Neighbors in the news: Glenview park commissioner reelected to state board
• Bill Casey, commissioner of the Glenview Park District, was reelected vice chairman of the Illinois Association of Park Districts' (IAPD) board of trustees.
As vice chairman, he will assist the association with its mission of advancing Illinois park districts, forest preserves, conservation, recreation and special recreation agencies in their ability to preserve natural resources and improve the quality of life for the people of Illinois.
"Bill has been an incredible champion for the benefits of parks, recreation and conservation for more than 20 years as a commissioner of the Glenview Park District," said Peter Murphy, IAPD president and CEO.
Casey was first elected to the IAPD board of trustees in 2019. He serves on the IAPD Honors and Resolutions and Nominating committees and the Research Advisory Council. He has served on the IAPD/IPRA Joint Legislative committee since 2014. Casey, who has also been a member of IAPD's Board Member Development Program for four years, achieved Master Board Member status through the program in 2022.
He was elected to the Glenview Park District board in 2003, and has served as president four times.
• Emmy Terrell, a second-grader at Jane Addams Elementary School in Palatine, won the All-Around State Championship title at the U.S.A. Gymnastics Level 3 State Championships held March 19 in Bloomington-Normal.
The 8-year-old gymnast trains in the U.S.A. Gymnastics Junior Olympic Program at the Bartlett Gymnastics Center.
Emmy's state-winning all-around score of 38.875 was the highest score from all state sessions and ages combined, topping more than 749 gymnasts. She also won the State Champion title for Floor Exercise and Balance Beam, with a personal best score of 9.875.
Emmy holds five first place All-Around titles as well as 12 individual event champion titles this season.
• Emma Engels, a Bartlett High School sophomore, was honored by the U-46 board of education for being named champion at the Illinois High School Association's Girls Wrestling Finals.
Emma won the 100-pound championship match at the girls wrestling state meet in Bloomington on Feb. 25. She had only one defeat against a female wrestler all season - and that was the student-athlete she beat to become the state champion. Emma also wrestled with Bartlett High School's boys team this season.
Emma, who started wrestling in the fourth grade, also plays softball.
"I enjoy the hard work and the challenge of wrestling," said Emma, adding that her victory didn't really sink in until she returned home. The night of her win, she had a police escort to Bartlett High School, where a cheering crowd was waiting for her.
• Palatine resident Kate Hutchinson received the 2022 Book of the Year runner-up award for her third poetry collection, "The Matter of Dark Matter," from the Illinois State Poetry Society (ISPS).
The contest awards the best full-length poetry submissions published during a calendar year by ISPS members living in Illinois. The first-place award went to Neth Hass of Anna.
In blind judging, Eleanor Berry, a past president of the National Federation of State Poetry Societies, chose "The Matter of Dark Matter" for its "wide perspective - social, environmental, even cosmic - rooted in the personal."
Hutchinson, a retired high school teacher, serves on the board of the Chicagoland Poets & Patrons and also as an editor for the literary arts journal, East on Central. Her poems and personal essays have appeared in more than 60 publications and earned numerous awards, including two Pushcart Prize nominations.
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