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Praying for Nurses and Medical Professionals with Fenwick Ties

The observation of National Nurses Week, celebrated May 6 – May 12, has extra-special meaning this year.

As is the case with many care-givers, the hard work of dedicated nurses often is taken for granted. Sometimes, it takes a health crisis such as the Coronavirus pandemic to bring these medical heroes into the spotlight.

Pictured above is alumna Julianne (Comiskey) Heinimann ’01, who works as a NICU nurse at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. She is one of at least 34 Friar alumni — women and men — who are registered nurses or nurse practitioners (see list below) across the United States: from Chicago, Oak Park, Downers Grove and Indiana to Washington (DC), Ohio, Arizona and San Francisco. (We know there are many more who are not in our system.)

Nurse Meade

Kathryn Meade, the mother of Fenwick senior Jack Meade (Lombard, IL), is one of at least nine parents working in the nursing field (see below). ” I had contracted COVID-19 from work,” shares Mrs. Meade, who has been a nurse since 1994, working as a NICU nurse for 22 years until recently becoming a Lactation Consultant. “Thankfully, I am on the mend and am humbled by the outpouring of love and support I received,” she says.

In observance if National Nurses Week, we want to publicly thank these moral servant-leaders for all that they do for their patients – especially by putting themselves and their families at risk during the COVID-19 crisis. You make us all proud to be fellow Friars!

Mary Berkemeyer ’11 Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago Emergency Room Registered Nurse
Monica Bomben ’11 Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago Registered Nurse, Neuro/Ortho
Allison Borkovec ’07 Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston Registered Nurse
Marco Candido ’03 Independent Registered Nurse
Katie Dalton ’06 Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago Registered Nurse
Jennifer Dan ’08 Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago Cardiac Cath
Lab Nurse

Lauren


Sarah
Dillon-Ellsworth

Finan
’99


’04		Loyola University Medical Center, Maywood, IL

Lurie Children’s Hospital, Chicago 		Nurse



Nurse, neurointestinal and motility
Shannon

Daniela 		Flannery

Giacalone 		’14

’07

Northwestern Memorial
University of Chicago Comer Children’s Hospital
Registered Nurse

Registered Nurse
Margaret Grace ’13 Rush University Medical Center, Chicago Registered Nurse
Sharon Grandy ’01 Presence Health (Arizona) Emergency Room, RN
Julianne

Michelle 		Comiskey-Heinimann

Androwich- Horrigan 		’01

’05 		Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago
Northwestern Memorial 		Registered Nurse (Neonatal ICU)
Dana Jakoubek ’01 UCSF Medical Center, San Francisco Kidney Transplant Nurse Practitioner
Bridget Kern ’07 Rush University Medical Center, Chicago Registered Nurse
Amy Konopasek ’01 Loyola University Medical Center, Maywood, IL Registered Nurse Multidisciplinary Coordinator
Alexis

Grace 		Kozyra

Lattner 		’12

’15 		AMITA Health

Cleveland Clinic 		Registered Nurse

Registered Nurse
Robert Lewis ’71 Emory University Emergency Medicine, Atlanta Nurse Practitioner
Anne Loeffler ’06 Rush University Medical Center Nurse Assistant 2
Mark Manankil ’86 Advocate Healthcare/Good Samaritan Hospital, Downers Gtove, IL Nurse/Psychiatry
Madalyn

Molly 		Mazur

McHugh 		’11

’13 		U. of Chicago Hospital – Stem Cell Transplant Unit

MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, Washington, D.C. 		Charge Nurse/ Floor Nurse

Registered Nurse
Martin Mikell ’86 Zablocki VA Medical Center, MilwaukeeRegistered Nurse
Elissa Mikol ’04 Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago Pediatric Surgery, Nurse Practitioner
Kyle

Nora		Morris

Napleton		’97

’15 		Saint Mary’s Medical Center, Chicago
Loyola Medical Center, Maywood		Registered Nurse

ICU Nurse
Thomas Papadakis ’01 Rush Oak Park Hospital Registered Nurse, Emergency Department
Rachel


Katherine 		Koranda-Plant

Racanelli 		’00


’08
Loyola Medical Center (Chicago)

AMITA Health Medical Group
Registered Nurse


Family Nurse Practitioner
Terri Ferrera-Salinas ’09 Magnificat Family Medicine, Indianapolis Registered Nurse
Pamela


Andrew 		Chase-Smith

Straub 		’97


’87
Champaign, IL

UnitedHealth Group, Ohio
RN

Nurse Practitioner
Brittney Woosley ’08 Gottlieb Memorial Hospital, Melrose Park, IL Permanent Charge Nurse/RN

According to the Fenwick database, another 225 people (including alumni) have listed either “medicine” as their business/industry or “nursing” or “physician” as their profession. They are:

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Baseball & Softball Friars Fly to Orlando, Board Bus to Clarksville

Fenwick student-athletes to thaw out their fingers (and toes) next week on warmer ball diamonds down south.

By Mark Vruno

Head Coach Dave Hogan can shed some clothing layers in Orlando.

Last week a group of Fenwick “snowbird” alumni gathered in the Arizona desert on March 15 to watch the Chicago Cubs defeat the White Sox under partly sunny skies and 71-degree temperatures. The school’s baseball and softball teams have caught the warmer-weather bug, too, as the annual spring athlete migration is set to begin.

The evening before the crosstown-classic rivalry at Camelback Ranch in Glendale, AZ, a handful of faithful fans braved howling winds and biting, 43-degree temps to watch the Friar boys’ baseball team demolish Ridgewood’s Rebels from Norridge/Harwood Heights by a score of 15-2. It was 2019 opening night under the lights at Triton College.

The highlight was senior Lucas Kolovitz (above, in Florida last year), a D1 recruit committed to Purdue University – Fort Wayne, blasting a towering homerun that, with Mother Nature’s assistance, traveled nearly 400 feet into the angry, River Grove sky. (Junior Will Hendricks also smashed a triple, while fellow junior Greyson Cone’s cannon-like arm was on display at third base.) The windy win marked number 817 for Varsity Baseball Coach Dave Hogan, who is entering his 39th season as the Friars’ skipper. Coach Hogan has tallied the second most baseball victories at one school in Illinois, dating back to 1980.

Cousins face off: Tommy Groom and the Hornets of Bishop Moore (Orlando) will try to sting the Friars — and his older cousin, Jimmy — on March 25.

“We have eight games scheduled in Florida, three of them in the Atlanta Braves’ spring training big-league stadium,” reports Assistant Varsity Coach and baseball alumnus Kyle Kmiecik ’00. On Monday, March 25, the top end of a double-header features the cousins Groom on the mound: Fenwick senior pitcher Jimmy Groom will try to match heat with his younger, flame-throwing cousin Tommy: a right-handed junior who hurls 90-mph fastballs for Bishop Moore out of Orlando. (Tommy’s father, Chris, taught Spanish at Fenwick in 1994-96, Principal Groom says of his brother.  “He also coached sophomore baseball,” reports Mr. Groom.)

The projected high temperature for game day is a balmy 82 degrees at Disney’s ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex. The nightcap pits the Friars against the Lions of Orange High School from Pepper Pike, Ohio, near Cleveland.

The following evening Fenwick faces the Quakers of Sidwell Friends, a selective, private school in the Washington, D.C.- Bethesda, Maryland area. Next up on Wednesday is another Quaker team from Philadelphia: the William Penn Charter School; on Thursday it’s the “Fords” from the all-boys Haveford School, also in Pennsylvania (near Philadelphia).

Our Chicago-area boys close out their trip in the sun with a mid-day double-header on Friday, March 29: Game 1 (10:30 a.m.) brings competition from the Patriots of Germantown Academy (Washington, PA), originally called the Union School and dating back to 1759. Game 2 (first pitch at 1 p.m.) is against the Bears of Landon School, a 90-year-old, college-prep school situated in Bethesda, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C.

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