MEMORIAL DAY

Area events honor fallen military May 30

Here is a sample of some of the events that will commemorate Memorial Day 2016.

DeKalb

DeKalb’s Memorial Day Parade and Program will be held May 30. The day’s observance will begin at 8:30 a.m. with a Memorial Tank Service, north First Street and Lincoln Hwy. At 9 a.m., the Memorial Day Parade steps off at corner of north Third Street and Lincoln Hwy., followed by a brief Memorial Day program on the Ellwood House Museum’s east lawn at 10 a.m. The mansion, 509 N. First St., will be open free of charge after the parade and service.

Preceding the parade, the 2016 Mayors Memorial Day Breakfast will be held from 6:45-7:30 a.m. at the Elks DeKalb Lodge No. 765, 209 S. Annie Glidden Road. For more information contact Frank Beierlotzer at ffb66@juno.com or (815) 758-5788. 

Genoa

The Genoa Veterans Home, 311 S. Washington St., is the site for its Memorial Weekend Steak Dinner at 6 p.m. May 28. Cost is $12 per person. RSVP by calling (815) 784-5967.

Kirkland

Kirkland will celebrate Memorial Day 1 p.m. May 30 at Franklin Township Park, Third and South streets. Festivities include guest speakers and the wreath-laying ceremony. Food and refreshments will be available for purchase.

Somonauk

The Somonauk Memorial Day Celebration will be held in the center of town. Included in the festivities will be a Memorial parade, water fights and Fay’s BBQ pork chops. For more information visit www.somonauk.net/

Sycamore

Join the Memorial Day Observance at 7:30 a.m. May 28 at the Sycamore High School flagpole. Sycamore High School is at 555 Spartan Trail.

Bradley L. Shortridge

GENOA-KINGSTON

CUSD 424 school official new member of prestigious state board

Bradley L. Shortridge, assistant superintendent for finance and operations, CSBO at Genoa-Kingston CUSD 424, was officially instated recently onto the Illinois Association of School Business Officials (ASBO) Board of Directors at the association’s 65th Annual Conference and Exhibitions.

Board service is the highest level of involvement in Illinois ASBO. As a board member, Shortridge will be a part of strategic conversations and have access to a plethora of professional development opportunities that ultimately can benefit CUSD 424’s students.

Shortridge applied to be on the board in order to give back to the professional organization that he has received so much from in his career. A 10-year Illinois ASBO member, Shortridge has actively participated as a member and now chair of the Leadership Development Professional Development Committee. He has served as a professional development presenter and an author for the association’s quarterly magazine.

Shortridge will begin his three-year term on the board in July.

SYCAMORE

Young Scout’s Eagle project has the elderly in mind

A Boy Scout’s love for his grandmother inspired his Eagle Scout project.  Preston Ruud, a Life Scout with BSA Troop 16 in Sycamore, and an eighth-grader at Sycamore Middle School, recently completed his Eagle Scout project.

Ruud built two handicapped accessible raised garden centers for Oak Crest DeKalb Area Retirement Center, 2944 Greenwood Acres Drive, DeKalb. He chose the project in honor of his grandmother, Helen Ruud. She was a resident at Oak Crest who loved to garden.

Rudd lead the project and volunteers built two raised garden centers. They have wheels on the legs so they can be easily moved around, and they are built tall enough so residents in wheelchairs can enjoy gardening and taking care of the plants.

Dan Foley from Alexander Lumber donated the lumber. Kevin Cady donated the galvanized removable metal pans. Troop 16 Scoutmaster is Dr. Tim Ruetten. Troop 16 is chartered by Federated Church in Sycamore. For more information about Troop 16, call Ruetten at (815) 895-4940.

DeKALB

Hastert stripped of NIU honor

Northern Illinois University trustees have rescinded the honorary degree they gave former U.S. Rep. Dennis Hastert. Hastert, a now-infamous alumnus of the university, was given an honorary Doctor of Laws in 1999. Decades before, he had earned his master’s degree at NIU.

His recent admission of criminal activity and sexual abuse of children was the reason for the trustees’ decision.

A federal judge has said the former Speaker of the House must report to federal prison by June 22 to start serving his 15-month sentence.

Hastert, 74, an Illinois Republican, was sentenced April 27 after pleading guilty to charges he evaded bank laws when he paid about $3.5 million to cover up decades-old sexual abuse. He molested an athlete he coached as head of the wrestling program at Yorkville High School — where he also taught.

The move to rescind his honor is an unprecedented one for the university; Hastert is the first to have his NIU honorary degree revoked.

His undergraduate alma mater Wheaton College took similar action. The school removed “J. Dennis Hastert” from its Center for Economics, Government and Public Policy, and Hastert resigned from its advisory board.

–Dekalb County News Briefs–