Neighbors in the news
Mike Ghawaly has been promoted to lieutenant by the Mount Prospect Fire Department. Ghawaly, a member of the fire department since 1994, will supervise the activities of a fire company at an assigned station and at the scene of a fire or other emergency. He has been a member of the Hazmat and Technical Rescue teams, among others, and he is an educator on the EMS education committee, a paramedic preceptor, fire cadet instructor and on the training committee. He also volunteered as a burn camp counselor and served on the firefighter union executive board.
• Heather Lass, an art teacher at Liberty Elementary School, Bartlett, has an illustration in a new children's book by Eric Gibbons, "If Picasso Had a Christmas Tree." Lass was among 30 art teachers around the world who collaborated on the project. To gather illustrations for his book, author Eric Gibbons used social media to connect with art teachers from elementary to high school. Each teacher created artwork inspired by their favorite artist, from the Renaissance to modern genres. Lass' Christmas tree illustration was influenced by the work of Jacob Lawrence, an African-American painter who died in 2000.
• State Rep. Marty Moylan, of Des Plaines, was named to the inaugural Support Your Neighbor Commission. The commission was created to help increase the number of American- and Illinois-made products procured and sold by the state. Members of the commission, who are unpaid, serve four-year terms. The first meeting is scheduled for Jan. 26, 2015.
• Bryant Fritz, a 2006 graduate of Schaumburg High School and a middle school science teacher at Next Generation School in Champaign, received the Illinois Science Teacher Association and ExxonMobil Outstanding Teacher of Science Award. The award recognizes teachers who have made extraordinary achievements in the teaching of science. Also, Fritz was tapped by the Illinois Department of Education to be the engineering specialist for the revision and writing of current and new school science curriculum standards for the state. He is the son of Mike and Mary Ann Fritz of Schaumburg.
• Send 'Neighbors in the News' items to Norrine Twohey at ntwohey@dailyherald.com.