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T HE ENTERPRISE Your Complete Source For Plainfield News Since 1887
thursday, May 14, 2015
Volume 127 no. 41
enterprisepublications.com
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serving Will and Kendall counties
24 pages
Wesmere teacher earns Golden Apple Lee Parrott becomes only the second District 202 teacher to receive prestigious award
Expo helps increase environmental awareness in the community
By JonaThan saMPlEs ManaGinG editor
news@enterprisepiblications.com @plainfieldNews
hen most people crochet, they use a hook and some type of yarn or thread. But when Andi Vanderhoek gets together with her mother, Donna Morrow, they prefer to use plarn. That’s right, p-l-a-r-n. The pair makes plarn – plastic yarn – from plastic grocery bags and turns them into surprisingly soft sleeping mats that they donate to area homeless shelters. They say that crocheting just one mat can help keep 500 to 800 bags out of landfills. Their Plainfield chapter of New Life for Old Bags was just one of the organizations that participated in Conservation Plainfield’s Environmental Expo 2015 at the Plainfield Central High School Fieldhouse on May 9. The event featured green-related organizations along with a couple of live animal demonstrations.
A Plainfield teacher is one of 10 in the Chicago area to earn a 2015 Golden Apple Award for Excellence in Teaching. Lee Parrott, a second grade teacher at Wesmere Elementary School, lEE ParroTT received a surprise classroom visit Tuesday morning from Golden Apple Foundation representatives. Wesmere then held schoolwide assembly to honor Parrott and his achievement. “Obviously, this is a very big deal for Lee, and for District 202,” district spokesman Tom Hernandez said in an email announcing the accomplishment. “He is only the second [District] 202 teacher to be named a Golden Apple winner, and one of only three to be named a finalist, in the program’s 30-year history.” Parrott, who also celebrated his birthday Tuesday, joins 2008 Golden Apple winner and former JFK Middle School teacher Holly Bontkowski as the only District 202 faculty to receive the award. Sherry Debouef, a teacher at Bonnie McBeth Learning Center, was a finalist for the Golden Apple in 2012. More than 600 teachers throughout Illinois were nominated for the 2015 Golden Apple. Last month, Parrott and 29 other finalists were honored at a Celebration of Excellence. During Tuesday’s announcement, Parrott received an even greater show of
sEE ThE full sTory on PaGE 5
(TOP) Environmental Expo attendee Jasmine Shaw adds some seeds from native prairie perennials to her pot of dirt to take home. Plainfield Central High School’s Bio-Explorations Club provided the seeds. (BOTTOm) Andi Vanderhoek of New Life for Old Bags holds up a sleeping mat she recently crocheted. The plastic yarn used for this mat was created by Lincoln Elementary School students. (Photos By Dave Sennerud | For The Enterprise)
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