OP_022218

opprairie.com News
the orland park prairie | February 22, 2018 | 11
FROM THE TINLEY JUNCTION
Recreating a priceless winter
memory, 11 years later
This was not the first igloo
built in the Chicago
suburbs by members of the
Steele family.
No, that was 11 years
ago, when their two oldest
boys were ages 7 and 9 —
the same ages as their two
youngest boys are now —
in a different town, during a
different blizzard.
This time, during the
weekend of Feb. 10 and now
residing on Lilac Lane in
Tinley Park, Paul and Tammy
Steele enlisted the help
of Brandon, 9, and Aaron, 7,
to recreate a family tradition
that made headlines nearly a
decade ago.
“You need the right kind
of snow and enough,” Tammy
said. “You can’t use the
powdery stuff.”
When the recent blizzard
dropped approximately a
foot of snow on the Steele’s
front lawn, Paul took out
his snowblower and began
to form a mound toward
the entrance of the house.
He even plowed the lawn to
add to the pile.
After three separate ice
baths, a 10-foot-high-by-
20-foot-wide ice structure
had been formed — stable
and warm enough that four
of the Steeles spent the
night inside, where they
slept on two queen-size air
mattresses.
“We made like an avalanche,”
Brandon explains.
Blocking off the entrances
from the wind “made a
huge difference,” Tammy
added.
Layered up in clothing
and wrapped inside heavy
sleeping bags — a small
amount of heat generated
from a three-wick candle —
both Brandon or Aaron said
they were not cold.
Reporting by Cody Mroczka,
Editor. For more, visit
TinleyJunction.com.
FROM THE LOCKPORT LEGEND
Basketball tournament
to raise money for afterschool
program
When Bill Leach noticed
that an area of Lockport was
being underserved, he took
the initiative to do something
about it.
A resident of Plainfield,
Leach is a member and community
leader of Shiloh Missionary
Baptist Church in
Lockport. When he became
involved in the community,
he found out about Fairmont
and began researching the
area to figure out what issues
needed to be addressed, and
how he could help.
In 2014, Leach founded
the organization Masses of
Basketball and Academics
that offers a free afterschool
program called Play
for Rings. The Rotary Club
of Lockport has partnered
with MBA to host a basketball
tournament fundraiser
March 10 for the 100 students
involved.
“I was looking for some
project to help improve the
community in some sort of
way, and Bill runs the Play
for Rings program, and he
spoke at one of our meetings,
so I thought this would
be a perfect fit to try to help
some kids in the community
by putting on a tournament
and hoping to raise some
money for them,” Lockport
Rotary Club President John
McNulty said.
Play for Rings is held at
Shiloh Missionary Baptist
Church Tuesdays, Wednesdays
and Thursdays.
The inaugural Play for
Rings Charity Basketball
Tournament is to be held
from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. March
10 at Lockport Township
High School’s Central Campus,
1222 Jefferson St. in
Lockport.
For more information,
email lockportrotary@
gmail.com.
Reporting by Jacquelyn
Schlabach, Assistant
Editor. For more, visit
LockportLegend.com.
FROM THE NEW LENOX PATRIOT
Valentine’s Day-themed
mystery solved at New
Lenox Lions Club event
Mysteries of the heart can
be complex, but members of
the New Lenox Lions Club
cracked the case of how to
have a wonderful Valentine’s
weekend with a firstof-its-kind
event.
On Feb. 10, the organization
hosted a Live Mystery
Show & Dinner at Lions
Community Center and was
co-chaired by Lions Steve
Kuyawa and Dan Fremgen
that encouraged attendees
to put their heads and
hearts together to catch a
jewel thief. While it can be
difficult to solve a crime,
the event uncovered clear
evidence that community is
key to hosting a successful
fundraiser.
Approximately 160
guests came together for the
event — which replaced the
Lions Blizzard Dance fundraiser
— and Lincoln-Way
Central LEO (Leadership,
Education and Opportunity)
Club volunteers donated
their time to help with the
set-up, serving, clean-up
and everything in between.
All money raised will go
toward funding the many
service projects of the Lions
Club, such as its hearing
and sight initiatives.
Later in the night, House
of Fools led attendees
through a mystery that involved
a church fundraiser,
a curious cast of characters
and $1.5 million in missing
jewels. The troop’s director,
Frann Carnivele, said
she enjoys the collaboration
fostered through live mystery
shows.
“It’s so fun to get the audience
involved,” she said.
“It’s fun to have them be a
part of what’s happening,
and the interaction is always
a great way to involve the
community with this type of
show.”
Reporting by Laurie Fanelli,
Freelance Reporter. For more,
visit NewLenoxPatriot.com.
FROM THE HOMER HORIZON
Flowers by Steen
Productions delivers
more than 100 orders on
Valentine’s Day
Feb. 14 is a day of love.
It is a day for significant
others to celebrate each
other. It also is a day when
an abundance of flowers are
seen in every corner of a
store, on desks of co-workers
and all over social media.
Last Wednesday, Flowers
by Steen Productions in
Homer Glen delivered more
than 100 flower orders after
months of planning for Valentine’s
Day.
“We generally will, weeks
ahead, we start to gather up
inventory; that’s the start of
it,” said Karen Steen, owner
of Flowers by Steen and a
Lockport resident. “Seeing
how much ribbon we have
in stock, how many vases
we have in stock, all the
enclosure cards, we take an
inventory of balloons, and
we also have to grab candy
at times, so there’s just a lot
going into it.”
Steen orders the flowers
that she and her staff will
use to make arrangements
at Christmastime.
“It’s kind of hard to think
about Valentine’s Day when
you’re still in the midst of
the holiday,” she said.
On any given day, there
are four full-time employees
at the shop. On Feb. 14,
there were 12 people working
to prepare flower arrangements
and deliver the
flowers.
“It’s very busy, but I
love it,” said Lori Franze, a
friend of Steen who helped
out at the flower shop.
Reporting by Jacquelyn
Schlabach, Assistant Editor.
For more, visit HomerHorizon.
com.
FROM THE MOKENA MESSENGER
STEM students study laws
of motion on Mokena track
Isaac Newton’s First Law
of Motion states that an object
at rest stays at rest, but
who cares about that when
you can study his Second
Law instead?
Force equals mass times
acceleration is Newton’s
Second Law of Motion, and
a racetrack seems like the
perfect place to study such
things — with a helmet, of
course.
On Feb. 13, students from
Chicago Heights School
District 170 got to test out
what they have been learning
about physics, friction,
momentum and speed during
a field trip to Accelerate
Indoor Speedway in Mokena.
“Rather than just coming
in and getting into a go
kart and racing with no base
knowledge, no background
knowledge, we gave them a
presentation to show all of
the science and math that’s
actually involved in the go
karts: the momentum that
they should be trying to apply
at the turns, even the degrees
of angles in each turn,
while looking at the track
map,” said Stephanie Cryer,
a foreign language and writing
teacher at D170’s STEM
Academy.
Fifty-three seventh- and
eighth-grade students attended
the pilot program
at Accelerate, which was
developed by D170 teachers,
including Cryer, who
incorporated both Common
Core and Next Generation
Science standards
into the classroom portion
of the day. Those concepts
had been previously tackled
during the normal school
day, and were reinforced at
Accelerate before the students
even set foot — or tire
— on the track.
Reporting by Amanda Stoll,
Assistant Editor. For more,
visit MokenaMessenger.com.
FROM THE FRANKFORT STATION
Seniors share special
moments at Valentine
Luncheon
For area seniors, the Senior
Valentine Luncheon is
an opportunity to celebrate
Valentine’s Day with style.
The annual Frankfort
Park District event, which
has been held each year
since 2001, brought roughly
60 residents of Frankfort
and surrounding areas to
the Founders Community
Center on Feb. 14 for an afternoon
filled with friends,
food and live music.
The lunch — catered by
Little Joe’s Famous Pizza
and Restaurante in New
Lenox — included foods
such as chicken, pasta,
mashed potatoes and salad.
“This year, we did end up
falling on Fat Tuesday; we
do have paczki as our dessert,”
said Cali DeBella,
Frankfort Park District’s
special events coordinator.
“So that was just kind of a
little special.”
Seniors chatted at tables
decorated with red and pink
balloons, while singer Mike
Valentine made the rounds,
performing classic oldies
tunes.
“They’re just out to enjoy
time with their friends,
some music from the past
and just enjoy getting ready
for Valentine’s Day,” De-
Bella said.
Her favorite part of the
event is seeing how excited
the seniors get, she said.
“Depending on the time
restrictions and when we
have room, I like when they
get up and start dancing,”
she said.
Reporting by Nuria Mathog,
Editor. For more, visit
FrankfortStation.com.