Students see future at new Vernon Hills library

A stiff wind Monday morning hindered their flight, but the release of a wave of little green discs in a field in Vernon Hills was well received as the symbol of an exciting future.

About 200 students from Hawthorn Middle School South and Elementary School North let loose with the flying discs, each adorned with a butterfly symbolizing a student connection with a new library on the spot.

First and seventh graders will work together on a butterfly garden at what, in a year or so, will be the Aspen Drive Library to be built for the Cook Memorial Library District. Students are following the project closely as part of a 21st Century learning program in Hawthorn District 73 dealing with real-life experiences.

"This is our community service project. We study habitats," explained Jeanne Bleck, a first-grade teacher at Elementary North. The students had assembled in a big square marking the perimeter of the building in advance of the actual groundbreaking.

"We're going to keep a time line of this ... so they can see and watch their library go up," Bleck added.

Before the field trip across the street from Hawthorn Middle School South, students were given a virtual tour of the building and heard from local dignitaries about the project, which is expected to be under way by the end of the year and will take 12 to 14 months to build.

"Use it because it will be a great educational amenity for the whole village and the whole district," said Vernon Hills Mayor Roger Byrne.

The village has been trying diligently for more than a decade to land a full-scale library, and is donating the property for the project. Tax hike referendums to fund a new building failed in 1998, 1999 and 2003.

Besides the land donation, state Sen. Terry Link and state Rep. Kathy Ryg secured about $700,000 in state funds for related work.

"You're going to help build a butterfly garden?" Ryg asked as students responded with a resounding 'Yes.' "How cool is that going to be?"