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SECTION 5 DAILY HERALD

SATURDAY, JULY 14, 2012

Student-created opera to be performed

Submitted by Hamilton Wings SCORE!

Destined Lives, an original opera created and produced entirely by 10-to13-year-old students, will premiere at 7 p.m. Saturday, July 14, at Elgin Community Colleges Blizzard Theatre, 1700 Spartan Drive, Elgin. The students involved in Hamilton Wings SCORE! come from nine elementary and middle schools in Elgin Area School District U-46. Hamilton Wings SCORE! students developed every component of Destined Lives, including the music, set and script, costumes, props and stage direction, while working directly with professional writers, composers, singers, actors, instrumentalists, designers and directors. The student-created opera takes place in presentday California, amid the ravaging wildfires. The students have developed a supernatural tale involving friendship and morality, which is ultimately overshadowed by the power of personal redemption

for their opera. As the summary reads: Best friends. Loyal, moral and pure. Or ARE they? Supernatural forces engage the friends in a series of tests but failing a test can cost them their souls. SCORE! is a program of Hamilton Wings, an Elginbased nonprofit that works to promote leadership development and academic readiness of socially and/or economically challenged children ages 2 to 17 (although all students are encouraged to apply) through the use of and access to the arts through a variety of after-school arts integration programs throughout U-46. Involving more than 100 students annually, Hamilton Wings SCORE! is a collaboration between Hamilton Wings, District U-46 and Elgin Community College that uses the arts as a vehicle to promote leadership, self-development and academic readiness among socially and economically challenged youth in the Elgin community. SCORE!

students learn life skills such as the value of teamwork, group dynamics and leadership through the 10-month process. All participants must fully participate in the intensive camps, workshops and other small group activities throughout the year. The overall goal of SCORE! is to empower children and their families with an orientation for success through the opportunity to demonstrate their skills and abilities around a tangible public product. Hamilton Wings SCORE!, an in-residence ensemble at ECC, is a multiyear Coming Up Taller semifinalist (one of 50 programs selected in the nation annually) for the Presidents Committee on the Arts and the Humanities in Washington, D.C. (www.cominguptaller.org) and is recognized as a High Quality Academic Enrichment Activity by Learning Point Associates in the category of literacy (www.learningpt.org/promisingpractices/ list.php). The 2011-12 season of

Hamilton Wings SCORE!, culminating with the debut of Destined Lives, is funded by grants from the City of Elgin, Elgin Cultural Arts Commission, 21st Century Community Learning Centers, Section 511 of P.L. 101-166 (in partnership with District U-46), Florence B. Palmer and Cornelia A. Palmer Foundation, Target, EFS Foundation, as well as additional corporate sponsorships and individual contributions. Tickets for Destined Lives are $10 and available at the ECC box office located in the Visual and Performing Arts Center (Building H). To purchase tickets by phone, call (847) 622-0300 or on the Web at www.elgin.edu/arts. Taxdeductible contributions can be made directly to Hamilton Wings. To learn more about the organization, visit www. hamiltonwings.org. For more information, contact Deanna Cates, director of operations and programs, at (630) 707-9267 or DcatesSCORE@aol.com.

A Harvard garden features a shady garden with a dramatic look featuring groupings of plants based on textures and colors alongside a walking path. This garden is one of seven private gardens featured on the tour.

COURTESY OF MCC

McHenry garden walk to include demonstrations

Submitted by McHenry County College

Concerned citizens to host recycling drive

Submitted by Environmental Defenders of McHenry County

On Saturday, July 14, the Environmental Defenders of McHenry County will conduct a recycling collection for fluorescent tubes, plastic foam, electronics and batteries from 9 a.m. until noon at the Metra Station parking lot, 4005 Main St., McHenry. The Defenders recycling drive accepts household batteries, car batteries, lithium

and button batteries and fluorescent tubes, clean plastic foam, VHS and cassette tapes, CDs, DVDs, packing peanuts and reusable, unpopped Bubble Wrap. A donation is requested for fluorescent bulbs and batteries that are brought in to offset the costs involved in processing these items. It is no longer legal to dispose of unwanted electronics in the regular trash and it

is illegal for Illinois landfills to accept them. The Defenders continue to fill this need. Electronics such as computers, phones, printers, clean microwaves and electronic toys are accepted. TVs and computer monitors will be accepted for a donation of $10-$35. At the McHenry collection, the Defenders also accept and pay for aluminum cans. Area residents may drive up and drop off their recyclables

with Defenders volunteers, who help to unload and sort the materials. For information about the recycling schedule and materials accepted at each location, or to access the Green Guide recycling directory put out annually by the Lou Marchi Total Recycling Institute at MCC, visit the Defenders website at http://www.mcdef. org/recycling_information. htm or call 815-338-0393.

Local history preserved in Elgin museum opens Green Movement exhibit photographs
Submitted by McHenry County Historical Society Submitted by Elgin Public Museum

200 for 2000, a millennium photo project initiated and underwritten by CLIX Photographs and Savables Inc. of Crystal Lake, was recently donated to the McHenry County Historical Society Museum in Union. Store owner and project originator Anne Nevills brought the archivally preserved photo scrapbooks resulting from the project to the museum, where they were accepted for preservation by Exhibit and Collection Coordinator Kira Halvey. In the fall of 1999, approximately 200 area photographers including amateurs, students and professionals, participated in the effort to document McHenry County

at the beginning of the new century. Twenty out of the 200 photographers were professionals selected by the 200 for 2000 Committee to participate. Except for one, all the photographers shot black and white film. There were four categories to choose from as subject matter for the documentation of McHenry County life: People, landscape, business and recreation. The ultimate goal was to record a moment in McHenry County history representing the life diversity and changes in the county as seen by a broad spectrum of people who were living it. The project was finished in April of 2002. For more information, call (815) 923-2267 or view the website at mchsonline.org.

Opening Saturday, July 14, at the Elgin Public Museum, 225 Grand Blvd., is Green Scale: Weighing in on the Green Movement. This exhibit examines the successes, shortcomings and impact of the green movement on the global village. Also included will be an art exhibit by five artists who use recyclables in their artwork. The exhibition weighs in on current green practices such as recycling, landfill mining and use of renewable energy. As science and standards evolve over time, it is found that being green does not always measure up. This exhibit was put together by the Museum Studies class of Northern Illinois University and is on lease to the Elgin Public Museum. Their original

art makes use of commonly discarded items. For more information on Elgin Public Museum, call (847) 741-6655.

Get out of the house and into the garden actually, seven private gardens and two community gardens at the McHenry County College and University of Illinois Extension Master Gardeners of McHenry County Garden Walk from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, July 14, starting at the college, 8900 Route 14, Crystal Lake. Visit one garden or all seven, each with their own unique features, including at least three gardens with water features, one with alpacas that may greet you at their entrance and one with a front yard restored as a prairie, reminiscent of McHenry County hundreds of years ago. A special highlight this year is the Harvard Growing Together Community Garden, a productive all-vegetable garden spanning more than 11,000 square feet that generated more than 6,000 pounds of produce for the Harvard Food Pantry last year. The community garden flourished last year without any herbicides or pesticides. Stop to smell the flowers and take advantage of the educational opportunities offered at the Master

Gardeners Demonstration Garden at MCC. Learn about prairie/native gardening, how to attract butterflies to ones garden and how to perk up a garden soil using coffee grounds all while enjoying a free cup of iced coffee. The Demonstration Garden showcases a variety of garden types, including eye-popping annuals grown from seed and perennial gardens for both sun and shade. Visitors will receive maps to drive to the other gardens. Co-sponsored by McHenry County College and University of Illinois Extension Master Gardeners of McHenry County, the self-guided tour allows participants to view the gardens at their own pace. Featured gardens will include a terraced garden with a fountain, a rain garden with plants that attract birds and butterflies, a natural garden with a pond, stream and small waterfall, a 30-foot wooden windmill, and a garden with 143 varieties of hostas. Tickets are $17. Tickets can be purchased at the garden the day of the event. No pets will be allowed at the tour. For more details, visit www. mchenry.edu/gardenwalk.