Author Archives:

Sullivan Girls’ Basketball Cracks Class 2A State Top Ten

News Progress Posted on by

Photo furnished
Sullivan Coach Sheri McCain directs traffic from the sideline.

•December 12, 2018•

By Jason Brown
NP Sports Editor

The Sullivan girls’ basketball team toppled two Central Illinois Conference foes this past week and cracked the Associated Press’ top ten as the No. 10 Class 2A ranked team in the state.
The Redskins easily took care of Meridian Monday night and Warrensburg-Latham Thursday (Dec. 6).
In Macon Monday, Sullivan wasted no time with its early pressure and outscored Meridian 22-8 in the first quarter.
The Redskins did not look back in the 70-32 rout.
Lilly Null had team-highs in three categories with 16 points (including two 3-pointers) eight steals and seven assists.
Emily White followed with 14 points, and Avery Still also broke double digits 11 points and collected six rebounds.
Jerra Goad recorded six points and six rebounds, and Josie Orris dropped seven points. Read More

Menus 12-12-2018

News Progress Posted on by

Senior Peace Meal

For additional information or for reservations, please call 1-800-543-1770

Monday, December 17 - Roasted turkey, mashed potatoes w/gravy, green bean casserole, dressing, peaches
Tuesday, December 18 - Chili beans, mixed lettuce salad w/dressing packet, crackers, waldorf salad
Wednesday, December 19 - Beef stroganoff over noodles, corn, broccoli, whole grain wheat, banana
Thursday, December 20 - Ham, frosted sweet potatoes, midair blend veggies, dinner roll, cranberry gelatin salad
Friday, December 21 - Liver and onions, scalloped potatoes, buttered peas, graham crackers, whole grain wheat, dreamsicle gelatin

Remember When? 12-12-2018

News Progress Posted on by

25 Years Ago This Week

Large amounts of rainfall have contributed to flooding in many areas around Lake Shelbyville. The lake is 615.84 feet above sea level which is 16 feet above normal summer pool.
Floyd Tree Farm near Allenville is offering five-seven foot trees for $10-$15.
Redskins varsity returns talent in seniors Jason Wildman, Chad Bragg, Cory Golden, Austin Pearl, Jason Moody, Jake Haegen and Jeremy Piper and juniors Andy Wagner and Travis Nolte. Creating teamwork is the goal of coach Ted Turner.
On the JV roster are sophomores Steve Book, Nathan Corzine, Josh Jones, Clifton McKay, Neal Ozier, Andy Stone, Kevin Towle, Kenny Webb, Steve Yoder and Cory Lutz. Freshmen squad members are Ryan Cobb, Seth Cobb, Richard Frederick, Kevin Kenney, Blake Murray, Nick Parks, Doug Standerfer and Ryan Horath. JV and freshmen coaches are Jerry Lane and Tom Highland with extra guidance from Derik Eaton and Don Typer. Read More

Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over

News Progress Posted on by

•December 12, 2018•

The holidays are a time for friends, family and coworkers to come together in celebration.
Wherever you are—at an office party, a family member’s home or out at a bar—it is essential that you make the lifesaving choice to drive sober when the party ends.
To help spread the message about the dangers of impaired driving, Sullivan Police Department is partnering with the Illinois Department of Transportation, the Illinois State Police and nearly 200 police and sheriff’s departments across the state.
The goal is simple: Get impaired drunk drivers off the roads and help save lives.
This high-visibility enforcement campaign, Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over, runs Dec. 17 to Jan. 2. Law enforcement will show zero tolerance for drunk or drugged driving.
It is aimed to drastically reduce impaired driving on the roads through an increased number of state and national messages about the dangers of impaired driving and more officers enforcing livesaving seat belt, speeding and distracted driving laws.
Sadly, statistics show much work must still be done to end impaired driving. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that 10,874 people were killed in the United States in drunk-driving crashes in 2017. That’s one person killed every 48 minutes. In Illinois in 2017, alcohol-impaired motor vehicle crashes claimed 349 lives.
This is why Sullivan Police Department is so committed to reminding drivers that impaired driving is not only illegal, it is a matter of life or death.
Alcohol-impaired driving isn’t the only risk on the road. Drug-impaired driving is also on the rise. If drivers are impaired by any substance—whether alcohol or drugs— they should not get behind the wheel. Driving while impaired is illegal, period. If you feel different, you drive different. Drive high, get a DUI.
“We understand that during the holidays, people are running around, busily checking off items on their to-do list and attending parties. We need our community members to slow down and remember: It’s up to them to make the smart decision to drive sober—during the holidays and all year long. Impaired driving is a huge problem in Illinois, and, unfortunately, we’re seeing a rise in marijuana use and drugged driving too. Stay safe and stay sober on the roads.”

SES Garden Project Awarded Grant

News Progress Posted on by

Photo furnished
Nichole Hendry is pictured.

•December 12, 2018•

Nichole Hendry, Sullivan Elementary School fourth grade teacher, received notification that she would receive the Lumpkin Family Foundation grant for $7,294 to go towards the school’s garden project.
Hendry organized the garden project with the help of school staff and community members last spring. She wrote the grant to help cover the costs of the project such as outdoor classroom materials, tools, a greenhouse, and curriculum.
She has volunteered many hours throughout the school year and during the summer to get this project off the ground. Read More

Four Area Inductees In IBCA Hall of Fame

News Progress Posted on by

•December 12, 2018•

The Illinois Basketball Coaches Association announced its 2019 Hall of Fame class.
Four area candidates are included as inductees.
Included among the 48 players to be inducted are Sheri (Adams) McCain and Allyson (Glazebrook) Kunz.
McCain, a 1992 Sullivan graduate, is the current Redskins girls’ basketball coach.
While McCain has been head coach her teams have appeared in five regional title games and won three regional titles (2013, 2014 and 2018).
After high school, McCain continued her basketball career at Lake Land and Western Illinois.
Another girls’ basketball player, Kunz, graduated in 1995. Read More

Miracles of Christmas on Stage at The Little Theatre on the Square

News Progress Posted on by

•December 12, 2018•

by Ellen Ferrera
for the News Progress

A big kiss under the mistletoe to Therese Kincade, Associate Artistic Director of the Little Theatre, and John Stephens, for the beautiful holiday show they have written and directed for Christmas.
Entitled “Believe…the Miracles of Christmas” this delightful musical is chock-a-block with all your favorite holiday songs (24), inspired tap dance routines, glittering costumes, puppets and a story of three miracles.
Before the curtain rises, the voices of three people are heard praying for a special Christmas wish to be granted.
Becca ( Caroline Chisholm) wants to reunite with her father to have Christmas like they used to have. Dylan (Evan Woods Gunter), a soldier, wants to get home for Christmas and the Rev. Calvin Griffith (John Stephens) and also Dylan’s father, is about to lose his church and needs a miracle.
The curtain opens on singers and dancers in colorful Christmas costumes breaking from a show and leaving for the holidays.
We learn that one of the members, Gabriel (Bobby Becher), is actually an angel. Sadie (Jamie Finkenthal) offers to give Becca and Gabriel a ride in a big truck. They sing as they go along, and Sadie sings “The Eight Days of Hanukkah” and tells the story of Hanukkah.
Becca needs to do some Christmas shopping so they stop at a mall and find a Santa’s workshop with elves who perform a spirited tap dance. Read More

C.E.F.S. Interagency: Where the Rewards are Priceless

News Progress Posted on by

Photo by Ellen Ferrera
CEFS Moultrie County Outreach is always ready to lend a helping hand. From left: volunteer Shirley Park, Outreach Coordinator Mariah White-Landrus and Rebecca Freese, Housing Counselor at CEFS.

•December 12, 2018•

By Ellen Ferrera
for the News Progress

Christmas for most of us is a time of food, presents, celebrating and all manner of excesses.
For some in Moultrie County it is a time when want and hunger are most keenly felt especially those who live at or below the poverty level. Fortunately, the C.E.F.S. Outreach office provides food, housing, jobs and other forms of emergency assistance for those in need
In 1964 President Johnson vowed to continue Kennedy’s War on Poverty and signed into law the Equal Opportunity Act which created the nationwide Community Action Network which was modeled, in part, on Saul Alinksy’s “Back of the Yard” program in Chicago.
There are over 1,000 Community Action Agencies in the U.S. C.E.F.S. Economic Opportunity Corp. is one such agency and was incorporated in 1965 to include Clay, Effingham, Fayette and Shelby (CEFS) counties. It was expanded in 1967 to include Moultrie, Montgomery and Christian counties with seven outreach offices in seven counties. Read More

Understanding Illinois: Pritzker Transition Afterglow will Fade, Under the Shadow of Reality

News Progress Posted on by

•December 12, 2018•

By Jim Nowlan
NP Guest Columnist

Gov.-elect J. B. Pritzker has begun the typical minuet of transition to office in January, creating committees to look, respectively, at how he can improve education, infrastructure, social services, whathaveyou.
I have been a part of three gubernatorial transitions over past decades, and headed one (and was just now, while writing this, invited to serve on a Pritzker committee, which I accepted).
Large committees of insiders and outsiders to government will sit around conference tables and offer prescriptions for saving our state. The well-meaning committee members may help educate the incoming governor, who in J. B.’s case came to his candidacy with little background in Illinois state government.
Most prescriptions will require more money, lots of it. There will be projections that much money can be saved in the future, if only we spend lots more now to address problems, e.g. prisoner recidivism, gang violence, abused children, poorly educated children and more. And they may be right.
Yet there is really only one “committee” that matters, and it is a committee of a solitary person—the incoming director of the state budget. Read More

Gingerbread Houses are a Martin Home Holiday Tradition

News Progress Posted on by

Photo by R.R. Best
Gingerbread houses are a tradition with Nina Martin of Sullivan, and she uses that tradition to help support The Little Theatre on the Square. Above Chef Regina Johnson presented Phillip and Nina Martin with their annual gingerbread creation on Dec. 7.

•December 12, 2018•

By Ellen Ferrera
for the News Progress

Our story begins with Nina Martin’s favorite Christmas memories of the beautiful gingerbread houses her mother, Roberta Tabor, made from scratch every year – no two of which were ever alike.
The gingerbread houses were famous and graced the front page of the Sullivan newspaper each Christmas season.
On Sunday, Dec. 9 Phillip and Nina Martin hosted a benefit for the Little Theatre on the Square in their home featuring this year’s gingerbread creation.
While the Sullivan High School Madrigal Singers performed in the living room, the star in the dining room was the enchanting gingerbread Santa’s workshop which elicited many expressions of delight.
As part of her holiday decorations Nina has always ordered an original centerpiece creation for her dining room table. Her special muse for many of these creations has been bakery chef, Regina Johnson of RegCakes, who loves nothing more than “to take raw ingredients and create something unusual and special.”
In the past Johnson has created medieval castles and Harry Potter themed structures, but this year Nina wanted a gingerbread Santa’s workshop with an ice- skating scene and a fire pit for making s’mores.
This holiday season masterpiece is a lovely little house with a red icing roof featuring Santa’s office, a loading place and a portico for the sleigh. There are skylights, and the back has been cut away to expose the interior which is illuminated with tiny blinking lights. Santa is relaxing in his easy chair. The outside chimney is made of jelly bellies.
The skating pond rotates and is surrounded by gingerbread trees and a bridge. The fire pit has gingerbread children roasting the tiniest marshmallows. Everything is edible except for the platform, the lake and the tiny wire roasting forks. Johnson made nine batches of cookie dough for the entire scene. Read More