HOOPESTON — Steven and Kathleen Margevich moved to Hoopeston from the heart of Chicago 12 years ago, and as a result they have fulfilled some of their lifelong dreams.

“After 10 years of being career people, we decided to start a family,” Steven said, “and now we’re so pleased that we moved to this area to raise our two children.”

They are Emily, 12, who will be in eighth grade at Hoopeston Middle School in the fall, and Anna, 8, who will be a third-grader at Honeywell Elementary School.

“Also, I fulfilled my dream of opening up my own dance studio before turning 35,” Kathleen added, “which probably wouldn’t have happened if we had stayed in Chicago.”

Kathleen has about 145 dance students in her Academy for the Performing Arts, 203 E. Main St. in Hoopeston. This is where she teaches tap, jazz and ballet to children, as well as ballroom dancing to adults.

Kathleen’s mother, Carol Kloska, offers piano and voice lessons at the academy, bringing 35 years of musical experience to her students.

Carol and her husband, Marty, moved to Hoopeston from Chicago to be close to Kathleen and her family. The Kloskas have another daughter, MaryLou Brackmann, and her husband, Rick, who also live in Hoopeston.

Besides operating her performing arts academy, Kathleen is artistic director of the Artistic Repertory Theatre in Hoopeston, which she started five years ago.

“When I realized there were about 50 people from Hoopeston who were driving to Danville or Cissna Park each year to be in musical performances, I felt it was time to start our own theater company here,” Kathleen said.

With 30 years of experience, Kathleen is well-qualified to direct these shows. She studied dance, drama and performance arts at the Amundson Arts Academy and Columbia College in Chicago. She taught dance for years, and has performed, directed and done the choreography for shows throughout the Chicagoland area.

Although they’ve built a wonderful life for themselves in Hoopeston, the Margevich family moved there without a plan in mind.

“We both quit our good jobs in Chicago without having any job prospects anywhere else,” Steven said.

Before they left the city, he worked as marketing director for the University of Illinois School of Public Health, and Kathleen had been teaching dance and drama for the city of Chicago for 15 years.

“Our first task was to find a house that we really liked,” Steven said.

Their dream house

Besides looking in Hoopeston, the couple also searched for homes in the Chicago suburbs and in Springfield.

“We drove around the neighborhoods, and if we found a house that interested us, then we wrote a note on a postcard and put it in their mailbox,” Steven said.

It happened that the house in Hoopeston that the Margevich family fell in love with was just about to go on the market when they first spotted it.

“This home has everything we were looking for,” Kathleen said.

The 100-year-old structure resembles a stately mansion, with stained glass window panes, hardwood floors, tall ceilings and elegant furnishing and décor.

The graceful willow trees that Steven planted in the front yard give their home character, as well as privacy.

“Once we moved to town we immediately became involved in the Hoopeston community,” Steven said.

He first took a job as director of development for the Hoopeston Hospital Foundation — a position he held for a couple of years.

He currently is marketing director for Accent Health Care, based in Hoopeston.

During their early years in the community, Steven was named president of the Hoopeston Chamber of Commerce. In 1998, the couple was honored as Hoopeston’s Citizens of the Year.

“Sometimes I really miss the Chicago area,” Kathleen said.

But she and Steven admitted they don’t miss their long commutes to work, the dangerous neighborhoods and Chicago’s public school system.

“In Hoopeston you can send your children to a public school and know they will be safe and get a good education,” Kathleen said. “It’s not always that way in Chicago.”

It also took Kathleen about 90 minutes to make the 12-mile commute to work every day in the city because she took two buses and the train.

Like mother

Emily is following in her mother’s footsteps with her affinity for dance and theater, and living in Hoopeston has not held her back.

“She’s been on stage since the age of 2,” Kathleen said.

Emily has performed professionally in both Chicago and Indiana, and she danced in The Nutcracker Suite with the Champaign-Urbana Ballet Company when she was 7 years old.

The Theatre at the Center in Munster, Ind., is where Emily performs. She has appeared in several productions there, including “The Sound of Music” and “Scrooge.”

“With the help of my dad, we get Emily to all her practices and performances, no matter how many hours we have to drive,” Kathleen said.

Emily misses a lot of school when she’s involved in a show.

“Her teachers are very understanding as long as she keeps her grades up,” Emily’s mother said. “And Emily has always received straight A’s.”

Emily is on the student council and plays clarinet in the school band. She also takes voice and piano lessons from her grandmother Kloska.

“When I’m in a show, I have to study whenever I get the chance,” Emily said. “It might be in the hotel, in the car, or in between rehearsals.”

Emily’s parents view her involvement in theater as a positive activity that may lead her to a future career in theatre and dance.

“It’s a great opportunity and an extension of her education,” Kathleen said.

Familiar face

Emily also has auditioned for a number of television commercials, and she appears in a TV commercial for State Farm Insurance that was filmed at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

She also has auditioned for performances in New York City, but will discontinue touring until her younger sister, Anna, gets older.

“It’s too disruptive for our family right now to travel so far away,” Kathleen said.

Although Anna has appeared in most of her mother’s shows, she also enjoys many of her own interests, including horseback riding and reading books. Just like her older sister, Anna gets straight A’s in school and takes piano lessons from her grandmother. Her ambition is to become a scientist someday.

“Living in Hoopeston has given our family the quality of life that we’ve always wanted,” Kathleen said. “Hoopeston is where we belong at this time in our lives.”