News Briefs: Science olympiad team makes school history; Food drive via mail on Saturday; Canal Shores names leader

The Wilmette Junior High School science olympiad team recently earned its first-ever top 10 finish at the state championship meet, placing seventh at the competition hosted by the University of Illinois in Champaign.

The performance, which included first-place medals in three events, bettered last year’s 12th-place finish, the previous high for the team at the state competition, according to a release from Wilmette School District 39.

The group earned first-place finishes among 23 teams in the Disease Detectives, Potions & Poisons, and Tower events and took third place in the Fossils competition. Additionally, the group also claimed three fourth-place finishes (Experimental Design, Meteorology, and Microbe Mission) en route to its overall top-10 team finish.

The WJH team, coached by Kevin Swarthout and Caleb Cha, won seven competitions this season and the team title at the Oakton Regional in March to earn its trip to the state meet.

Mailbox food drive in Highland Park on May 10

Moraine Township is partnering with Highland Park mail carriers on Saturday, May 10, to pick up bags of shelf-stable, unexpired food from Highland Park mailboxes and deliver it to Moraine Township Food Pantry.

The annual food drive, Stamp Out Hunger, helps stock our shelves for the summer months, when food drives held by schools and other organizations are scarce.

Mail carriers will leave yellow bags in Highland Park mailboxes sometime during the week of May 5 and will return on May 10 to pick them up. Organizers request no glass jars or food in cardboard containers.

Last year, Highland Park letter carriers collected and delivered almost 1,000 bags of food.

“The Township relies on a corps of volunteers who make it possible for the food pantry to serve our residents in need of additional resources,” Moraine Township Trustee Mark Haggarty said in a press release.

Moraine Township Food Pantry, 800 Central Ave. in Highland Park. serves income-qualified residents shelf-stable food plus produce, dairy and frozen meat . The pantry recorded 9,000 residents served (counting multiple visits) over the past year.

“We are fortunate to live in a caring community, and this drive demonstrates the concern and compassion of our residents, who both contribute food and pitch in to volunteer,” Township Supervisor Anne Flanigan Bassi said in a statement.

Canal Shores appoints first executive director

Canal Shores recently announced its first-ever executive director, Bill Sullivan, a longtime Glenview resident and an Evans Scholar alumnus.

According to a release from Canal Shores, “Sullivan brings decades of leadership experience in business strategy, operations, and youth-focused nonprofits to the role.”

Located in Evanston and Wilmette, The Evans at Canal Shores has been a community golf course since 1919. The course underwent an overhaul over the last two years and all holes and facilities are now open.

Canal Shores is a nonprofit organization governed by a board of directors. KemperSports manages the facility. Sullivan is on the board of governors of the Evans Scholars Foundation.

“It’s a tremendous honor to step into this new role at Canal Shores,” Sullivan said in the release. “As someone whose life was changed by the game of golf and the support of the Evans Scholars Foundation, I believe deeply in the mission of this course. Canal Shores is more than just a place to play — it’s a space where young people learn, communities connect, and legacies are built.”

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