Anti-bullying schoarship's creator among three honored as 'Great Citizens' by Hoffman Estates
Hoffman Estates Mayor Bill McLeod this week honored three area residents with the village's Great Citizen award for their positive contributions to the community.
Palatine resident Pamela Olander was honored for her organization of the John Trout Anti-Bullying Scholarship at Fremd High School in Palatine, which many Hoffman Estates students attend.
Named after a now deceased, bullied member of Olander's Class of '75, the scholarship provided a $5,000 scholarship to both a bullied member of Fremd's Class of 2015 and a classmate who stood up to bullying.
Olander's fundraising effort even collected an additional $2,761 to go toward her effort to hand out the scholarships annually.
Also receiving the Great Citizen award were Hoffman Estates residents and longtime library trustees Debby Miller and Barbara Illian, both of whom ended their decades of service this spring.
Miller was a nearly constant member of the Schaumburg Township District Library board since 1971, missing only two years when she was removed from the ballot because of a paperwork error.
Illian was not only a member of the Palatine Public Library District board for 24 years, she was the only Hoffman Estates resident to ever serve on that board, McLeod said.