Community Profiles

Patience, determination and heart are all qualities that one must possess while pursuing a career in musical theater. Nick Cosgrove — a Park Ridge native and current star of the “Jersey Boys” national tour — has all those qualities and countless more. “I do theater because it inspires people!” he enthuses. Cosgrove’s love of singing began while he was learning to walk. “I was an introverted toddler so music opened me up,” he confesses. His mother bought him Disney sing-a-long tapes, which got the ball rolling. The next step was singing lessons, and from the third grade on, he was …

The Our Lady of Angels fire in 1958 had a devastating impact on the community in which it took place. When Mike was a young boy, he watched his school go up in flames, and afterward, his parents told him never to think about it again. And he never did, that is, until he was training to be firefighter, after four years of volunteering. He was in a drill at the academy that focused on the proper use of ladders. The slides displayed during the demonstration were photos of the ladders used in the Our Lady of Angels fire. It …