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  • Our Chicago: Total solar eclipse travel tips, dealing with massive crowds

    Our Chicago: Total solar eclipse travel tips, dealing with massive crowds

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    CHICAGO (WLS) — After years of anticipation, what’s being called the Great American Solar Eclipse of 2024 is just hours away.

    It will move from Mexico, into the U.S. and then Canada, before moving out to sea.

    Parts of Illinois and Indiana are in the 115-mile-wide path of totality, which is the area where the moon blocks the sun 100%.

    The path includes Carbondale, which was also in the path of totality in 2017. Many people are headed there, including a group from the Adler Planetarium.

    Massive crowds from Chicago are preparing to travel down to southern Illinois and Indiana for the 2024 Great American Total Solar Eclipse on Monday.

    “It’s just such an exciting thing for us being all true astronomy geeks,” Dr. Geza Gyuk, director of astronomy at Alder Planetarium, said.

    He was near Carbondale for the 2017 eclipse.

    “It’s just, it’s otherworldly it’s just wonderful and just such an experience because the quality of the light as totality approaches it starts getting strange, and there’s weird patterns of shadows on the ground. And then totality occurs and there’s this marvelous sort of, thing in the sky,” Gyuk said. “You never experience anything like it looks like there’s an eclipse, well it is an eclipse, it looks like a sunset all around you 360 degrees. The birds stop singing, it becomes dark, you can see stars in the sky. It’s very strange.”

    ABC News reports that the total solar eclipse is expected to be the largest mass travel event this year in the U.S.

    Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb has declared a state of emergency, expecting massive crowds. 100,000 to 200,000 people are expected in the prime viewing area in Southern Illinois.

    Maria Castaneda, a spokesperson with IDOT, joined ABC7 to speak about travel plans for people going downstate from the Chicago area for the eclipse.

    A good number of those will be from the Chicago area, but before people get in the car and head south, the Illinois Department of Transportation has some advice.

    Maria Castaneda, a spokesperson with IDOT, says people have to think of it like any trip.

    “Plan ahead, map out your route, make sure you have it clearly defined which route you’re going to be taking,” she said. “Also use various travel apps.”

    There are various ways to head south.

    “I know that I-57, if you’re leaving here from Chicago, is a pretty direct route, but you can also hop on I-55 and connect with 64,” Castaneda said. “It really depends on where you’re heading from, what route you’re going to use. Give yourself a lot of extra time, because there’s going to be expected big crowds so it’s going to take you much longer than your normal trip, if you typically do drive to southern Illinois. And if you’re not, and you’re not aware of it, then you definitely need to give yourself extra time because you’re going into an area you’re not that well versed with.”

    It’s not only going to be crowded on the drive south, but also the drive home.

    “Plan to stay for a little while. There’s some beautiful areas to see. Enjoy what southern Illinois can provide,” Castaneda said. “Leave a little later than maybe you intended to drive back and you could hopefully avoid some of the really big heavy crowds.”

    Copyright © 2024 WLS-TV. All Rights Reserved.

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  • Our Chicago: After School Programs

    Our Chicago: After School Programs

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    CHICAGO (WLS) — Last month, at least four Chicago high school students were killed in shootings that happened as they left school.

    As the city works to expand violence prevention efforts, programs and organizations are working to engage young people across the city.

    After School Matters got started in downtown Chicago as a summer arts program for teens.

    Our Chicago: After School Programs Part 1

    “What we really want to do is engage teenagers to find something that they love,” After School Matters CEO Mary Ellen Caron said. “Or maybe something that they don’t love, so they don’t pursue it.”

    Over the years, the after school program has expanded to nearly every neighborhood across the city. The programs have grown to include the arts, communication, leadership, sports and STEM.

    RELATED: Chicago police searching for gunmen who killed 2 students outside of high school in Loop shooting

    “We started out as sports and arts, and that was because at the time they were cutting sports and arts in the schools and so that’s what we really started as,” Caron said. “But now we’ve added leadership and communication because that’s what the teens tell us they want. And they’ve also told us they want STEM.”

    After School Matters Chief of Strategy Melissa Mister told ABC7 Chicago the program depends on demand from teens.

    “Teens want and need, and deserve programs, to support them to pursue their interests,” Mister said.

    The students also learn intangible skills.

    “Across all of the programs, young people are learning how to collaborate with one another, they’re learning a personal mindset that says we’re going to keep pushing through when we hit a bump, that kind of thing,” Mister said. “They’re learning to communicate effectively with many different audiences. So all of these are intangible skills that are critically important no matter what it is they decide to do in their future.”

    Youth Guidance celebrates 100 years in Chicago this year. It began in 1924 as the Church Mission of Help, providing assistance to girls in need of shelter, financial help as well as educational and vocational opportunities.

    These days, Youth Guidance provides programs for children helping them overcome obstacles so they can focus on their education and succeed in the classroom and in life.

    Our Chicago: After School Programs Part 2

    “We think it’s really important that families, students, teachers, communities are involved because they play such an important role in the well-being of the student. So we want to make sure they all have an input in what is happening in the school, they’re able to share their concerns. And then we’re able to cater those programs that we offer after school, to those needs,” said After School Programs at Youth Guidance community director Jeethu Samuel said.

    Stipends are available for students that are eligible.

    “Community In Schools program is a partnership with Chicago Public Schools and 21st Century Funding,” said Youth Guidance Program Manager Dr. Lolita Cleveland. “And we provide a community base. So we bring in all the community resources in order for the total child to have the things that they need. So when we partner we have not just the parents, the students, the kids, we have contracted vendors that bring in enrichment programs, cultural programs. Dance, arts, creativity to be able to provide that information and then we partner with the community when they can bring health support from local clinics. They’re also able to come in and bring mental health support for social emotional learning.”

    Parents are also included in the after school experience Youth Guidance offers.

    “We want to make sure the parents are also gaining from this experience, it’s not just for the students,” said Samuel, “So we offer workshops, we offer family events. They go out into the community, they go out into the city and they see different things. And we want them to also gain so they can be leaders within the student’s education and involved in their schools.”

    With violence in the city, involving teens the work of Youth Guidance is even more important.

    “It is a need,” said Cleveland, “There’s definitely a need for that. Students need to be heard. Staff have to be trauma informed. We have to understand social-emotional learning. And everybody’s situation is not yours, so we definitely have to be unbiased to realize our kids are faced with a lot and we have to have a listening ear and an open heart to hear.”

    For more information:

    https://afterschoolmatters.org/

    https://www.youth-guidance.org/

    Copyright © 2024 WLS-TV. All Rights Reserved.

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