Fraternity/sorority group hosting community blood drive Saturday The Divine Nine, a group of historically Black fraternities and sororities, are hosting a dozen community blood drives across the Chicago area in September, including one from 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 21, at the Versiti Naperville Center’s blood drive bus, 1297 S. Naper Blvd. Being held in recognition of sickle cell disease and blood cancer awareness month, blood transfusions and medication are the most effective forms of pain management for those who cannot afford bone marrow transplants and gene therapies, a news release said. Blood donations are especially necessary right now, organizers said, because there’s less than two-day blood supply of O-positive, the most common blood type. Anyone who donates blood at the event will be given a T-shirt, while supplies last. Parental consent is required for donors who are 16 years old. Walk-in donors are welcome. To schedule an appointment, call 800-786-4483 or go to www.versiti.org. Magical Starlight Theatre to hold auditions for ‘Cinderella’ Auditions for Magical Starlight Theatre’s production of “Cinderella” will be held from 1 to 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 5, and 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 6, at the Alfred Rubin Riverwalk Community Center, 305 W. Jackson Ave. Roles for the production are available to children ages 9 and older and adults. Actors are asked to prepare a vocal piece and a monologue based on the role they are auditioning for, a Naperville Park District news release said. Actors also will be asked to do a cold reading from the script and a dance audition. Callbacks will be held at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 8. To sign up for an audition time slot, go to www.magicalstarlight.org/cinderella-auditions. Walkups will be allowed. The theater, which is a park district program, will perform “Cinderella” on Jan. 10-12 and Jan. 17-19 at Naperville Central High School. For more information, go to www.magicalstarlight.org. Naperville-area students named National Merit semifinalists Several Naperville high school seniors have been named National Merit Scholarship semifinalists. The students are among more than 16,000 semifinalists nationwide in the 70th annual National Merit Scholarship Program. They will continue in the competition for more than 6,800 scholarships worth nearly $26 million that will be offered next spring. To qualify, more than 1.3 million juniors in 21,000 high schools took the 2023 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. The semifinalists represent less than 1% of U.S. high school seniors, the corporation said. The number of semifinalists in a state is proportional to the state’s percentage of the national total of graduating seniors. From Naperville Central High School, semifinalists include: Anay A. Apte, Brian Dai, Zaid S. Hasan, Rohan Jha, Isaac T. Kalathiveetil, Helen H. Liang, Michael C. Liu, Shawn J. Plackiyil, Aryan Pradhan, Joseph A. Schnack, Iris E. Shadis-Greengas, William X. Wang, Arthur Z. Xu and Qinyue Zhang. From Naperville North High School, semifinalists include: Elin A. Amundson, Soren A. Casey, Mika K. Chang, Chloe S. Chen, Rhea N. Ganpule, Joshua D. Jamrosz, Yilin Liu, Anika P. Lovisa, Bridget A. Ogan, Rudra P. Pandya, Aanika M. Parekh, Sarah K. Riemer, Owen G. Woker, Sophia R. Xi and Benjamin J. Zhang. From Neuqua Valley High School, semifinalists include: Isaac L. Chang, Zachary G. Druce-Hoffman, Maaz H. Farooqui, Clay G. Kabbe, Sriya Konchada, Alice R. Meng, Varsha R. Nair, Krithika Nekkanti, Joseph Ngo, Nevin M. Philip, Kavita A. Rajan, Aditya Rakshit, Monish Ramesh Jayakumar, Arnav S. Sheth, Armaan Sidhu, Meiling Sun, Andrew Z. Wan, Sophia S. Wang, Luke Wiles, Evan Yang, Crystal Y. Yu and Alexander Zhao. Teagan Bernstein-Meachum, who participates in home school/online school, is also a semifinalist.