannah Spohnholtz, Sarrah Spohnholtz, Jane Alm, Nikole Crane, Grace Lattner, Emma Mosbrook and Carrie Reilly.
Second honors (3.3-3.74 GPA) went to Brookfield resident Chelsea Doyle and Riverside residents Samantha Liska and Paulina Marquez.
Brookfield-LaGrange Park School District 95 in April named its School Citizen of the Year “SCOTY” Award winners, given annually by the West 40 Intermediate Educational Service Center to recognize “students who have been chosen by their schools as good citizens and models for others to emulate.”
Ryan Swift earned the award at S.E. Gross Middle School in Brookfield, while Scott Lagler was given the award at Brook Park School in LaGrange Park. The two students were honored at a school board meeting in April.
Riverside-Brookfield High School students Jimmy Hamera, James Wang and Alex Radicanin competed in the U.S. Chess Federation’s National High School Championship in Minneapolis on April 13-15.
Out of a field of 280 players in the Under 1,600 category, Hamera finished 182nd, while Wang placed 188th and Radicanin finished 197th. All are seniors at RBHS and are members of the RBHS chess team. The team was sponsored by the James McHugh Construction Co.
Brookfield resident Michelle Krankoski graduated magna cum laude at Elmhurst College’s midyear commencement ceremony. She received her bachelor’s degree in speech/language pathology with minors in French and psychology. She will begin her master’s degree program in speech/language pathology at the University of Illinois in June.
Brookfield resident Emily Karl was one of three Lyons Township High School artists to win silver medals at the 2012 National Scholastic Art Awards. Karl won the award in the printmaking category.
