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Tips to make baking more healthy

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•January 8, 2025•

Baking sessions are a beloved family tradition in many households. But such sessions may not be as revered by family physicians, as baked goods are often prepared with ingredients, like sugar and butter, that aren’t necessarily sound additions to a person’s diet.

Though baked goods may never rival vegetables in nutritional value, there are ways for amateur bakers to make these beloved foods a little more healthy.

· Replace sugar with a fig puree. Figs are nutrition-rich fruits that serve as significant sources of calcium, potassium and iron. WebMD notes that figs also are excellent sources of fiber. Soaking eight ounces of figs in water can soften them before they’re pureed with between 1/4 to 1/3 cup of water. The resulting fig puree can serve as a sugar substitute.

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Remembering Who We Are…..41

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Jefferson’s Clock

•January 8, 2025•

By Janet Roney

In 1808, the last year of Thomas Jefferson’s presidency, he authorized Isaac Hill to explore the interior of Illinois along the third principal meridian to survey the land, find natural resources and mill seats, and locate trails. He was also to spy on activities of the British who were still hanging around in frontier Illinois 25 years after our independence.  

Hill left a map and a report about his 1809-1811 expedition into Illinois, but his will written in Warren County, Kentucky in 1846 sheds more light on the story and provides more authenticity to the expedition. His will distributed his land, slaves, and his “Jefferson Clock” to his heirs.

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2024 in review continued from last week (1-1-2025)

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•January 8, 2025•

October

The Sullivan Blue Dolphins swim team, in collaboration with the Sullivan American Legion, had yet another successful annual Swimmers Supporting Soldiers event. The two groups teamed together with the Danville VA Hospital to get supplies and goods to local veterans who need it. This year the swim team collected over 1,200 items for the soldiers.

Mid-Illinois Senior Services and local sponsors Agri-fab and Hydro-Gear of Sullivan assisted in the return of the senior expo, a day long program which offers discounted prices or free options for services and goods to help the Moultrie County seniors and disabled community.

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A Look Back…1-8-2025

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1965

The Sullivan High School DAR and SAR winners were Yvonne Reed and Mike Stone. Winners at Lovington High School were Beverly Bolsen and David Trainor.

Richard Breedlove of Lovington was selected to direct one of the five plays to be presented by the Experimental Theatre of Illinois State University.

T-bone steal was on sale for 99¢ lb at Eisner Food Stores. Ken’s Food Stores featured six Banquet frozen pot pies for $1.00.

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Snowed in

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As residents were busy digging out their driveways earlier this week after the heavy snowfall and drifting from the weekend, Sullivan city employees were busy cleaning up the roads around town and on the square. Many businesses were closed Monday.

Resolve to make a difference in 2025 by becoming a Red Cross volunteer

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•January 8, 2025•

As the time for making New Year’s resolutions is here, the American Red Cross asks you resolve to make a difference and support your community by becoming a volunteer in 2025. 

“We’re seeing both the frequency and intensity of disasters increase across the country and the Red Cross is responding to nearly twice as many large disasters as we did a decade ago to help people. This uptick in responses means we need more volunteers. The need to help has never been greater,” said Catherine Rabenstine, Interim CEO of the Illinois Red Cross.

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Bethany Christmas light contest winners

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First place winner David Martin’s house, covered in multi-colored lights and inflatables decorating the front yard. Sealing the deal was a ground lit red and green ‘Merry Christmas’ sign in front of the light covered bushes.

•January 8, 2025•

Over the few weeks of December the Village of Bethany had a Christmas light contest with the residents, with winning prizes being utility credit. Through the days December 9th and the 25th, judges visited homes and ranked contestants lights, the results are in.  

First place: David Martin, $100 utility credit  

Second place: Sam Ozier, $50 utility credit  

Third place: Tyler Wagy, $50 utility credit  

Honorable mentions: Denise Orris, JC Fultz, Jim McMahan and Robert and Nicole Dick, $25 utility credit per family. 

Application deadline approaching

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•January 8, 2025•

Eastern Illinois University encourages eligible students to explore two of the University’s highest-impact scholarships and to submit their application materials by the shared January 10 deadline. 

Two unique opportunities are being championed by EIU scholarship coordinators ahead of this Friday’s deadline—EIU’s Presidential Scholarships and EIU’s Sarah Bush Lincoln Nursing Scholarships. Both are high-impact, high-reward scholarships for top-performing, admitted EIU freshman. Details on each are available below:

EIU’s Presidential Scholarships—EIU’s Presidential Scholarships are available to incoming, admitted freshmen with eligible GPAs or ACT/SAT composite scores. For exceptionally strong incoming freshmen, the Sandra and Jack Pine Honors College offers three different competitive scholarships awarded over four years:

• Full-ride Pemberton Presidential Scholarship* (approximately $101,000 over four years)

• Full-tuition Presidential Scholarship* (approximately $55,000 over four years)

• Honors Award for Incoming Freshmen (approximately $14,000 over four years, in addition to the automatic Merit Scholarship, worth up to $16,000 over four years, for a total of approximately $30,000 over four years)

*Applicants for the Pemberton Presidential and the Presidential Scholarship are also considered as applicants for the Honors Award. Students do not need to complete an additional application for the Honors Award.

EIU’s Sarah Bush Lincoln Nursing Scholarships for the EIU Gail & Richard Lumpkin School of Nursing—these are full-ride scholarships for local, high-achieving, first-semester Nursing students meeting eligible GPA requirements. Recipients must be a full-time admitted incoming freshman majoring in Pre-Nursing or Nursing. This scholarship is available to students from 10 of EIU’s surrounding counties across East Central Illinois.

Interested applicants can visit eiu.edu/nurse/SBL_Scholarship.php for more details.

Note that while these two scholarship opportunities have application deadlines of January 10, most other EIU scholarships have a deadline of March 15. For students looking for opportunities beyond what’s outlined here, interested applicants can access hundreds of other available scholarships and eligibility guidelines through eiu.academicworks.com. Students can log in with their EIU NetID and password to see and apply to scholarships tailored to their academic/demographic profile(s). 

EIU awarded more than $49 million in gift aid to nearly 4,000 undergraduate students last academic year, averaging $12,587 in support per student. This assistance helps EIU remain the lowest cost-of-attendance University in Illinois.

EIU prepares students to accomplish their life goals through a combination of quality academics, personal relationships, and both on-campus and online learning opportunities. For more information about Eastern Illinois University, including its broad array of academic and career readiness programs, or any of EIU’s other community-based services and opportunities, visit eiu.edu or call EIU’s public information office at (217) 581-7400.