Mail carrier Scott Neumann knew he wanted to do something after he retired, but wasn’t sure what. Then a friend asked him if he could tune his daughter’s guitar. That led to lessons. Before long, word spread and his fledgling avocation began to grow. That led to Free Guitars for Future Stars. Inspired by Bill…
A group of students from Trinidad and Tobago performed in a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity on Aug. 30, at the Woodstock OperaHouse. The 60-piece band included students from 6 years old to adults in their 30s. Their economic background spans nearly as wide a spectrum: from the homeless to the privileged. What they have in common are…
“Seeing a partial eclipse bears the same relation to seeing a total eclipse as kissing a man does to marrying him,” wrote the American writer Annie Dillard in her 1982 essay, “Total Eclipse.” Some who read Dillard’s essay in preparation for the 2017 eclipse, followed her siren call. Libraries around McHenry County, and beyond, ran…
Elvis Presley lyrics — “I’ll be so lonely, baby, Well, I’m so lonely, I’ll be so lonely, I could die.”— floated from the gazebo and across Woodstock Square, as a group of approximately 50 people silently filed out of Blue Lotus Temple at 8 p.m. Aug. 15. Coincidentally, an Elvis impersonation band performed in the…
You can excuse Christian Blatner of Crystal Lake if he shouted “hot dog.” Blatner was chosen as one of only 12 drivers of Oscar Mayer’s Wienermobiles. A 2012 graduate of Prairie Ridge High School, he applied for the year-long job after graduating from the University of Wisconsin in May 2016 with a degree in Journalism…
A newly minted college graduate from Hoffman Estates, Paul Rausch, entered his first career interview with trepidation. Little did he know that he was about to make Woodstock High School and Woodstock his home. His focus was on getting his first job as a choral director. Nowhere in his young imagination did he foresee that…
