Buffalo Grove girl gets her Olympics wish
Nikki Rhum may not be able to compete in gymnastics any time soon, but the Make-A-Wish foundation is making sure she can at least see the sport she loves so much.
The Buffalo Grove girl, who was diagnosed with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, or POTS, will be going with her family to the Beijing Olympics this summer.
The chronic disease affects the automatic nervous system and leaves Rhum with headaches, dizziness and joint pain. Nikki, who is 12 years old, has also been unable to go to school for more than a couple of hours at a time.
Prior to the diagnosis, Nikki was a champion gymnast.
Rhum's mother Jodi initially contacted Make-A-Wish so that her daughter could appear on Oprah to increase awareness about POTS, which can be difficult to diagnose. When the foundation said that wasn't possible, Jodi said that next on Nikki's wish list was to go to the Olympics.
"The main thing was that she wanted to meet the women's gymnastic team," Jodi said. While that's still being worked on, the family of six has tickets for an Aug. 10 gymnastics event and will be in Beijing from Aug. 8 to 17.
Nikki said she's anxious about her disease affecting her while on the plane and in China, but she's mostly excited, especially if she gets to meet the U.S. women's gymnastics team.
"I'm a little nervous, but I have to take risks in life," she said.
New site to surf: Buffalo Grove residents who have recently visited the village's Web site will have noticed a big change.
The site, at www.vbg.org, went through a makeover and was relaunched on Monday. While most of the information is the same, it's now formatted in a way to make it easier for residents to navigate, according to Ghida Neukirch, deputy village manager.
"We've organized it to the perspective of looking at it as a resident or business," she said. "Now it's set up a little bit more user-friendly."
The village recently hired CivicPlus to take over the Web site.
"They specialize in municipal Web sites," Neukirch said.
The front page has a Buffalo Grove news bulletin that will be updated periodically. The village will also start having polls.
Neukirch said the staff will also receive information on the most popular searches.
"We now know one of the top searches people do is for the police department," she said. "So we've made sure the police and fire have their separate distinctions on the front page."
Help food pantries: The Ram Restaurant & Brewery, along with the District 21 Community Partnerships, will be hosting a canned food drive to benefit local pantries on July 21 and 22.
The Ram in Wheeling will be offering a discount for families who are willing to donate. Any family that donates one nonperishable food item will get 10 percent off their purchase. Anyone who donates two or more items will receive 20 percent off.
The restaurant is located at 700 N. Milwaukee Ave. For more information, call (847) 520-1222.
Do you have any interesting Buffalo Grove, Long Grove or Wheeling story ideas? Pass them along to Nadia Malik at (847) 427-4489.