Good News Sunday: Artist who started out with memorable snow sculptures tries new medium - straw

This is Good News Sunday, a compilation of some of the more upbeat and inspiring stories published recently by the Daily Herald:

As a scrawny Wisconsin kid from the North transplanted in Jackson, Mississippi, Fran Volz drew funny cartoons to disarm bullies and amuse his nine brothers and sisters.

As a young adult in Arlington Heights, he created a buzz in January 1987 by sculpting a giant Smurf out of snow in his front yard along busy Arlington Heights Road. After melting morphed his masterpiece into mush, Volz used a fresh snowfall to convert that former Smurf into a realistic likeness of Chicago Bear William "The Refrigerator" Perry with colored snow that drew even more attention.

Established as a snow sculptor who brought competitions to Chicago, Volz used concrete to craft that life-size bison that sits outside the Buffalo Grove Park District headquarters, made a fiberglass elk for Elk Grove Village, crafted a Polyfoam model of the Lincoln Memorial that toured for years before ending up in the Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport near Springfield, and has created several bronze works, including the 8-foot-tall statue of founder William Dunton in Arlington Heights.

In 2016, Volz expanded his artistic vision and his choice of medium by building a 21-foot-high Statue of Liberty out of straw.

"I ate, slept and drank straw," says Volz, 62, who worked on the piece for five months in a vacant storefront in his new hometown of Rochelle, an hour west of Elgin. And that's how he sparked the U.S. National Straw Sculpting Competition that just wrapped up in neighboring Mt. Morris.

For the full story, click here.

Itasca 'super nurse' earns top honor

Dawn Gonzalez of Itasca is so passionate about nursing that she sometimes works seven days a week in the field. Consequently, when administrators with BrightStar Care in Schaumburg surprised her with the Midwest Region Nurse of the Year award, Gonzalez was shocked.

"I never knew there was an award like this," Gonzalez says. "We're so busy doing our work, we didn't think anyone noticed."

They did. Gail Fusz, director of nursing for BrightStar Care in Schaumburg, nominated Gonzalez for the award, describing her as a "super nurse."

"Dawn truly makes a difference in all her patients' lives, providing them with compassionate, exceptional care," Fusz says. "Dawn is a tremendous asset to the Brightstar Care Schaumburg team. She is reliable, hardworking, a true patient advocate, and she is clinically versatile in the care she provides."

Gonzalez balances her work at BrightStar Care with a full-time position as a nurse practitioner at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge and a clinical instructor one day a week at Chamberlain School of Nursing in Addison.

"I teach, work full time in a hospital and do home care," Gonzalez says. "Sometimes I wish I was more than one person, but I love it all."

For the full story, click here.

Elgin Shakespeare Project delivers 'Henry V' the Elizabethan way

The Elgin Shakespeare Project is not your grandfather's Shakespeare. And that's OK, says Sean Hargadon, the project's founder and producer.

Audiences can see for themselves when members perform William Shakespeare's "Henry V" outdoors at Elgin's Bowes Creek Forest Preserve this weekend.

Now in its second year, the Elgin Shakespeare Project, sponsored by Elgin's Palmer Foundation, examines Shakespeare's plays (and works by his contemporaries) using theatrical techniques developed during the 16th century.

In past ESP productions, that meant actors performed without rehearsal while reading their dialogue from scrolls in hand, said Hargadon, founder and artistic director of Elgin's Janus Theater. In the case of "Henry V," actors have fully memorized their roles, but will perform the history play without a director's guidance and with limited rehearsal.

Hargadon encountered the unrehearsed approach - dubbed "old school Shakespeare" by its devotees - through the work of now retired Western Illinois University theater professor/director Bill Kincaid, who wrote 2018's "Performing Shakespeare Unrehearsed: A Practical Guide to Acting and Producing Spontaneous Shakespeare."

In Shakespeare's time, there was no such thing as a fourth wall. The lights were on. Actors could see and speak directly to the audience, and the audience could respond in kind.

"When you approach the plays that way it opens them up in a direction you couldn't imagine," Hargadon said.

Performances continue at 3 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 29. The show is free, but reservations are required; click here to reserve a spot.

For the full story, click here.

Playground for Everyone dedicated at school in Arlington Heights

Kids have a variety of interests, abilities and needs, but there's one thing they all seem to have in common - a love of play.

It was with that in mind Wednesday that educators, parents and local dignitaries gathered at Miner School in Arlington Heights for the long-awaited dedication of the new Playground for Everyone.

A project of the Northwest Suburban Special Education Organization, the playground features pieces of equipment and play stations not typically found in other accessible playgrounds.

They include specially designed pieces that address the needs of students with more complex disabilities, and allow children with a range of needs to engage in imaginative, cooperative play.

Funded in part with state grants and charitable donations, the new playground was built over a rubber surface, letting children interact and play together safely and allowing more independence for children with physical disabilities.

The design allows parents and grandparents who have disabilities or mobility impairments to participate in play with children.

For the full story, click here.

• Good News Sunday will run each weekend. Please visit dailyherald.com/newsletters to sign up for our Good News Sunday newsletter.