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SATURDAY DECEMBER 17 | SUNDAY DECEMBER 16 2016
SPORTS SUNDAY BREAKFAST ILLUSTRATION BY BARRY BLITT
Fertility nurse Jill Spatz creates vitamin-rich product. P26
Loyola Academy’s Jake Marwede and Anthony Romano and Highland Park’s Jacob Swartz headline our 2016 all-area football team. P25
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Supporters of the Weizmann Institute of Science came together for a fundraiser. P12 FOLLOW US:
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KINDLING KINDNESS Glenview schools engage in Random Acts of Kindness BY STEVE SADIN DAILYNORTHSHORE.COM
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tudents at Glenbrook South High School and Glenview ’s Pleasant Ridge Elementary School dispensed random acts of kindness this week, and one act found its way to refugees in Chicago Public Schools. Among more than a dozen events organized or attended by students at the two schools from December 12 – 17, one was a holiday party for refugee children in Chicago where Glenbrook South Key Club members helped kids with homework and craft projects. One of the children at the party was Samaa Jamoos, a third grader who arrived in the United States six months ago from Damascus. She was painting with watercolors under the tutelage of Glenrook South sophomore Hailee Bilimoria while they communicated easily in English. “I learned it in school,” said Jamoos in a Midwest accent. “I listen to what it sounds like.” After living on Chicago’s North Side for six months, Jamoos said she sees a huge difference between her new home and the one she and her family left behind. “They don’t have a war here,”
Sitting at a table with Glenbrook South Key Club members, 10-year-old Sana Musa of Sudan does a little artwork at RefugeeOne in Chicago’s Andersonville neighborhood. PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOEL LERNER.
said Jamoos in a serious tone. “You don’t have anyone dying every day somewhere.” Not long after that, Santa Claus arrived and the children gathered around as he handed out presents. Jamoos sat in the front row, occasionally touching Santa on the knee while waiting for Melissa Janisch, the youth program coordinator with
RefugeeOne, to call her name. “I’m going to play,” said a smiling Jamoos holding her new stuffed animal. “This is fun,” she added about her first encounter with Santa Claus. She is Muslim and never experienced Christmas before. “Santa and the presents are very cool,” added Akram Abedat, a second grader who
arrived in Chicago from Daraa, Syria, just over a year ago. “I learned English in school. I learned it very fast.” RefugeeOne helps settle people fleeing oppression and worse, according to Janisch. She said the organization assists families’ adjustment, helping adults develop skills to find work and children get comfort-
able in school. RAK (Random Act of Kindness) Week is about much more than the holiday party for refugee children, according to Josh Koo, a Glenbrook South science teacher and the Key Club advisor. He said the club, which is de voted to Continued on PG 8
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