Hillary Clinton will be in Park Ridge Friday to accept trailblazer honor
The woman who battled President Donald Trump to be commander in chief three years ago will return to her native Park Ridge Friday morning.
Former Secretary of State and U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is one of four “Trailblazing Women of Park Ridge” to be recognized in an upcoming Park Ridge Historical Society exhibit.
Friday morning, Clinton will be honored at a sold-out event at the Pickwick Theater, where some trailblazing teenagers will share the spotlight.
Students journalists from Maine East and Maine South high schools helped come up with questions for the former first lady and Democratic presidential nominee who ran against Trump in 2016. The editors in chief of the schools' newspapers, who are both female, will be on stage and pose a number of questions to Clinton.
“We're talking about trailblazing woman, and there will be students in positions of leadership up there with her,” Maine East Social Sciences Department Chairman Carl Brownell said.
The students are expected to ask about Clinton's childhood in Park Ridge and how it shaped her but also might talk about current issues.
Given it's a friendly crowd, “she may not hold back,” Brownell said. Maine East newspaper editor-in-chief Dallal Hassane “is nervous but excited,” he added.
Clinton attended both high schools, and the audience will include a number of local high school and middle school students.
The documentary “Dare to Dream,” about Clinton's coming of age in Park Ridge, will premiere at the event.
The historical society exhibit on Clinton and three other influential Park Ridge women opens in spring 2020. The others are Kalo Arts Crafts Community House founder Clark Barck Welles, women's suffrage advocate Hannah Solomon, and St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, founder of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.