Parents Honored in District 207

The first person honored as “District 207’s Parent of the Year” isn’t a parent at all.

Lorena Bolanos, who graduated last week from Maine West High School, nominated her sister, Araceli Bolanos, for the award.

“Araceli Bolanos has been both mother and father at the same time and she is only 25 years old,” Lorena Bolanos wrote in her nominating essay, which explained that the teenagers’ parents are not in the United States. “She works in a restaurant as a waitress to support us. She pays rent, food and clothing. She also gives us love and care as parents do with their children. … We are more than proud of her because we do not have our parents with us, but we have her and she is more than a wonderful mother.”

In addition to Lorena, Bolanos cares for her brothers Marco, who also graduated last week, and Agustin, who was a junior last year. Lorena’s essay was read by Maine West assistant principal David Matkovic at the the Maine Township High School District 207 school board meeting June 7.

Bolanos, of Des Plaines, received the first of three “Parent of the Year” awards at the meeting. Also honored were Lynne Steele, whose son, Alex, graduated from Maine South and Richard and Jeannine Disclafani whose son, Joseph, graduated from Maine East.

The idea for honoring parents came from school board member Joanne Braam, who saw it done at Bradley University.

All three stories brought tears to the eyes of board members, as school administrators read the students’ words.

Joseph Disclafani of Niles wrote about all the things his parents had done to become involved parents at Maine East, joining the fine arts booster club and eventually becoming its presidents when his sisters were at the school, then joining the athletic boosters as Joe followed a more sports-oriented path.

Then last year, his parents came to the children and the family and approached them with the idea to take in a grandnephew whose mother had died 10 years earlier and was being raised by his great-grandmother in Chicago. The boy was having trouble in his neighborhood.

“After discussing the plan with my sisters and me, my parents opened their house to this young ambitious 14-year-old,” Joseph Disclafani wrote. “I’m not going to lie, things did get rocky at times, but my parents never gave up on him.”

Alexander Steele lauded his mother for encouraging her three sons to pursue their dreams and helping him to juggle his classes, college applications and three dramatic productions at Maine South last year.

Lynne Steele, a single parent, “has shown my brothers and I that we mean enough to her that she gives up her time to not only attend concerts, plays and ball games, but to meet with a variety of committees to be sure that we always have the opportunity to develop our talents in fine arts and sports.”

Steele is a professor at Oakton Community College and lived in Park Ridge.