More than $95K in scholarships awarded to local students by Crown Jewels Links chapter
The Crown Jewels Chapter of the Links awarded more than $95,000 to area high school seniors.
From education to employment, Charlotte program offers jobs, benefits
Scholarship recipients completed applications and interviews to compete for the funds to continue their education.
Jade Smith plans to attend UNC Chapel Hill and received $20,000.
'I'm really passionate about community service, leadership,' Smith said. 'I'm so excited to be honored here by the Links. It's an incredible honor and opportunity and I'm so grateful for this experience.'
The students were recognized at the 10th Annual Crowning Achievements Program, along with some important community partners.
The Crown Jewels Links is a group of ladies committed to friendship and service.
VIDEO: CMS seniors awarded scholarships to join college marching band
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Chicago Tribune
24-06-2025
- Chicago Tribune
Route 66: Print day at a 145-year-old Kansas newspaper
GALENA, Kan. — She wrote front-page stories about changes to the city's animal ordinance and the county's efforts to clean up an illegal dumping site. She laid out the rest of the week's 10-page paper: Obituaries on page two. Columns from local contributors on pages three and four. School news on five. Classifieds on eight. A back-page photo spread on three-dimensional Route 66-themed chalk art in a park along the historic road in nearby Joplin, Missouri. By 4 p.m. that day, Machelle Smith moved to her next task. Seated at her cluttered desk inside the Galena Sentinel-Times newspaper's office on Route 66 near the Missouri border, she converted each page of the upcoming issue to PDFs to send to the printer before the 5 p.m. deadline. The paper's masthead lists Smith as the operations manager. The 58-year-old Galena native calls herself its 'jack of all trades.' 'I've done everything,' she said above the crackle of a nearby police scanner. The newspaper has existed in one form or another in this part of southeastern Kansas since 1880, three years after the town was founded around the discovery of lead in the area. Its current iteration is the result of a 1945 merger between The Galena Times Republican and The Galena Sentinel. Eighteen years ago, Smith was working at an area restaurant when a friend asked if she was interested in a career change. The friend's brother owned the newspaper, then called the Sentinel-Times, and needed to replace the departing editor. She had no journalism experience. Still, she took the job. 'For the first few months it was me by myself trying to figure out how to do everything,' she said. Eventually, she learned how to put the paper together and how to operate the newspaper's print shop in the rear of the newsroom — its services include business cards, invitations, stickers, banners, posters, fliers and the like. For the last three years, the paper has printed posters for the town's birthday festival (called Galena Days) and donated 10 subscriptions as door prizes. Last December, the newspaper's longtime publisher, David Nelson, died at 72. An engineer by trade, his obituary says he bought the paper in 1977, in part, 'so people at least had a place to publish an obituary free of charge' (they're still published free of charge). Local business owner Brian Jordan purchased the paper from Nelson's widow. Jordan, said Smith, 'believes if the newspaper dies, the town dies.' More than 3,200 U.S. newspapers have folded in the last 20 years, according to a study from Northwestern University's Medill Local News Initiative. At least 3.5 million people live in counties the study called news deserts, places with 'no local news outlet consistently producing original content.' The Galena paper is, of course, not immune to the pressures facing news outlets across the country. The staff size has remained virtually unchanged since Smith joined. There's proofreader Tia Day, who recently moved to St. Louis and works remotely. Webmaster Shayla Sturgis was once an intern who also works for a Native American tribe in northeast Oklahoma. Advertising director Aniston Johnson, 22, joined the paper 10 months ago. Sometimes, she'll grab a stack of papers and head to businesses in surrounding communities to see if they'll buy an ad. 'It's a little difficult,' she said. Like Smith, she multitasks. Last month, she wrote about a state award for a school kitchen manager. 'That one was a tough one for me, because it was my first time doing that,' she said. 'It was a little nerve-wracking.' She also pens — literally — articles on historical events. At her desk, she has a handwritten draft of an article on an early 16th-century 'dancing plague' in an area of what is now France. The paper has two freelance journalists who cover sports, Smith said, with plans to add more. They're also planning to devote the middle four pages to more Route 66 coverage as next year's centennial approaches. Kansas has by far the shortest segment of the route of all eight states at 13.2 miles, and two associations dedicated to route preservation: Kansas Historic Route 66 Association and Route 66 Association of Kansas (Smith sits on the latter's board). Having finished uploading the PDFs of the latest issue, Smith closed the office for the day. The paper, once printed in Joplin, is now printed about 120 miles east near Branson, Missouri. About 1,200 copies were delivered to the newsroom before 6:30 a.m. Thursday, when Smith arrived. On her to-do list that morning: Take 594 copies to the post office to mail to subscribers and the rest to newspaper racks around town.
Los Angeles Times
24-06-2025
- Los Angeles Times
As jacarandas bloom throughout L.A., fire victims hope their purple flowers will return too
It was Alexis Murphy's tradition to photograph the jacaranda that guarded her childhood home in Pasadena. One year, she arranged its violet droppings in the shape of a heart. Another year, she turned them into a cartoon smiley face. But this spring, after the January Eaton fire scorched her childhood home and the jacaranda along with it, the scene was too grim to capture. Where the aged tree's limbs once exploded into violet, singed branches crisscrossed in colorless sterility like an unfinished painting. Murphy didn't want to post something too depressing. So she snagged a flower from a neighbor's lawn and filmed a close-up of the blossom, panning out to her burned tree. That was when she saw it. Barely discernible in the May gloom, a glint of purple shone from the jacaranda's canopy; nearby, seed pods dotted patches of green. The tree was in bloom. 'Oh, my God, maybe it is coming back,' she said, half-wishing for the tree's revival. Jacarandas, among the most divisive of L.A.'s imported plant species, have long signified to Angelenos the coming of warmer, more vibrant days. Their symbolic weight has been all the greater for those who lost their homes to the January wildfires that devastated L.A. County as well as swaths of its natural landscape. 'Any tree that's leafing out or recovering is a sign of hope for everyone, and I think people really take some joy in that,' said David Card, a longtime Pacific Palisades resident and board president of the Palisades Forestry Committee. 'Right now, it's the jacarandas that are center stage,' Card said. Originating in subtropical South America, jacarandas typically bloom around May and June, taking their cue from the season's first stretch of consistent heat. In wetter years, the 25- to 40-foot-tall trees may not push out flowers until well into July. This year, hot spells in May encouraged some early bloomers, said Lisa Smith, a consulting arborist and president of the tree-consulting firm the Tree Resource. Still, at the time of the January fires, the semi-deciduous trees had not yet flowered, which likely minimized the damage they suffered. The arborist said what also helped is that jacarandas are highly heat-tolerant and generally planted among low grasses rather than tall shrubs, limiting the potential for upward burn. 'They're a pretty rugged, tolerant species. They can handle harsh conditions,' Smith said. Because jacarandas across the county sustained significant bark char and crown damage, L.A.'s purple bloom was down some patches this year. The issue might worsen. Healthy-seeming flowering on trees like Murphy's could be a 'false start' belying the plant's sickness, Smith said. Trees have been known to experience delayed deaths years after a wildfire has been extinguished. Nonetheless, researchers in Pasadena and the Pacific Palisades shared positive outlooks for the trees' future recovery. Gretchen North, a biology professor at Occidental College, said plant recovery efforts in the canyons above Altadena have revealed that jacarandas have fared 'remarkably well.' 'They're blooming, even though they are burned at the base,' North said. The professor added that most of the damage is limited to scorched bark. In cases of more severe scarring, North said, 'the jacaranda looks like it will recover.' In the Palisades, the trees this year began flowering far earlier than expected, said Card. However, experts warned that L.A.'s trees, including jacarandas, still face threats from post-fire recovery efforts. For one, construction activities like excavation and soil compaction from heavy machinery can damage a tree's critical root zone, preventing uptake of water and nutrients crucial for the plant's survival. On a wider scale, activists said joint cleanup efforts by FEMA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have prompted the premature removal of trees in the Palisades, hundreds of which were misidentified by unqualified contractors. 'They were bringing in people from states so far away they never even heard of jacarandas,' said Carl Mellinger, a consulting arborist and member of the Palisades Forestry Committee. 'In my opinion, if you can't tell what the tree is, you have no business identifying its fiber-building period,' Mellinger said. A spokesperson for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said that 'every decision about tree removal is made thoughtfully and with expert guidance from professional arborists.' 'While we strive to preserve as many trees as possible, public safety and recovery progress must come first,' the spokesperson said. 'We continue to work closely with homeowners, the county and community groups to make informed, responsible decisions about tree removal and preservation. ' A representative for FEMA declined to comment. Mellinger was able to work with a colonel to get the Army Corps' protocol changed and minimize errors, he said, 'but there were still trees out there that were gonna get cut down, even though they were viable.' Residents whose injured trees were removed were surprised to find themselves more distraught about losing the trees — which would take decades to regrow — than losing their homes. LuAnn Haslam, Murphy's next-door neighbor in Pasadena, said losing her jacaranda felt like a second wave of grief after her home burned down. For more than 25 years, she'd marveled at the tree, one of her favorites gracing the street. When it blossomed each spring, coating her lawn in purple blooms, she'd beg her husband, 'Don't clean those up!' Haslam said she didn't watch the cleanup crew remove the tree this year. She couldn't bear it. 'That's one reason why I really pushed it on the colonel that you can't be cutting down these trees that are going to make it,' Mellinger said. 'People have already been through one disaster,' he said. They needn't endure another. The Palisades Forestry Committee in March published a waiver for property owners that allowed them to retain so-called 'hazardous' trees on their property. Card said the system has largely worked, save for the occasional complication by an overly aggressive contractor. However, arborists and activists agreed that Zone 0 regulations may spell trouble for those working to preserve the Palisades' natural landscape. The defensible space directives, meant to minimize burn risk to homes and other structures, are poised to drastically reduce the number of trees permitted in residential L.A. neighborhoods, said North. The trick, North said, will be balancing safety assurances that cities require with the green recovery that their residents need to move forward. Many factors affecting the survival potential of burned trees, including jacarandas, are out of individuals' control: the level and frequency of rain, the pace of bark generation, the passage of time. Still, arborists said residents can take several steps to improve their trees' chances of recovery. The most critical factor, Smith said, is water. Without it, scores of jacarandas won't even make it through the summer. 'Don't seek perfection. Just get water on the tree,' Smith said. She added that those who live far away now can ask a neighbor or friend to place a tree watering bag around the trunk of the injured tree. This way, water is slowly released, trickling down to the roots. Smith added that if the tree is able to push out fresh leaves, residents can prune its dead branches and leave the live ones to foster 'meaningful new growth in the canopy.' A good visual cue for a salvageable tree is the growth of new bark beneath its burned outer layer, said Mellinger. 'You have to scrape the bark or cut under the bark to try and find the living tissue that's under the cambium and the inner bark,' he said. Removing dead bark before watering a burned tree can also protect it from pests and pathogens, said Jim Henrich, curator of living collections at Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden. Priority No. 1, Henrich said, is making sure water is actually saturating the soil. After that, all you can really do is wait. For many jacaranda lovers, the labor of preservation was a knee-jerk reaction, like shielding a child from a blow. Valeria Serna of climate nonprofit Resilient Palisades recently purchased a 500-gallon water tank on her own dime and lugged it to several neighborhoods that lacked water access. Vicki Warren, on the other hand, wasn't much concerned about the fate of the jacaranda outside her late father's home, which burned in the Palisades fire. It was the magnolia in the backyard she loved. But when the Army Corps removed her beloved tree this year, all that remained was the jacaranda — the one that for years had left her car sticky with sap and stunk up the street. One day in May, Warren parked in the spot on Radcliffe Avenue, which she had trained herself to avoid, right below the purple giant. Then she made a promise. 'You and I are the only ones left here,' she told the tree. 'I'm going to take care of you.'
Chicago Tribune
15-06-2025
- Chicago Tribune
Column: Warren Smith left a shining legacy in Aurora
Thirteen years ago, I wrote the story of Aurora's Warren Smith, who was a retired Catholic school principal and also the retired Aurora Area Superintendent of Catholic Schools. The editor appropriately titled the story as 'A Good Shepherd of Catholic Education in Aurora.' Mr. Smith (he will always be Mr. to students and to teachers who worked under his leadership) passed away in December of 2023. There were no public tributes or media stories at the time of his passing, and he probably would have vetoed any such attempt. As I checked through old school records and talked with people who had worked with him, an amazing story of his life's work and dedication began to open up. The persistent theme of his many years of leadership became obvious: he presided over times of great change in our society, and particularly in Catholic education. In fact, the title of a Beacon-News story in 2018 was 'Change is the norm for Aurora's Catholic Schools.' Mr. Smith's career began as a social studies teacher at Our Lady of Good Counsel School in Aurora in 1963. His leadership qualities emerged and, at the age of 28, he became the principal of that school in 1967. As I talked with him for the 2018 story, he mentioned that he began noticing changes soon after assuming his leadership role. 'During the 1960s, and because of Vatican II, some conservative Catholics who didn't want change may have felt pushed out,' he said. 'In 1964, enrollment at our school stood at 800, but around 1970, it began a transition to two rooms per grade instead of three. 'Affordability started to become an issue, and a great decline in the number of teaching Sisters played a big part in the downturn,' he said. Lay teachers were needed to fill that void, and the expense of salaries became an important issue. Budgeting and funding for all of the Catholic schools became an important change starting in the 1970s, and a downward trend in enrollment began. Mr. Smith, along with other administrators and lay leaders, faced this as a new challenge. With a certain amount of bravery, they forged ahead with determination to keep Catholic schools alive and vibrant. Not having enough on his plate, and while continuing as school principal, he was appointed Aurora Area Superintendent of Catholic Schools in 1985, and continued in that role until 1997. His scope immediately increased to his being the leader of nine elementary schools and also Aurora Central Catholic High School. Change was the norm of those years—changes in the church and the Diocese of Rockford, along with legal, constitutional and economic issues and changes. Strong leadership was needed, and Mr. Smith was in the forefront. The most stellar achievement of the Aurora Catholic School System during his years as superintendent was probably the opening of the new Aurora Central Catholic campus on Edgelawn Drive in 1995. It was a multi-year project fraught with many hurdles, but many leaders and volunteers persevered through them all. The final hurdle came when the bishop of the Rockford Diocese wanted to have the project stopped, but that objection was overcome with difficulty. Some referred to the opening of the new campus as a miracle. The following message was one of many left following Mr. Smith's online obituary: 'Warren and Bob (Stewart, longtime principal of Aurora Central Catholic) pulled off and helped sustain a new miracle Catholic high school in the creation of ACC on its new site — along with the many other dedicated and passionate people intent on keeping the ACC school and tradition alive. That is a legacy that transcends time, just as Warren's many other accomplishments will do also.' Also in 1995, Mr. Smith left his role as elementary principal to devote full time and effort to his superintendent's role. I remember his telling me that his first office was an empty room in the new ACC building with a card table and a folding chair. But as he settled into his new routine, the same bishop of Rockford eliminated the job of Aurora Area Superintendent in 1997. Needing to continue working, he became the principal of St. Thomas School in Crystal Lake. He commuted to that position from Aurora, and retired in 2002. Along with his lovely wife Joyce, Mr. Smith continued to be very active back in his home parish at Our Lady of Good Counsel in Aurora, even serving as interim principal of its school in 2003-2004. Together the Smiths authored a book honoring the centennial celebration of the parish in 2009. Mr. Smith chaired several committees, and his advice was always sought for important projects and decisions. His leadership abilities and qualities were always evident, and he sometimes had to make unpopular decisions over the years, as do all effective leaders. At the same time, he was an unassuming and humble person. Throughout three generations of great, and sometimes difficult, changes in education, thousands of young people benefited from the steady and unwavering dedicated leadership of Mr. Warren D. Smith. Long live his memory.
