New Lenox schools raising money through its Brain Brawl
Spectators are invited to join the New Lenox School District 122 Foundation Brain Brawl Feb. 6.
They are welcome to watch the 18 teams compete in six rounds of trivia. The teams are already sold out, according to Nancy Dye, foundation president and village trustee.
“With educational government funding being unpredictable and uncontrollable, a community can see the benefits of programs that foundations sponsor,” Dye said. “In New Lenox, we’ve raised approximately $45,000 for technology such as Apple TVs, Digital Techbooks, as well as contribute to an art scholastic program.”
At the school board meeting last Wednesday, Supt. Peggy Manville got the competitive spirit flowing. She said that she and the team from her office were ready and can’t be beat. Each team has up to eight players. Teams paid $150 each to compete. The grand prize is $500 for the winning team.
Spectator tickets are $10 and include dinner. It will be held at Lions Community Center, 1 Manor Drive at 6:30 p.m. For more information, visit nsld122foundation.org/trivia.
Erin Gallagher, Special to the Daily Southtown
Youth concussions subject of upcoming talk
Helping parents and coaches understand concussions in youth sports is the topic of a presentation Feb. 11 in New Lenox.
“There is no such thing as a mild or moderate concussion,” said Phil Pfeifer, president of Baseline Operations, a speaker on the village’s youth sports injury prevention team. “It’s either a brain injury, or it’s not.”
Often after a young person experiences a concussion during sports, they go back to playing once their symptoms have subsided. That can have long-term, dangerous effects, Pfeifer said. Brain injuries could take a week up to several months to heal, he said. Most people think that if the symptoms are gone, the injury is healed.
“We’ve been so lax about how they’re happening,” he said. “We’re so lax about returning back to play.”
Long-term injuries and illnesses that professional and college athletes are experiencing did not start when those players became adults. Pfeifer believes those injuries began in youth sports.
However, he is quick to say that concussions are not all sport-related.
“Half of all concussions under the age of 18 don’t happen in sports,” he said. “It’s more about taking care of an epidemic than it is avoiding a certain sport.”
Pfeifer will join Jason Hurbanek, a surgeon with Hinsdale Orthopedics and Scott Kenny, a chiropractor with Integrated Physical Medicine to discuss what parents, coaches and schools need to know about youth concussions. Topics include diagnosis, treatment, symptoms, and baseline concussion testing. There will also be talk on establishing strong concussion policies and procedures for organizations and schools, including return to play programs.
The event will be held at 7 p.m. at the New Lenox Village Hall, 1 Veterans Parkway.
For more information, contact Pfeifer at 815-953-6853 or ppfeifer@baselineoperations.com.
Erin Gallagher, Special to the Daily Southtown
Obama asks $50 million cut in Great Lakes restoration effort
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — President Barack Obama’s proposed budget for 2016 seeks what it calls a $50 million “modest reduction” in a multi-year program to clean up the Great Lakes.
The president’s spending plan released Monday requests $250 million for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, down from $300 million appropriated for this year.
The program focuses on the lakes’ most serious long-term ecological challenges such as invasive species, toxic pollution, degraded fish and wildlife habitat and runoff from farms and cities that causes toxic algae blooms. Obama created the program after taking office in 2009. About $1.9 billion has been spent on about 2,000 projects region-wide.
Todd Ambs, campaign director of the Ann Arbor-based Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition, said in a statement that the proposed cut is unacceptable. The president sought a $25 million reduction last year, but Congress kept the program at $300 million.
“This budget, for the Great Lakes, is a non-starter,” Ambs said. “We look forward to — once again — working with Republicans and Democrats in Congress to restore funding to Great Lakes protection efforts that are producing results for the environment and economy in communities across the region. Bipartisan leaders in the House and Senate have proven that they will stand up for the Great Lakes — and we embrace the opportunity to work with them again to keep federal Great Lakes restoration efforts on track.”
The lakes provide drinking water to about 30 million people and are an economic pillar for eight states and two Canadian provinces.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency spokeswoman Liz Purchia said Monday that her agency “has made significant investments” in the Great Lakes cleanup effort over six years and would continue to do so under the proposed $250 million budget.
“With this investment, the EPA expects to continue to make progress advancing restoration,” she said in an email to The Associated Press. “The modest reduction to interagency agreements, grants, and contracts will place a greater focus on … clean-up of areas of concern, preventing and controlling the spread of invasive species, and taking steps to address the causes of harmful algal blooms in priority watersheds.”
Acting Deputy Administrator Stan Meiburg said in a statement Monday that his agency’s budget “sends a strong signal that the president is fully committed to making the investments needed to meet our mission to protect public health and the environment.”
