WB_121219

8 | December 12, 2019 | The wilmette beacon community
wilmettebeacondaily.com
Posted to WilmetteBeaconDaily.com 5 days ago
Holiday Happenings lights up Wilmette
Stella Marie Mullman
Jeremy and Jennifer
Mullman, of Wilmette
Rescued via Chicago’s
One Tail at a Time shelter
this spring, Stella has
quickly made Wilmette
her home. This unique
Labrador-Weimaraner
mix can be found
cheerfully greeting both
two- and four-legged folks
alike around Wheeler Park, happily frolicking on
the Gilson Dog Beach and occasionally bounding
over a white picket fence to greet her friends and/
or the occasional neighborhood bunny or squirrel.
Her other hobbies include playing with her human
siblings, Jack and Jossie, and eating.
To see your pet as Pet of the Week, send information to
eric@wilmettebeacon.com or 60 Revere Drive, Suite 888,
Northbrook, IL 60062.
Alexa Burnell
Freelance Reporter
The holidays are upon
the North Shore and
thanks to the Wilmette/
Kenilworth Chamber of
Commerce so are the great
shopping deals, good
times and goodwill.
On Saturday, Dec. 7, the
Village was set all aglow
during the all-day Holiday
Happenings, where residents
found a number of
ways to get into the spirit
of the season.
First, at Plaza Del
Lago, RPAI management
partnered with Wilmettebased
The Kindness Connection,
building bears
for hospitalized children.
Wilmette’s Anne Kelly
of A.S.K. Media was on
hand, warmed to see the
outpouring of goodwill
displayed.
“Watching all these
families make a toy for
a youngster who may be
NT Swing Choir sings Saturday, Dec. 7. Photo submitted
spending the holidays in
the hospital was beyond
heartwarming,” she said.
“The collaboration with
the Kindness Connection
was truly wonderful and
kickstarted the day on the
most positive note.”
In addition to the acts of
goodwill, the store owners
at the Plaza and in the Village
Center, too, offered
fun-filled swag bags for
some of the first shoppers.
These swag bags weren’t
just any ordinary bags.
Not only did they sport the
“Wilmetteonomics” logo,
reminding all to shop local
this season, they can
be reused at participating
stores for future deals and
discounts.
New to town was business
owner Gretchen
Miller, of Wild Child
Toys. While this Glencoe
resident has owned a sister
toy store in her own Village
for years, she recently
opened a second shop
in Wilmette, grateful to
be back in a neighboring
town she cherishes very
much.
Throughout it all,
Chamber Executive Director
Julie Yusim literally
pranced around town with
Santa himself, happily
earning the title of “Mrs.
Claus” during the day.
As the movie let out,
families headed to the Village
Hall where President
Bob Bielinski took to the
podium with his daughter,
Maggie, by his side. After
thanking the Chamber and
the Village for all their
work in seeing the day
come to fruition he gave
a few words of inspiration
before officially lighting
the holiday trees.
Full story at Wilmette-
Beacon.com.
STEM
From Page 4
She had submitted several
studies she was working
on, including one with an
objective to determine the
impact of weightlessness
on the supplement asthaxanthin
as a treatment
for Alzheimer’s and other
diseases. Though NASA
passed on that study, they
did select another of Spaniak’s
research cases.
“The one that ended going
up [to space] is an algae
that produces an antiinflammatory.
It generally
produces more when it’s
under stress where the survival
conditions are uncertain,”
Spaniak said. “We
wanted to see if it produces
more under zero gravity to
make it more cost-efficient
because right now it’s produced
artificially on Earth.
[This] makes it a lot more
expensive than it would be
if done naturally.”
Spaniak and her fellow
team of young scientists
hatched the idea over the
summer as part of a camp
project with Higher Orbits,
a non-profit based out
of Virginia with a mission
of promoting STEM. Her
team won a local competition
before taking first
place nationally.
“I cried [when I found
out that we won],” said
Spaniak, who added that
the algae is currently being
studied in space and she’s
not sure when it will return
from the space station.
According to the teachers
and students, competing
with boys can be a
challenge for girls, especially
in co-ed institutions.
While boys are more apt to
raise their hands, girls can
sometimes be shy or stay
quiet during STEM discussions
in class.
“I previously taught
co-ed and even as part of
science teacher education,
one of the things you
talk about is how you really
need to make an effort
to sort of draw out
and call on females with
the classes,” Eichler said.
“They [females] are more
reticent to raise their hands
when males are involved,
but when you walk over
and look at their papers,
they’ve got it all down.”
Loder recently oversaw
engineering classes at a
co-ed high school to get
a better idea of what was
going on at other institutions.
Though she’s hopeful
things are trending the
right way, she was still surprised
to see only three to
four females in a class of
20 engineer students.
“It was no better than
what is was like when I
was an engineering student
back in the day,” Loder
said. “But here, 100 percent
of our classes are female,
obviously. I was disappointed
in what I saw at
the high school, but then I
turned around and remembered
what we’ve got here
with girls helping girls out
in class, in a supportive environment.”