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SATURDAY FEBRUARY 29 | SUNDAY MARCH 1 2020
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Barb LoFasto changes children’s lives at Beacon Place. P18
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Jack and Thrill: LFHS hoopster Malloy, Scouts edge Libertyville in overtime. P16 FOLLOW US:
NO. 385 | A JWC MEDIA PUBLICATION
NEWS
Testing the Waters
STEPPING IT UP IRISH STEP DANCING CHAMPION VERONICA LILJA BRUGIONI HONORS MENTOR WITH LAKE BLUFF DANCE STUDIO
LAKE FOREST STUDENTS PITCH NEW IDEA FOR PURIFYING WATER AT INTERNATIONAL NEWBUSINESS COMPETITION EDITED BY DEBBIE LEE THE NORTH SHORE WEEKEND
In 2016, Ally Page, a student at Lake Forest High School (LFHS), was on vacation with her family in Mexico when she was exposed to dangerous E. coli bacteria from the drinking water. While tourists are often warned about the risks of tap water exposure, the repercussions for the now 17-year-old senior were worse than expected. “I was in the hospital for two weeks with kidney failure,” says Page. “I realized how much we take clean drinking water for granted every day.” The experience is one that influenced her as she joined forces with three other LFHS students—fellow 17-year-old seniors Chase Rupprecht, Dylan Cofer, and Jeremy Hughes—to invent SOLIS, a lightweight, portable water purification bottle. Born out of the Business Incubator program at LFHS, the invention will be introduced to a broader audience on March 11 at the South by Southwest (SXSW) EDU Student Start-Up Pitch Competition in Austin, Texas.
ABOVE: Katie Bradley, Kiley Goodman, Lisa Sulla, Sophie Puszynski, Katelyn Robson, Allison Kolber RIGHT: O’Hare Irish Dance owner and instructer Veronica Brugioni PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARCUS NORMAN PHOTO
Continued on PG 10 start having kids,’ ” says Brugioni. “I said, ‘I need to open up my own dance studio.’ ” THE NORTH SHORE WEEKEND By January, O’Hare Irish Dance was up and running in Lake Bluff. One chat with Brugioni and it’s no surprise that In April 2018, Veronia Lilja Brugioni was on a she managed to make things happen in a matter of flight home from her wedding in Playa Mujeres, months. The 28-year old has all the drive and ambiMexico, when she turned to her husband Matt. Now tion you would expect from a world medalist in Irish that the couple was married, it was time to discuss dancing. It’s also in her blood: Her father, Larry Lilja, their next steps. was briefly a member of the Atlanta Falcons and the “Some people will say, ‘Let’s buy a house,’ or ‘Let’s New York Giants before serving as a football BY DEBBIE LEE
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