March 22, 2026 | WALLS 102 - Part 7

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Photos: Masters Walleye Circuit kicks off 2026 season in Spring Valley

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Photos: Masters Walleye Circuit kicks off 2026 season in Spring Valley

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Leland hosts “Hop into Easter” event with bunny, vendors and egg hunt

The Leland Town and Country Association will host “Hop into Easter,” an Easter bunny and vendor event on Saturday, March 28, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Leland School, 370 N Main Street.The Easter bunny will make an appearance outside for photos. Don Head will be on hand to capture photos during the egg hunt, scheduled for 2 p.m. Attendees are welcome to take their own photos as well.Inside the gym, children can participate in crafts at a craft table and enjoy face painting by Skyler Pollock.A variety of vendors and crafters will be present, including Scentsy, Red Aspen, Hackers Trading Post, Andy Anderson (wooden crafts), Coles Cake Balls, Crooked Crow Candles, Pampered Chef, Sarah (crochet), Jessica (beaded items), Cutsinger Gems, and Fairy Gardens.Dylan Wold will offer pies. The Bethany Lutheran Youth Group will provide Easter treats and baskets.Each vendor will contribute a raffle item. Attendees will receive one raffle ticket for every $10 purchase. The drawing will be held at 4 p.m.

American story: L-P annual Sophomore Honors Culture Fair shows local families’ journeys

Sophomore students at La Salle-Peru Township High School presented information, artwork, artifacts, food and more about their family history at Friday’s Sophomore Honors Culture Fair.This project collaboration between the social science and English departments represented more than a month’s worth of students’ work in researching their family’s history, origin and culture.“The English and history departments at LPTHS have been collaborating for a long time on many levels,” LPTHS Sophomore English teacher Shelly Phillips said. “This was one of those things where you look at overlap for our students to learn about similar things from different angles.”Students brought in tri-folds, posters, binders, even treasure chests to display their family’s heritage and path to LPTHS.“Immigration is a huge part of the American story,” LPTHS Honors US History teacher Troy Woods said. “We want our students to know where they fit in the history of this country.”Woods said that the origin of this project predates his arrival at LPTHS, crediting Holly Ziegler and Deb Zeman with coming up with the idea over 20 years ago.“We want our students to learn and get experience with research, especially with primary resources, and how to conduct interviews,” Woods said.Students get over a month to research and produce a comprehensive look at their family’s history through artwork, artifacts and an essay before presenting it and being asked questions about their family’s journey.“I ask the students to draw a conclusion at the end of all of their research about the effect of their ethnicity’s immigration on the United States,” Phillips said.Friday, the sophomores set their projects up, accompanied by a dish from their family’s country of origin and other unique artifacts and factoids about their heritage.Along with a comprehensive family tree, students displayed maps, flags, and images of customs, historical figures, famous monuments, current events and even poems about their family’s home country, to help them learn about their ancestry and family’s past.Throughout the process of reaching out to family members, students learned some interesting facts and heard some interesting stories about some of their ancestors.Kale-Jakobii Harden, whose family descends from Poland, learned a lot for this project from his grandmother, including about a story about his great-grandfather.“I wouldn’t have known a lot about my family’s history without my grandma. She helped a lot with the research and some of the artifacts,” Harden said. “She loved telling me a story about my great-grandpa, that when he was in the Vietnam War, he fell asleep on the beach while he was supposed to be doing something. I had never heard that before, so that was cool.”This project helped Kash Tomsha learn more about his family and their longstanding contribution to the community.“Without this project, I wouldn’t have known how long the restaurant has been around,” he said. Tomsha, whose family descends from Italy, owns and operates Verucchi’s in Spring Valley.The Sophomore Honors Culture Fair at LPTHS didn’t only help out the students assigned with the project.As visitors and family members observed the students’ finished product, people from different backgrounds and origins explained their origin and their home country’s customs, recipes, stories and more. This fair has been an annual tradition at LPTHS for more than two decades, and with the experience this year’s sophomores and their families had on Friday, it’s easy to see why.

L-P football revamps nonconference schedule for 2026 season

The La Salle-Peru football team’s schedule has been revamped for the 2026 season with an entirely new slate of nonconference games.The Cavaliers, who went 2-7 last season in JJ Raffelson’s first year as head coach, added Lanphier, Wheaton Academy, Alton and Marquette Academy to the schedule, replacing United Township (5-5 in 2025), Metamora (8-3), a second meeting with Ottawa (3-6) and O’Fallon (4-5).L-P’s 2026 nonconference opponents went a combined 11-26 last season.“It was a lot of work in progress trying to maneuver some things around, but I’m happy with it,” Raffelson said. “I think it’s going to give us a good opportunity to compete.“We have four new games that we didn’t have last year, so we were trying to change things up. We’ll see what we can do. I’m excited about the group we have. A lot of offseason work has been put in, so we’re excited about what we’ve got going on.”L-P opens at Howard Fellows Stadium against Lanphier at 6:30 p.m. Aug. 21. The Lions went 1-8 last season and have only 12 wins over the last 10 seasons. Lanphier has an enrollment of 1,050.The Cavs travel to Wheaton Academy in Week 2 before hosting Alton in Week 3 for a 1 p.m. Saturday kickoff. Wheaton Academy went 4-5 last fall, while Alton was 0-9.Wheaton Academy, which has an enrollment of 670, made four straight Class 4A playoff appearances from 2021-24. Alton, a Class 7A team with an enrollment of 1,759, has had six straight seasons of two wins or less.L-P plays Interstate 8 Conference games Weeks 4-8 hosting Rochelle, playing at Ottawa, facing Sycamore at Howard Fellows, traveling to Kaneland and playing Morris at home.The Cavs end the regular season Oct. 16 at Marquette, which went 6-4 last season. The Crusaders, who have an enrollment of 135, have made 13 consecutive playoff appearances in Class 1A.

Leland hosts “Hop into Easter” event with bunny, vendors and egg hunt

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American story: L-P annual Sophomore Honors Culture Fair shows local families’ journeys

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L-P football revamps nonconference schedule for 2026 season

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American story: L-P annual Sophomore Honors Culture Fair shows local families’ journeys

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Leland hosts “Hop into Easter” event with bunny, vendors and egg hunt

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