ECC’s Project Backpack in need of volunteers, sponsors
Elgin Community College is seeking volunteers and sponsors for Project Backpack, which provides backpacks and essential school supplies to students and families in need.
This year the giveaway will be held from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 2, on the ECC campus at 1700 Spartan Drive.
Volunteers will help assemble backpacks on July 30-31 and assist during the event, a news release said.
Nonprofit and for-profit organizations can set up booths as part of the giveaway, with the latter asked to make a $150 donation to participate.
To donate, volunteer or become a sponsor, go to project-backpack.elgin.edu.
Lunchtime hike to be held at Hawthorne Hill Nature Center
Hawthorne Hill Nature Center in Elgin will host a brown bag lunch hike from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday, June 19.
Lynette Spencer, a licensed clinical social worker and certified clinical adventure therapist, will talk about how spending time outdoors can boost mental wellbeing in advance of the walk, a social media post for the event said.
The cost is $8 for Elgin residents and $11 for nonresidents. Register at bit.ly/3Fm7XgE/. Participants should bring their own lunches.
The nature center is located at 28 Brookside Drive.
Museum holding program on Elgin street, landmark names
Local historian Rebecca Miller will give a brown bag lunch lecture on the stories behind the names of Elgin streets, buildings and schools from noon to 1 p.m. Thursday, June 19, at the Elgin History Museum, 360 Park St., Elgin.
The presentation will explore how the names seen every day throughout the city reflect Elgin’s diverse history, according to the museum’s website. Guests should bring their own lunches; the museum will provide beverages and dessert.
Admission is free for museum members and $5 for nonmembers. To register, go to elginhistory.org/event/brown-bag-lunch-how-did-elgin-streets-get-their-names-with-rebecca-miller/#rsvp-now. For more information, call 847-742-4248.
Two infrastructure projects receive national recognition
National Recognition Awards were presented to two infrastructure projects in Kane County at the 2025 American Council of Engineering Companies Engineering Excellence Awards in May.
The first was in recognition of Carpentersville becoming a lead-free community by securing $4 million in IEPA loan-eligible reimbursement funding to pay for the removal of 400 lead water service lines to homes. Engineering Enterprises Inc. oversaw the work.
Also recognized was the Kane County Department of Transportation’s $117 million Longmeadow Parkway, the four-lane, 5.6-mile highway that included a 788-foot-long bridge over the Fox River, the release said.
Crawford, Murphy & Tilly; Hampton, Lenzini and Renwick; Thomas Engineering; BLA Inc.; Burns & McDonnell; V3; CivilTech; Alfred Benesch; Clark Dietz; Huff & Huff served as engineering firms for the project.
Six U-46 students earn first place at Illinois Science Olympiad
Six School District U-46 students earned first-place honors at the Illinois Science Olympiad.
Teams from Eastview Middle School in Bartlett, Larsen Middle School in Elgin and Elgin High School competed in April at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and were honored at a June meeting of the U-46 school board, according to a news release.
Pratyush Ramesh, who graduated from Elgin High last month, and junior Abhinav Arvind finished first in the anatomy and physiology category. Classmates Aarav Patel and Mahitha Ratakonda, who both graduated last month, finished first in the disease detectives category, which involved epidemiology case studies.
Eastview students Jacob Baca and Melia Ortiz-Tan, who will be eighth-graders in the fall, earned first place in the remote sensing trial event.
