Dear Editor,

For the past several decades, the Sullivan Area Ministerial Association has been helping meet the needs of people in Moultrie County. Over the course of a 12-month period, SAMA helps folks with needs in a variety of areas: Utilities, Rent, Automotive, Hotel stays, Food, Fuel, Christmas Certificates.
From 8/1/21 to 8/1/22, SAMA has distributed over $22,000. Most of these funds are given by participating SAMA churches, the generosity of area businesses, and individuals. Right now, the need is as great as it has ever been. SAMA depends on the ongoing generosity of those in Moultrie County to help us care for “the least of these.” Read More

•November 9, 2022•
Cheri Burcham
Extension Educator
U of I Extension

We all know someone who is providing care for someone else. They may be caring for an older parent, a disabled adult child, or a spouse suffering from a traumatic injury or chronic illness. Even parents raising children are considered caregivers. Caregivers give of themselves without expecting anything in return, and they rarely think of themselves first.
National Family Caregiver Month is coming up in November. According to the 2020 update from the National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP, Caregiving in the U.S. 2020 update, nearly 48 million people in the U.S. provide care for someone over the age of 18. 61% of them continue to work while providing care. Although there tends to be an average profile for caregivers, their population is greatly diverse representing both genders and all races, cultures and ages. It is a rewarding experience for most, but also has many challenges. Caregivers experience many difficult emotions along their journey and can also experience many losses including loss of privacy, freedom, money, identity and work. Read More

•November 9, 2022•
By Jim Baumann
NP Guest Writer

Has anyone ever pointed out to you that something you’ve been saying for most of your life is not ... quite ... right?
While singing along to a song from your youth have you come to realize the lyrics you thought you knew were, well, something quite different?
I’ve been there and done that more than I’d like to admit.
Being the oldest child of parents who preferred Beethoven, Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky and Mozart, which are woefully short on lyrics, and Doris Day music, whose lyrics I’d like to forget, I was on my own to develop musical habits.
I had no older kids’ records to listen to. My wife is the youngest of seven, and she was fortunate to have Steppenwolf and a variety of bands and contemporary singers wafting throughout her family’s small Chicago Georgian as soon as she was loosed upon the world. For her, an introduction to music of the ’60s was inescapable. Read More