Mt. Prospect kids star in fundraising video

In their never-flagging effort to raise the final funds necessary to complete the restoration of the 1896 one-room Central School and open it to school groups and the general public, the Mount Prospect Historical Society is taking to social media and even crowdfunding.

Members of the society wrote and produced a short video about why the reopening of the historic school should matter to everyone and enlisted the help of Lions Park School fourth-grader Nolan Hahn and his neighbor and friend, Anna Toneva, a sixth-grader at Lincoln Junior High, who both appear in the video.

St. Paul Lutheran School third-grade teacher Deb Rittle, a member of the society's board and author of the curriculum, which has already been developed for the restored schoolhouse, is also featured.

The video has been posted on the society's two websites, www.mtphist.org and www.yourcentralschool.org; its Facebook page, www.facebook.com/mphistory; and Go Fund Me crowdfunding site www.gofundme.com/centralschoolhouse the society has launched.

The society plans to show the video in local schools that are participating in the October "Cents for Central School" campaign to collect spare change for the restoration effort and it may appear on local cable channel MPTV.

"Central School means a lot to me because I want to see part of our Mount Prospect history come back," Nolan said.

He was the 2015 winner of the Celestial Celebration Rising Star Award, bestowed by Mount Prospect's Special Events Commission. He was honored for his work making jewelry and selling it for the benefit of the historic schoolhouse.

For more information, call (847) 392-9006.