Libertyville Elementary School District 70 special education teacher Danya Greenberg has been named one of 32 finalists for the 2012 Golden Apple Award for Excellence in Teaching. Greenberg, 24, was one of 560 teachers nominated from Chicago metropolitan area schools. “I’m beyond honored,” Greenberg said. “Even when I’m not at work, I’m thinking about these kids, and new ways to teach them. The fact that someone took the time out of their day to nominate me is just so touching. I was excited and humbled.” Greenberg teaches a class of first- through third-grade students through the …

The first time Libertyville resident Terry Mulligan set foot abroad was in 2010, when became the first-grade teacher for a newly built school in Tanzania. Mulligan says that after graduating with a major in elementary education at University of Missouri, he had two very different options for his next move. Either he could return to Libertyville where he could be close to his best friends since elementary school, or he could go teach in the Mailisita community, which sits at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro in Moshi, Tanzania. “It was after one of those perfect days student-teaching that I …

Heather Chen, a mother of four and an arts advocate, has helped start several art programs in Libertyville Elementary School District 70. The latest was the “arteffects” show, which showcased students’ artwork from around the district at Cook Park Library. See photos from the art show on Libertyville Patch’s Facebook page. Chen says she was inspired by the District 73 student art show at Aspen Library. “I recruited two friends, Jennifer Jensen and Lisa Moulton, and together we formed the ‘arteffects committee,’ ” Chen said. “We were thrilled to have the support of Jan Hastings and Colleen …

Among the more than 70 participants in Mickey Finn’s St. Baldrick’s event, a team of five boys from Libertyville’s Kenloch Park neighborhood raised more than $3,000 and shaved their heads at Saturday’s event. “It’s really good that we’re helping kids. It feels really nice,” said Michael Hegwood, a seventh-grader from the team who has participated in previous years. “We have so many supporters, like friends and family.” “It’s fun doing it with kids that I know, and it wasn’t really hard to get people involved or donate money,” said Tate Constable, 11. Constable, whose brother died after …

Copeland Manor student Jamie Mullen saw a pin that his art teacher was wearing and decided he wanted to make similar pins to raise money for the Wounded Warrior Project. “I told Mrs. (Cindi) Sartain that we had to do it because they saved my grandpa when he was in World War II,” Mullen said. Sartain, an art teacher at Copeland Manor, said she liked the idea and asked fifth-graders at the school to make pins of faces. The pins will be on sale at the school’s fun fair from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. March 12. Proceeds from the pins will benefit the Wounded Warrior Project, which honors and empowers …

A painting by Copeland Manor School fifth-grader Reese Dannenfeldt has won the first place award in the Illinois Arts Education Poster Contest in downstate Springfield. Dannenfeldt’s artwork will be turned into a poster to be displayed throughout the state in all public and private schools during Illinois Arts Education Week, which runs from March12-18. Rockland School fourth-grader Eli McEwan won an honorable mention for his artwork. The theme this year was Be Art Smart. “This is great news, I’m giddy over it,” said art teacher Cindi Sartain, who selected and submitted the student artwork. “…

Volunteering runs in Jim King’s family. King says his father received an award for 5,000 hours of service from Mayor Richard J. Daley; his oldest daughter received awards for her work with Challenger Little League, a baseball league for children with disabilities. On Feb. 21, King received Community Leadership Award – Volunteer of the Year from Rep. Robert Dold, R-Kenilworth. King started volunteering around Libertyville almost as soon as he moved to the area in 1975. He helped organize Libertyville Days, local YMCA events, coached Little League and other events while also raising his family…

Updated March 8 Stationery with art of the Ansel B. Cook House are now sold at How Impressive!., 326 N. Milwaukee Ave., or can be purchased by contacting Cindi Sartain at: csartain@d70schools.org Original Story Rockland School students hope to raise $3,000 toward the restoration of Ansel B. Cook House by selling stationery with art of the historic structure. All proceeds will benefit Paint the Town Foundation, a nonprofit working to restore the exterior of the building. Rockland School art teacher Cindi Sartain created the outline of the painting and had her art class fill in the painting …

For Copeland Manor student Scott Criel, the hardest toys to donate were LEGO sets he received for his seventh birthday. He said he wanted to play with them but he decided to “just let it go.” “It would make a lot of kids happy and it would make me happy,” Criel said of his decision to donate presents to A Safe Place, which provides shelter, counseling and legal advice for women who are victims of domestic violence. He dropped off all 19 of the presents he received and remembers seeing some broken bikes and a plastic table where kids could play. “I didn’t see any toys,” Criel said. “I only saw…

Kristine Knutson had never heard of Flex Watches until early November 2010. “My daughter saw this product on MTV and said, ‘Mom, you have to carry this in your shop because it’s right up your alley,” said Knutson, owner of How Impressive!, 326 N. Milwaukee Ave., Libertyville. Knutson would have ordered the colorful watches for the store sooner but they did not arrive at her store until two days before Christmas. Flex Watches’ motto is “10 colors, 10 charities, 10 percent.” The brand sells watches with interchangeable bands in hopes of raising awareness through colorful products; each color …

Though a 30-year veteran of the restaurant business, Mark Khayat, owner of Austin’s Saloon and Eatery, and Fuel Room, always has enjoyed music and larger promotions. So, after building an addition on the front of the restaurant on 481 Peterson Road, Khayat began booking events in the newly added space. “That was our first addition 10 years ago, and we started doing a lot of music with the local bands running the circuit in the Chicago area,” Khayat said. “We had a great response to it, but you always want to reach for that next level.” The next level, Khayat explains, was building a room that…

When Kevin Bowens came to Libertyville, he simply wanted to make this village better and more beautiful than when he arrived. “That is the overall reason you get into this business. I feel strongly about that,” he said. "You get to do that and get to see that on a daily basis.” As the second village administrator in Libertyville’s history, Bowens celebrates 20 years of working to keep the village running. “I play a small part in trying to keep that group working together and working in the same direction,” Bowens said. After earning his master’s degree in public administration at Northern …

Susan Nipper has been working at Libertyville’s Curtis Frame & Gallery for 15 years, but as the daughter of an artist and interior designer, she’s been creating artistic works for even longer. “My whole life I’ve been surrounded by art and it was very important to us as a family growing up,” Nipper said. “So I’ve always been exposed to it. I’m one of those people who has to create something or do something tangible every day.” In February 2011, after selling her watercolor paintings at Curtis Frame for years, Nipper decided to begin making scarves using an idea she had seen in local art …

Libertyville resident Randi Heimert’s story of adoption is not a usual one. At the same time Randi and her husband, Mike, decided to adopt a child from China, she found out she was pregnant. “So they’re six weeks apart,” Randi said of her “twins” — her biological son Dylan and her adopted daughter Taylor. Today they are both fifth-graders at Butterfield School. When Dylan was 8 months old, the Heimerts went to China with 22 other adoptive families from around the world, eager to adopt their daughter. “We all became friends, because we’re on this trip for two weeks, and all of our girls were …

Growing facial hair was not something new for Jim Gibbons who tried it out before and liked the look. But in 2009, he discovered a chance to grow a mustache and benefit a good cause. “It seemed like a no-brainer,” he said. The campaign called Movember, which began in Australia and has spread worldwide, encourages men to grow a mustache during November. In the process, the event hopes to build awareness for men’s health and raise money for prostate and testicular cancer organizations. In Gibbons’ first year, he raised $1,300 with a team of friends. He said it was so fun and successful that he …

Barbara Sellers' mother was always an artist at heart. The Libertyville resident, remembers growing up in Illinois with her mother painting in oils and taking art classes, until her parents moved to southern California in 1975, where Sellers’ mother began her work in watercolors. “Her paintings really focus on the West Coast, the Newport Beach area, Orange County, Arizona — Sedona especially,” Sellers explained. “They’re so colorful, they’re so mesmerizing.” Sellers describes her mother as an outgoing, giving, and positive person who believed in mind over matter and rarely went to the doctor…

At 82-years-old, June McCoy shows you are never too old to stop working.The work this Libertyville resident does benefits so many-- she supports senior housing, mentors youth and provides a warm place for the homeless. “I find work to be my social life,” McCoy said. She says her lessons about equality and helping others began as a child, watching her parents.Standing under the same tree where she waited for the school bus as a child, she recalls that her neighbors, who were African-American, had to ride in a beat up car to their one-room school, whereas she rode in a nicer pick-up truck to a …

Libertyville-based LexiWynn, a custom handbag company, first began as an opportunity for Alexa Holzwarth to stay at home with her two children. After five years, the company has grown from a one-person basement undertaking to a burgeoning national brand. The company recently hired four more in-house employees in its Libertyville manufacturing studio, as well as local and national design consultants. “We’ve gone from a capacity of about 50 bags per week, to when everyone’s fully trained, we’ll be at 150 bags per week,” said Seth Holzwarth, Alexa's husband. “As we expand our ability to sell …