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Tommy Gertner continues to put up magical numbers on Executive director lauds the mound for the atmosphere and opportunities Glenbrook North at Ragdale. P19 baseball team. P16 NO. 94 | A JWC MEDIA PUBLICATION
NEWS
Schools push state on funding BY STEVE SADIN DAILYNORTHSHORE.COM
A
statewide social media campaign by school superintendents lobbying members of the Illinois General Assembly and Gov. Bruce Rauner to pass a school budget started April 24 and is receiving mixed reviews on the North Shore. More than 400 superintendents representing more than 1 million students started posting messages around their schools and on Twitter, but only one of seven interviewed by DailyNorthShore. com is participating. Though the state has been without a budget for the last two years, a year ago the legislature funded schools outside the budget process and Rauner signed the bill, according to Deerfield Public Schools District 109 Superintendent Michael Lubelfeld. He is participating in the social media effort. DNS learned of the effort from an email from Lubelfeld and an April 24 report on WBEZ radio. Continued on PG 8
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SOCIAL SCENE
The Autohaus on Edens showroom was transformed into a catwalk for a fundraiser fashion event. P10 FOLLOW US:
Kindness matters
Author and Netflix star Leon Logothetis learned the hard way
BY DONALD LIEBENSON DAILYNORTHSHORE.COM
I
n America, many believe, nothing succeeds like material success. Leon Logothetis tried that. He was a Wall Street broker. “On the outside, it appeared like I had everything,” he states. “But on the inside, I had nothing.” A movie changed his life; The Motorcycle Diaries, an Oscarwinning (for Best Song) dramatization of the early life of future revolutionary Che Guevara, who embarked on a motorcycle trip across South America that changed his hedonistic ways and opened his eyes to the indomitable spirit and kindness of strangers he met along the way. Logothetis quit his job and embarked on a global journey of his own that profoundly transformed his own life and taught him that nothing succeeds like kindness. On April 24, he brought that message to Field Junior High School in Northbrook and Henry Winkelman Elementary School in Glenview. His presentation, he said in an interview conducted prior to his appearances, reflects the profound power of kindness. “Everyone likes to be treated respectfully,” he said. “When you treat someone with kindness,
Leon Logothetis, author of The Kindness Diaries, speaks to students at Henry Winkelman Elementary School in Glenview. PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOEL LERNER
they feel less alone.” Logothetis knows this firsthand. As a teenager in his native England, he was bullied. He spent two years eating lunch by himself in the school library, he said, until one day a student invited him to have lunch with himself and his friends. “That changed my life in many ways,” he said. And that cuts to the heart of
a question he poses to young audiences: “Everyone can make a difference in someone else’s life. Do you want to make a difference in a positive or a negative way…for better or for worse?” Logothetis, who lives in Los Angeles, has become a global kindness advocate and motivational speaker. On a vintage yellow motorcycle (Kindness One), he traveled the world
without food or money in his pockets, relying solely on the kindness of strangers. His sixmonth odyssey across 20 countries is chronicled in the 13-part series, The Kindness Diaries which can be accessed on Netflix. Through extreme conditions, setbacks and bike breakdowns, kindness prevails and is paid back in kind by Logothetis. For example, he provided sports
equipment, books, and water purifiers to a Calcutta orphanage that had offered him refuge. Kindness, Logothetis believes, is universal. His presentation is rich with teachable moments. For example, he said, he invites children onstage to talk about their pets and how much they love them and what they do for Continued on PG 8
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