When she was a young girl of about seven years old, Laura Huth would gather her siblings Caroline and Jason along with other neighborhood kids with a directive to clean up trash in the forest preserve along Brainard Avenue. A long time before recycling and cleaning the environment were on people’s minds, Laura thought it was important.

There is a new flavor in downtown La Grange. Recently named Executive Chef at Café 36 Bernard Smith, a.k.a. Chef Barney, brings a distinct flair to the familiar but fresh Calendar Court restaurant.

Who would have thought in mid-September we in Chicago would still be watching baseball? ESPN Magazine did not think anyone would be interested in baseball at this late point in the year, so opted to put Jeremy Shockey of the New Orleans Saints on the cover. The other choice was a photo that accompanies the article “Why Chicago Baseball Rules” appearing on page 50 in the Sept. 22, 2008, issue. The page features a full-page photo of Nick Swisher and Geo Soto.

The Greek Orthodox Ladies Philoptochos Society Inc. is the official philanthropic women’s organization of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese in America. The name means “friend of the poor,” being derived from two Greek words philo (friend) and ptochos (poor). The Society was formed in 1931 and currently has grown to more than 500 chapters and 25,000 members, making it one of America’s largest Christian women’s philanthropic organizations.

To have one member of a family who is a celebrated artist is amazing, but to have to entire family successfully involved in the arts is phenomenal.

Lyons Township High School football is so much more than winning and losing. Each player takes away something special that helps him grow and mature in ways that have nothing to do with the gridiron. The football players, coaches and families for the past 16 years have had the opportunity to know and love Jimmy Reynolds, the official ball boy and No. 1 fan of LT football. Everyone in the LT community mourned the loss of Jimmy in 2006.

This has been an adventurous summer for La Grange’s Lynn Benz, her family (including her five kids) and friends. A self-proclaimed outdoors person, Benz rides the bike trails every day.

The cats tussle once in a while in the middle of the night, so I didn’t think too much of Virginia, our hunter cat, hopping up and down at 3:30 a.m. As I was becoming more awake, I also heard the shade pull banging against the window. That could mean that she was trying to get a bug or a spider. I rolled onto my back, opened my eyes and then spotted the unmistakable swooping and silhouette of a bat close to the ceiling.

A few weeks ago, I heard an unmistakable sound on the sidewalk. A young man was approaching his house in full uniform, his baseball cleats clicking in tempo with his walk. Summer baseball.

People giving double takes is nothing new to Jesse and Carey Wagoner of La Grange Park. They are 19-year-old identical twins.

Since she was a young girl, Cathy Grandalski of La Grange Park loved to draw.

When “…and Ladies of the Club” was published in 1982, it sold only a few hundred copies. In 1984, however, the novel written by Helen Hooven Santmyer was chosen as a Book of the Month Club selection, made best-seller lists and was a popular book among book groups.

A couple of years ago, I read a testimonial by someone my age in the paper about how riding a bike makes you feel like a kid again. I thought to myself, “That’s just what we need — let’s get bikes.”

The Village of Roses, a.k.a. La Grange Park, proudly took claim to its name at the 49th annual Rose Show, June 14. Despite the cool and wet spring we had, there were approximately 180 entries.

The other day, I was talking with my brother about the trainer coming to the house for our dog, Mitch. My brother said, “Whatever happened to the days when a dog was a dog?”