OB Inside Oak Brook
Girls Just Want to Give Funds: The Western Suburbs Giving Circle
By Anna Hughes Women supporting women: that’s the core of the Western Suburbs Giving Circle (WSGC). The WSGC is a subset of the Chicago Foundation for Women (CFW), an organization focused on bringing health, safety, and economic prosperity to women, girls, transgender, and nonbinary individuals across the Chicagoland area. Since 1985, they’ve invested over $50…
Read MoreTrailblazers: The inspiration behind the Women of Oak Brook
Local women’s group brings Oak Brook together through connection, friendship, and service By Anna Hughes | Photos by Victor Hilitski Lara Suleiman and her family moved to Oak Brook over ten years ago for its great schools and diverse community. When describing the village they’d be calling home to family and friends, Suleiman often referred…
Read MoreVillage agency recruits volunteers for community service, response, and recovery
By Anna Hughes You can never be too prepared. That’s the foundation of Oak Brook’s Emergency Services Disaster Agency (ESDA). ESDA members are trained to support the village in case of emergency by helping prepare residents, support responders, and aid in recovery efforts in cooperation with local, state, and federal governmental entities, as well as…
Read MoreWriter’s Workshop: Oak Brook resident to tell her life story in upcoming book
By Anna Hughes Sitting on the couch of her Oak Brook home, Joan Salvato gestures to a large black photo album on a chair across the room. She jokes that, at 88 years old, it’s too heavy for her these days and asks me to bring it over to her. Despite our 64-year age difference,…
Read MoreA Hidden Gem: Inside Mayslake Hall at Oak Brook’s Peabody Estate
By Maureen Callahan | Photos Courtesy of DuPage County Forest Preserve DuPage County has a number of extraordinary historic homes built by notable citizens. For those that still stand, the closest most of us will ever get to them is a glance from the curb. To get an up-close look and feel of one of…
Read MoreStill Going Strong: Oakbrook Center continues to thrive, as more malls close
By Chuck Fieldman The roster of Chicago area shopping malls continued to get smaller recently with the March closing of 44-year-old Spring Hill Mall in West Dundee/Carpentersville and the April shutting down of the 43-year-old Stratford Square Mall in Bloomingdale. The challenges of successfully operating most any retail business, including shopping malls and the stores…
Read MoreWatch out, Millennials: Fantasy Football, March Madness finds new niche
By Bill Esbrook Fantasy Football and college basketball ‘Bracketology’ is just for Millennials and Gen Z, right? Some residents of a local condominium complex are pushing back on that theory. The upscale Oak Brook Club (OBC), a 316-unit association across from Oak Brook Mall, is a tranquil 25-acre oasis with numerous walking paths and sprinkler-laden…
Read MoreBreaking into the Boys’ Club: Oak Brook Historical Society Hosts Women’s Roundtable
By Anna Hughes If there’s one thing the Oak Brook Historical Society is sure of, it’s this: it takes a village to build a village. Inside the Oak Brook Heritage Center, the group’s home base, portraits of polo players and local leaders decorate the old school house. But next to every well-known man honored throughout…
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