Young Poets Honored at Hirshfield Memorial Poetry Awards

By Victoria Scott

Caption: Dr. and Mrs. Hyman Hirshfield (left) and poet/judge Jared Smith (third from left) honored winners of the Jo-Anne Hirshfield Poetry Award Sunday at the Evanston Public Library.

Any one of them could grow up to be a poet.

Winners of the 2006 Jo-Anne Hirshfield Memorial Poetry Award gathered at the Evanston Public Library Sunday afternoon. Calling it a "major event in the library calendar," Library Director Neal Ney and Board President Karen Terry welcomed them to the 28th annual presentation of the award established in memory of Jo-Anne Hirshfield by her parents, Dr. and Mrs. Hyman Hirshfield, and sisters, Laura, Leslie and Deborah.

In addition to reading their poems for a room filled with family and friends, the honorees heard from poet Jared Smith, this year's competition judge. Mr. Smith commented on the difficulty of choosing from among more than 760 submissions. He praised the winners, elementary school through adult, for having brought together words and images to "create a new language."

Eight awards went to Evanston elementary and high school students and three to unpublished Evanston adults. Four Buffalo Grove High School students received awards, as did one adult each from Arlington Heights, Hoffman Estates and Wilmette.

Troy Nelson, an eighth grader at Rhodes Magnet School, won first place in the elementary category for his "Cellist." "This is how I sing./Leaning into light brown/Red brown/Gold brown/Wood/Wood that sings/Wood that weeps/If trees can't feel,/How do you explain my cello?" his poem begins.

Tara Cleveland, a Chute Middle School eighth grader, took second place for a poem modeled on Carl Sandburg's "Chicago." Calling the poem "remarkable," Mr. Smith commended Tara on "selecting small details that make a city recognizable." The city she chose, Forked River, N.J., is the seaside home of her grandparents, a family destination each summer, she told the RoundTable. "People warn about her cruelty, I have seen it, seen the effects of her chemicals spreading like Cancer through your Air./And I have felt the strong push and pull of her picture perfect Ocean waves," she wrote.

"In the clock everyone is dreaming" is the refrain of the third-prize poem, "In the Clock – inspired by Lorca," by Nichols Middle School eighth grader Sally Decker. Calling the closing lines "powerful," Mr. Smith said the poem "realizes we are captives to time but must move beyond it."

Susan Scheid's poem, "Worry," which won first honorable mention, used its refrain ("The perfect time to stop and plunder") in "the best way – so it always changes," said Mr. Smith. Susan is a Nichols sixth grader.

Second honorable mention went to the youngest winner, Lincoln School fourth grader Alicia Mayen, for "Alicia." The work she calls a "bio-poem" describes its writer: "Fears ISATs, sharks, big spiders, and really not much more." Said Mr. Smith, "Its detailed catalog chooses what is important in a person beneath that person's name."

N. S. Barker, a home-schooled sixth grader, wrote the third honorable mention winner, "Fragile," in memory of the grandmother who, she told the RoundTable, "did so many nice things for me." Said the author, "I was thinking how fragile she was at the end." Categorizing it as a "list poem," Mr. Smith admired the poem's description of the cycle of life. It ends: "A funeral fit for a queen/…A granddaughter writing/A tear falling on the page/A memorial of words/A poem spun of memories."

In the high school category Goni Sendak of Evanston Township High School won second place for "today." The poem, said Mr. Smith, tries to appreciate one day in the midst of many. The poem begins "is a fly floating on its back in my dark drink," ends "today is/too much elbow room/on the subway/when you can/look the bum in the eyes/and both ask each other/what are we doing here?"

ETHS student Emma Furman's "(The guitar stands)" received first honorable mention. "Sparse and tightly written," said Mr. Smith, "it vibrates with motion." He commented on its "prime-mover element" as well as its "wonderful closing."

Adult awards went to Evanstonians Maureen Tolman Flannery for "A House Painter Considers the Influence of Color," first place; Chad Peterson for "Easter: An Event," third place; and Jim Piper for "Mom in a Grocery Store," second honorable mention.

In alluding to the difficulty of defining poetry, with its diversity of style and technique, Mr. Smith referred to a recent conversation with America's poet laureate. Ted Kooser, he said, sees poetry as an attempt to communicate something so deeply felt it goes beyond common spoken language. "Every person has his own beat and rhythm inside," said Mr. Smith.

Having found their own internal voices, the 2006 Hirshfield Award winners may join some of their predecessors in the writing life. The award's first winner, Paulette Roeske, is a professional poet who returned to the Evanston Library to teach a two-day adult poetry workshop last month. She still lists the Hirshfield award on her online resume and insists, says Mr. Ney, that "this kind of affirmation keeps you at it."

The prize's first winner and last year's judge, the poet Paulette Roeske, told the RoundTable that long-ago awards ceremony taught her what she had not known: "that people gathered to listen to poems and celebrate the art of writing, that recognition was a possibility, and that what I had assumed was a solitary struggle was, paradoxically, a membership in a vital community."

Having found their own internal voices, some of the 2006 Hirshfield Award winners may join her in the writing life.

Volunteer Recognition Program Honors 15 from ETHS, NU and Community Who Inspire by Example

Kermit Myers founded BookWorm Angels after he retired from a career in business and began volunteering as a teacher’s aide in the Cabrini Green area of Chicago. Founded in 1999, BookWorm Angels now provides 70 Chicago public schools with books for lending libraries in the classrooms.

The pay is terrible, suggested the keynote speaker, and the hours are long. Yet, said Kermit Myers, founder of BookWorm Angels, volunteers "never know how much good you’re doing."

The second annual volunteer recognition ceremony took place on April 25, during National Volunteer Week. The program, a collaboration among the Evanston Community Foundation, Evanston Township High School and Northwestern University, honored five Northwestern students, five ETHS students and five persons from the community of Evanston: Annie Daskovsky, Sundas Ishtiaq, Anna Lemler, Jesse Jai Morris and Marie Semla  of ETHS; Mary Bowmann, Alondra Canizal, Darby Hollinrake, Lauren Parnell and Jonathan Westin of NU; and Susan Brenner, Betsy Engelman, Blanche Gildin, Cora James and Margarita Matlis of the overall Evanston community.

The high school students piled up hours working as tutors, fundraisers for hurricane and earthquake victims and volunteers at soup kitchens, churches, the ETHS Community Service Club and Habitat for Humanity. The college students were involved in Special Olympics, Project SOAR at the McGaw YMCA, the Northwestern Community Development Corporation and other public policy boards and committees.

In a special presentation, Ron Wetterholt, retired District 65 teacher and docent at the Mitchell Museum of the American Indian, was honored posthumously.

Community volunteers put their time and their hearts into the Childcare Network of Evanston, the American Red Cross, Literature for All of Us, the Evanston Public Library, the Adult Literacy Program at ETHS and the Organization Latina de Evanston.

In recognizing the volunteers, William Banis, vice president of student affairs at Northwestern, said the recognition program is an example of the "ongoing and quiet collaboration between the University and the community."

City Manager Julia Carroll said, "Volunteers are such an important part of our community. The diversity of organizations is what sets our community apart from other communities in Illinois and across the country. Thank you for being here for Evanston."

Folk Legend Anne Hills to Perform in Evanston

Continuing a long history of commitment to social justice, Anne Hills will perform a benefit concert for Nicaragua Medical and Vietnam Veterans Against the Wars' Military Counseling Program at 8 p.m. May 13 at the First
Congregational Church of Evanston,

Hinman Avenue at Grove Street. Admission is $15-25 in advance, $18-25 at the door. Ms. Hills was a co-founder of Hogeye Music on Central Street. The concert will also feature special guest Anna Stange, who sings for peace and justice and for environmental action groups in Chicago and around the country. A silent auction will be held before the concert and during intermission. Proceeds from the concert will enable Nicaragua Medical to send medicines and supplies to Nicaragua's under-supplied hospitals and clinics. Vietnam Veterans Against the War will use its share of the proceeds to offer counseling and referral services to GIs and veterans who need assistance applications for Conscientious Objection, obtaining physical and mental health benefits, or upgrading a less than honorable discharge and to educate the public about the lessons of Vietnam.

For tickets in advance send a check made to the Barr Foundation to 4036 N. Kilbourn, Chicago, IL 60641; call 773-283-4361.

Teacher Appreciation Day

May 1-5 marks the local celebration of the National PTA's annual observance of Teacher Appreciation Week, a time for saluting public schools and the relationships among teachers, students and parents.
To celebrate in Evanston/Skokie, a unique community partnership has formed to designate Friday, May 5, as Teacher Appreciation Day. On that day, a special recognition program for classroom teachers from Districts 65 and 202 will be held at 6 p.m. in the Evanston Levy Center, 300 Dodge Ave., preceded by a reception at 5 p.m. The community is invited to attend.

"Mouthpiece: A Life in - and Sometimes Just Outside - the Law"

"Mouthpiece" is written by Edward Hayes, the prominent New-York-born lawyer best known as the inspiration for Tommy Killian, the hustling defense attorney in Tom Wolfe's "Bonfire of the Vanities." Mr. Wolf writes an introduction to this book, an intriguing look at a fascinating man and a fascinating city.

Rapper R. Kelly, Si Newhouse (the multibillionaire monarch of Conde Nast), Ann Wintour (editor of Vogue), architects competing to replace the World Trade Center, 9-11 widows and orphans, mafia types and the estate of Andy Warhol (where Mr. Hayes learned that attorneys from white-shoe law firms could fight as dirty as he did) all called up Mr. Hayes to act as their attorney.

Mr. Hayes, who endured a brutal childhood in Queens, credits his rise to hard work, sartorial splendor and his ability as a politician to make friends. He started out in the District Attorney's office in the Bronx and after a few years hung out his shingle. His early clients were referrals from women he had bedded and mafia types he had met tending bar while going to Columbia Law School.

We only get only one look at his political skills and denizens of his world, and this comes when Mr. Hayes was an undergraduate at the University of Virginia. He was in charge of keeping frat boys from tearing up the house in a drunken rage. He remembered that, to quell a rebellion, Julius Caesar had once mocked himself and his sexual appetite in front of his troops, so Mr. Hayes gave this speech:

"Ooooh, you guys have it soooo tough you have to trash the house. You should try being me. You think you guys have problems because you're away from home and nobody's watching. What about me? I'm from New York and I don't know a girl for 200 miles."

It worked and Mr. Hayes went on to be a student politician at UVA, tapped by the exclusive TILKA Society, whose southern boys, in the words of Tom Wolfe, found New Yawk street charm exotic.

"United 93"

"United 93" could have been a melodramatic Hollywood blockbuster with famous actors and a gigantic budget. But it isn't. Instead, this astonishingly tasteful re-creation of the final plane that was hijacked on Sept. 11, 2001, shows an accurate portrayal of the events of that horrific day and the heroics of the people on that flight.

It begins without any credits in the hotel room of two of the hijackers who are reciting Muslim prayers. But the hijackers, who could have come across as shallow or ignorant villains, are actually cast as frightened, religiously devout, and relatively intelligent individuals who get on the plane unnoticed, which makes their killings even more disturbing to watch. Also, the hijackings reveal an intricately planned attack that kept American air traffic control towers only guessing on which planes were hijacked and where the planes were headed.

Scenes of the chaotic action inside the control towers alternate back and forth with the fictionalized events on flight 93 to create an intense atmosphere of quick decisions and uncertainty.

The film does not make any political statements or attempt to say that wrong decisions were made by the government, but rather it shows how suddenly the officers in the control towers could do nothing more than watch the CNN footage of the twin towers and the Pentagon being hit.

Flight 93 was the only hijacked plane that did not hit its target and because of some of the men on board, the plane crashed in a remote field in Pennsylvania, killing only the people on it. Paul Greengrass, the director of the film, effectively uses lightning-quick cuts and an unsteady camera to capture the pandemonium of the men overtaking the plane and the hijackers. But again, the scenes do not become melodramatic and its focus is narrow, but general enough with its characters to avoid intruding on any of the victims' families.

Not one of the actors in the film is recognizable, yet their portrayals of the stress and grief leading up to the crash are uncanny. The actual phone calls to loved ones from the plane are also re-created with shocking realism.

So why watch a film you know will only leave you in tears? Like "Schindler's List" and "Hotel Rwanda," this film will become a historical tool to give future generations an understanding of what happened and how. This film captures, and will forever memorialize the emotions from that day and the lives that were saved in Washington D.C. by the heroism of the people on board.

"Fabulation, or The Re-Education of Undine"

"Fabulation" continues at Next Theatre.

Lynn Nottage, with her 2005 OBIE-award-winning play, "Fabulation, or The Re-Education of Undine," derives inspiration and ideas from a variety of literary and popular works: Edith Wharton's 1913 novel, "The Custom of the Country"; Br'er Rabbit, a character from the "Uncle Remus" tales brought to America by African and Caribbean slaves; the British television situation comedy, "Absolutely Fabulous"; and such American sitcoms as ""Good Times" and "The Jeffersons." Like the increasingly popular mash-ups of today's DJ's, synching the music of polar opposites such as The Beatles and Jay-Z, Ms. Nottage creates a cohesive dynamic that should not work, but does.

In "Fabulation …," currently being performed by Next Theater Company at Noyes Art Center, we are presented with Undine Barnes-Calles (Jacqueline Williams of "Yellowman"), a successful African-American woman who owns a "… fierce boutique P/R firm catering to the vanity and confusion of the African American nouveau riche. …"

Nottage presents Undine in all her materialistic, post-rags-to-riches glory, caustically berating her assistant, Stephie (Lili-Anne S. Brown, who performed in the Light Opera Works production of "Ragtime"), ditching her gangsta-rapper boyfriend to marry Herve (Dale Rivera), the suave Argentinean in need of a green card, and ultimately unburdening herself of her (self-perceivedly) embarrassing lower-class roots, abandoning her family for 15 years following her college graduation.

She goes so far as to tell the press her family died in a fire; a perfectly acceptable lie in Undine's world of social climbing and shallow friends with shallow perceptions.

Director Jason Loewith's ("Omnium Gatherum") frantic pacing throughout the first act fervidly expresses Undine's world, one in which the woman's constant movement towards the future (more money, more status, etc.) obliterates the necessity to face her past.

Inevitably, the present catches up to Undine, stopping her dead in her tracks. A visit from her accountant (Scott Kennedy) causes Undine to have a stress-related panic attack, which is vibrantly accentuated by Underworld's "Push Upstairs." Undine must face the facts: Herve has left and stolen all her money. Finally she is forced to reflect, first on her and Herve's Latin-music-tinged meeting, and, in the second act, on her betrayal of her family and her identity.

Sound designer/composer Andrew Brommel (who co-designed the Next's "The Love Song of J. Robert Oppenheimer") should at least be nominated for an award for his diverse and perfect musical selections, ranging from the first act's purposely aimless collection (techno, Salsa, Whitney Houston's "I'm Every Woman") to the second and third acts' focused, thematically relevant hip-hop tracks (Wu-Tang Clan, A Tribe Called Quest, Common, etc.). Brommel's music not only provides commentary to Nottage's work, it dances with Richard and Jacqueline Penrod's depiction of Brooklyn (gray buildings and jungle gyms), transforming a play in danger of losing its audience into a dark comedy whose surreal nature finally finds itself grounded in reality.

Undine, although fiendishly played to perfection by Ms. Williams, is a vile, unsympathetic yuppie, whatever her color. Anyone who coerces her fundraising clients with the line, "People don't want to think about a cause -- that's why they give," deserves what's coming to her. As Nottage exhausts Undine's affiliation with those driven by status, our initial shocked laughter gives way to numb observation.

However, the latter half of the play plays to both a perverse sense of humor (Undine's heroin-addicted grandmother's rhetoric --"I don't need no moralisin'. I need smack, and I need it now" -- is priceless) and Undine's eventual fall from grace, suffering all the societal ills those who came from where she did have had to suffer, including imprisonment, dealing with social services, single motherhood, and most importantly, accepting one's heritage.

Pasta Mama

It is not a matter of national pride. Besides, I have my American citizenship now and, after 24 years in the United States, I feel American, not Italian. Rather, it is just a matter of fairness. It bothers me as a journalist that false information circulates, leading people to believe something that is not true. So, once and for all, let me make it clear: Pasta originated in Italy, not China. China has produced many good things, things to be proud of, but pasta is not one of them.

Everybody believes that when Marco Polo went to China, he came back with, among other marvelous things, the recipe for making pasta, right?

Wrong.

I believe that the opposite is true. When Marco Polo went to China, he brought along the recipe for making pasta. Why? Just to have something show off, to brag about his civilization. Marco Polo's need to brag, of course, is not documented anywhere. It is merely a suspicion that I have. What is proven, however, is that Marco Polo went to China in 1271. His father and uncle had already visited China 10 years earlier.

In 1154 Arab geographer Al-Idrisi, who was living at the court of Roger II of Sicily, wrote a book called "The Book for Those Who Like to Travel Around the World," a sort of guide for the medieval tourist. In it, he mentions an area rich in windmills where people make pasta in the shape of long threads called "tria," or "itriyah" in Arabic. Al-Idrisi dwells on the well-developed trade in tria all across the Mediterranean.

Al-Idrisi's book demonstrates that 117 years before Marco Polo went to China, pasta was already traded all over the Mediterranean. One more thing: The area Al-Idrisi describes is Trabia, located a short distance from – guess where – Palermo, Sicily. I can almost hear some of you saying, "Oh, what a coincidence! She is telling us pasta was invented in Sicily, the region she originally came from." Maybe Marco Polo and I have in common, the tendency to brag.

In our search for pasta's origins, we can go back even further in time, thanks to writers, artists and historians who made the effort to document the costumes and habits of their times.

On Etruscan tombs in Cerveteri, Italy, for instance, we can find drawings of knives and rolling-pins and of small wheels that are very similar to those still used today to make ravioli. In 35 B.C. the Latin poet Horatio described his favorite dinner—a soup made with leeks, garbanzo beans and lagane.

Lagane, according to the XVII century historian Forcellini, were thin strips made of "water and flour, cooked in rich broth and then dressed with grated cheese, pepper, saffron and cinnamon."

Around the year 1000 the cook Martino Corno wrote a book called "The Culinary Art of Sicilian Vermicelli and Maccheroni."

It is only in the 17th century, in Naples, that pasta met tomatoes, imported by Europe following the "discovery" of America. Tomato sauce changed the way pasta was eaten. Pasta dressing was no more a sweet and sour combination but a tasty, salty tomato sauce. It is interesting that rich families did not eat pasta yet. At this time it was still a finger food. They had to wait until 1800, when Gennaro Spadaccini, a chamberlain of King Ferdinand II of Naples, came up with a brilliant idea – a utensil with four short tines called a fork. With this simple device, pasta finally spread from the humble tables of the poor to the tables of kings and nobles all over Italy.

All different kinds of pasta were called "maccheroni" until 1700 when the Neapolitans, the most famous maccheroni-eaters, got control of this name and used it to identify only pasta that is long and tubular.

On an Italian web site, I found a list of 152 different pasta shapes. The site emphasized, however, that this was a sampling of a much longer list. In my effort to do justice to pasta, I want to remind everybody that spaghetti is not a generic name for pasta, but for one, and only one, type. To be called spaghetti, it must have a specific diameter.

Otherwise it is spaghettini or linguine or vermicelli or bucatini or bavette or lasagne or tagliatelle or pappardelle or fettuccine or taglierini, or…

(Most information on the history of pasta was found at http://www.italianpasta.net/index3.htm)

Chocolate Pasta

6 oz. flour
2 1/2 oz. unsweetened cocoa powder
2 oz. powdered sugar
1/4 tsp. of vanilla
4 eggs
1 lb. strawberries
The peel of an orange, not grated
A small container of whipping cream

Sift together flour and cocoa powder on a wooden board. Make a hole in the center of the mixture and put in the hole 1 oz. powdered sugar, the vanilla, and the eggs. Work the ingredients with your hands until you get a smooth dough. (Of course, you can do this in a pasta machine, if you have one.) Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and let it rest for 30 min.

Using the pasta machine, cut dough into and slide it through the machine. Then, with a sharp knife, cut the sheet of dough into strips 1/4 inch wide. Lay the strips on white flour and let them rest.

For the sauce, wash the strawberries and remove the green stems. Cut the orange peel into thin strips. Put 2/3 of the strawberries into a blender and reduce to a purée. Cut the remaining strawberries into little cubes. In a casserole dish, boil the orange juice with sugar, add the orange strips and let boil for at least 2 min. Add the strawberry cubes and cook for 1 min. more. Cool, then add the strawberry purée. Whip the cream with the remaining powdered sugar. Cook pasta al dente in salty water, drain it and put it in individual pasta bowls. Top with a spoon of whipped cream, then strawberry cream.

Ten Thousand Villages Celebrates World Fair Trade Day

Ten Thousand Villages, 719 Main St., will join fair trade stores and organizations around the world in observing World Fair Trade Day from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on May 6. The Fair Trade Festival will feature pots and plants for Mother's Day, food from Women's Bean Project and Equal Exchange, drum circles and people-behind-the-crafts-stories.

"This Fair Trade Festival is an exciting celebration for us," said Susanne Donoghue, store manager. "To know that we are celebrating with artisans and fair traders around the world is a pleasure. It is satisfying to see fair trade changing artisans' lives."

Through fair trade, artisans, farmers and textile workers receive a fair price for their quality handcrafted products and crops, allowing them dignity and hope for the future.

Come Sing Out for Peace

The public is invited to sing along with Amy Dixon-Kolar, Margaret Nelson, and David Martin, founder of Chicago People's Music Network, in a fundraiser for the Christian Peacemaker Teams that are working to find non-violent ways to resolve conflict in Iraq, Colombia and other places.

The concert will be held 7:30-9:30 p.m. on May 6 at the Evanston Friends Meetinghouse, 1010 Greenleaf St. The suggested donation is $10 per person or $15 per family. All are welcome.

The Rebirth of Blues and Soul" at First United Methodist Church

For her Senior Studies final project, Evanston Township High School senior Emily Roth will showcase her musical talents along with local upcoming blues band "Natch'l." Come listen to Emily and Natch'l's original blend of blues and soul at 8 p.m., Monday, May 15 at the First United Methodist Church, 516 Church Street in Evanston. Tickets will be available at the door; $5 for students and $10 for adults. Proceeds benefit the Appalachian Service Project.

"Analyzing Antique Clocks" at EHS

Patricia Atwood, former curator of he Time Museum in Rockford, will speak on "Analyzing Antique Clocks" at the Evanston Historical Society, 225 Greenwood St., at 7 p.m. on May 16. Ms. Atwood will focus on the practicalities of identifying and appraising individual antique clocks in the context of their international history. In addition to showing photographs of some fascinating clocks, she will discuss how to preserve, collect and appreciate antique clocks. Tickets are $5 per person, or free for EHS members. Reservations are recommended. Call the American Society of Appraisers, 866-261-0272, or e-mail chicagoasa@sbcglobal.net and visit www.appraisers.org/chicago .

Music Workshop at ESO

Rachel Barton Pine gave a pre-concert demonstration to students in the McGaw YMCA Club-Mid program, an after- school tutoring session for Evanston middle school children. She talked about music and looked at their artwork depicting her solo piece, Lalo's Symphonie Espagnol, which she will perform with the Evanston Symphony on May 7 at Pick Staiger. Call 847-864-8804.

Cigna Donation Brings Defibrillators to Evanston School Districts

By Anna Mussa-Ivaldi

A gift of $18,500 from Cigna HealthCare to Evanston School Districts 202 and 65 will help the Districts meet the state's Automatic External Defibrillator (AED) requirements for 2006 and 2007.

Governor Blagojevich recently signed the O'Sullivan Law, which requires indoor park facilities, health clubs, and school gymnasiums to have at least one AED on the premises and to train staff in AED use by 2007. Funds donated by Connecticut-based Cigna will be used to purchase and maintain AED machines and train staff members in their use.

Kathy Miehls of ETHS Public/Alumni Relations said the school nurse used a portable defibrillator last fall to save the lives of both a student and a staff member who collapsed from cardiac arrest in separate incidents. According to Bruce Romain, ETHS associate principal for grades 11 and 12, nine portable defibrillators are already in place at ETHS, located throughout the buildings.

Mr. Romain added that all first responders are trained in AED use, including nurses, athletic trainers, and safety department staff members. Some ETHS sophomores have been trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in health education classes. Since the two cardiac episodes, others have asked to be trained in CPR and in AED use.

The portable AED, about the size of a laptop computer, is easily manageable. It has a voice-prompt system that provides clear instructions for the user. Once the AED is turned on, the rescuer is instructed to apply two electrodes to the victim's chest. Through these electrodes the AED monitors the victim's heart rhythm. If necessary, the AED will charge itself and instruct the rescuer to stay clear of the patient and to press the shock button.

According to statistics, there are about 200,000 deaths every year in the United States due to cardiac arrest. Following the cardiac chain of survival and using an AED could prevent about 50, 000 deaths.
The American Red Cross has identified the following four critical steps in the cardiac chain of survival.
According to the American Red Cross, there are four critical steps in the cardiac chain of survival. The four steps are
· Early access to care (calling 911 or another emergency number)
· Early cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR)
· Early defibrillation
· Early advanced cardiac life support, as needed

Evanston's Bars and Restaurants To Go Smoke-Free By July 1

The Evanston City Council last week voted 8-1 to strengthen its clean air ordinance after Ald. Lionel Jean-Baptiste, 2nd Ward, who had opposed the measure in committee, switched his position.

That left only Alderman Steve Bernstein, 4th Ward, advocating that Evanston postpone implementation of the stronger rules until 2008, when similar provisions already adopted by Chicago will go into effect. Ald. Bernstein said an earlier effective date might hurt hospitality-industry business in Evanston.

Alderman Edmund Moran, 6th Ward, and others said they were convinced that the experience of other cities with complete smoking bans has demonstrated that restaurants and bars tend to show an increase in business, rather than a decrease, once smoking bans go into effect.

A cluster of residents supporting the ban at the council meeting wore stickers reading "I support a smoke-free Evanston."

No restaurant or bar owners appeared to speak against the proposal, but David Baum of 2424 Lincoln St., said that as a smoker and a lawyer he opposed the ordinance's "big-brother approach."

"We tend to have knee-jerk reactions to situations in Evanston," Mr. Baum said, "and this is another one of them."

The ordinance will also prohibit smoking in public areas of condominiums and other multi-unit dwellings.

Medicare Prescription Drug Plan:
Registration Deadline is May 15

May 15 is the deadline for enrolling in the Medicare Prescription Drug Program known as Medicare Part D. Once the enrollment window closes, the next opportunity to enroll is Nov. 15-Dec. 31.

Evanston Long-Term Care Ombudsman Nancy Flowers stressed the importance of meeting the May 15 deadline. "Even if people don't think the program is going to be that beneficial to them, they still need to enroll. They can try it for six months and then change it. Otherwise, they will be hit with a penalty that will stay with them forever." The penalty to which Ms. Flowers refers amounts to
1 percent a month. Ms. Flowers said she does not believe postponement of the
May 15 deadline is likely.

Medicare, of which the Prescription Drug Program is part, is the nation's largest health insurance program. Medicare's nearly 40 million enrollees include people 65 and older, some disabled people younger than 65, and people with end-stage renal disease, kidney failure treated either with dialysis or a transplant.

According to "Economic Trends in Evanston," a 2005 research study by the City, the Chamber of Commerce, and
Evmark, Evanston's population aged 65 years or older declined from 9,481 to 8,014 between 1990 and 2000. The largest drop was among persons aged 75 to 84.

Ms. Flowers says the majority of Evanston's elderly will be eligible for Medicare Part D. In some cases, however, complete coverage will not be provided. Mrs. Flowers provided the RoundTable with two case studies involving Medicare Part D, one with noticeably reduced drug costs, the other with more modest benefits.

The first case study involves Mr. and Mrs. Jones (fictitious names). Mr. Jones, after many years of work, has recently been laid off with no pension, no health insurance to cover either inpatient hospital expenses (Medicare Part A) or outpatient health care expenses (Medicare Part B), and no coverage for medications. The couple's total annual income is $24,000.

In addition to the Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Program, the Joneses are also eligible for medication assistance through Social Security and the Illinois Care RX Drug Plan. Illinois Care RX is a state-sponsored plan that will cover the cost of their Medicare Part D premiums, limit the amounts of their co-pays and cover their deductible and the cost fo medications
during any gap in Medicare D coverage. The program will save the Joneses more than $400 a month in medication costs.

The second case study focuses on Ms. Smith, who is in her 50s and has multiple health problems for which her physicians prescribe 12 medications, most of them costly. Ms. Smith's income is $14,000
a year.

Mrs. Smith applied for Illinois Cares RX and enrolled in a coordinating Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Plan. But she had difficulty getting the state plan to cover many of her medications. Her age limits her eligibility to all but one level of the state program, which only covers certain of her medications.

The program will save her some money on medications, but she must still choose which of her medications she can afford and try to get others as samples from her physicians.

The following agencies will help Evanston residents who need assistance with enrollment or who have questions: the Evanston Commission on Aging at the Civic Center, 2100 Ridge Ave., 847-866-2919; the Levy Senior Center, 300 Dodge Ave., 847-448-8250; and Evanston/Skokie Valley Senior Services, 840 Dodge Ave., 847-864-3721.

Seminar on End of Life Issues

The Unitarian Church of Evanston, 1330 Ridge Ave., will hold a workshop entitled "End of Life Planning for Everyone" from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on May 13. Participants can attend two sessions: "Nuts and Bolts" (advance directives); and "Staying Strong, Emotionally, Spiritually."

Anyone who wishes to become better informed about end-of-life issues and planning should register by calling the church, 847-864-1330. There is a $5 registration fee; conti-nental breakfast is included.

Conference on Depression

The public is invited to a free conference on depression at 4:30 p.m. on May 21 at the Mt. Zion Tabernacle Apostolic Church, 2101 Dempster St. Speakers will be psycholo-gist Kesha Burch and professional counselor Helen Vallier; the panelist is social worker Carl Hampton. Call 837-328-7775.