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SATURDAY FEBRUARY 15 | SUNDAY FEBRUARY 16 2020
SUNDAY BREAKFAST
SPORTS
Think they can dance? Yes. LFHS dancers shine in Florida, wow way to 2nd at nationals. P16
Choral director Christian Stirling on his love of music. P18
SOCIAL SCENE
Scenes from the Wood Family Foundation’s Chicago fundraiser. P9 FOLLOW US:
NO. 383 | A JWC MEDIA PUBLICATION
NEWS
United Way of Lake Country Celebrates a Decade of Reading Success
BONDY. PARKER BONDY HIGHLAND PARK HIGH SCHOOL SOPHOMORE HAS BECOME AN AGENT FOR MEANINGFUL MENTOR-MENTEE CONNECTIONS THROUGH ENTERPRISE TALENTHOOD
LOCAL LITERACY PROGRAM PRODUCES RESULTS FOR EARLY READERS EDITED BY DEBBIE LEE THE NORTH SHORE WEEKEND
While the North Shore takes pride in its excellent public schools, it is sometimes easy to forget that neighboring districts face challenges that seem impossible to surmount. At Waukegan Public School District, 69.7 percent of children are low-income, one-third are English language learners, and a quarter of the student population is chronically absent. But women like Diane E. Winter, Chief Judge 19th Judicial Circuit Court, actively work to move the needle on these statistics. For five years, she has served as a tutor for Reading Success, an early literacy program developed by the Continued on PG 8
Parker Bondy delivers a baseball lesson arranged via the Talenthood app. PHOTO COURTESY ELLIANA BONDY
was younger, I would have thought, ‘Wow, that’s cool. Sign me up.’ ” THE NORTH SHORE WEEKEND Parker Bondy, the Highland Park High School entrepreneur and philanthropist, serves as North Parker Bondy, the Highland Park High School Shore Region president of Talenthood, a com(HPHS) athlete, trains with a “one-more-rep” munity-based platform and app connecting Highland Park children (kindergarten through mindset. Translation: the sophomore baseball and bas- junior high school) with talented HPHS students ketball player likes to go another round after for instruction and mentoring. Accomplished, responsible teens share their practice, be it gobbling up more ground balls at shortstop in the spring or shooting more jumpers acumen and blueprints to success with youngsters in athletics, academics, technology, music, and from three-point hardwood in the winter. “I’m always interested in doing what it takes to creative hobbies. Talenthood’s tag line is, “Big get better in my sports,” Bondy says. “If there had kids teaching little kids.” Say a forward-thinking, been something like Talenthood around when I seventh-grade hoopster, with designs on playing BY BILL MCLEAN
varsity basketball at HPHS in three years, wants to add post moves and play better defense, as well as learn what HPHS varsity coaches expect from the program’s forwards and centers. Talenthood provides the instructor, a current HPHS varsity basketball player. The family of the budding athlete contacts the established athlete through Talenthood, and then they pick an hour to meet for a session ($40) at, say, the Recreation Center of Highland Park or—weather permitting—on a driveway with a basketball hoop and backboard. “Amazing bonds are created between high school students and the Talenthood kids they’re Continued on PG 8
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