Railroad helps W. Chicago students collect awards in person

Gifted students from West Chicago will get to compete in an international competition next week after all, thanks to a $7,000 check from the Canadian National Railroad.

And to a dogged detective from the West Chicago Police Department, who helped make it happen.

"The kids are thrilled," said Kathy Grogan, Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) teacher at Pioneer Elementary School.

Her fifth and sixth graders won first in the state for their project to get a fence built around railroad tracks that run through a field near their school. But their cash-strapped school district couldn't afford to send the eight students to the International Future Problem Solving Competition June 9-14 in Wisconsin. They held bake sales and other fundraisers, but still came up short.

Detective Robbi Peterson, one of the investigators when a 3-year-old girl who was struck and killed while playing near the tracks two years ago, wanted to help.

After getting a $500 donation from the Fraternal Order of Police, he figured "why not go directly to the CN?" for the rest. A railroad official walked him through the process of applying for the money, which usually takes six to eight weeks. The kids needed it sooner.

"I just kept hounding and hounding," Peterson said.

The donation was fast-tracked. CN officials presented the check to the school on Tuesday - just a week before the international competition at the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse with students from 32 states as well as Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore, Great Britain and Canada.

"It's a good group of kids, and I'm very happy that they can go represent West Chicago and our community," Peterson said.

For their project, the students researched pedestrian-train accidents in Illinois, collected signatures and put together a detailed proposal for the fence. As it turned out, plans for a 5-foot-high cyclone fence had been underway, part of the city's settlement after the CN's merger with the EJ&E. The students will use donations to pay for warning signs in English and Spanish.

"We wanted to recognize their hard work to improve the community," said Patrick Waldron, spokesman for the railroad.

The Pioneer students won top honors in their division in the community problem-solving category for Illinois.