•April 13, 2022•
A benefit for the family of Olivia Dunker will be held on Saturday, April 23 from 11 am to 9 pm at VFW Post 99, 3920 N. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. in Decatur. Olivia Dunker, 10, is from Decatur and currently fighting osteosarcoma at St. Jude’s. Cost is $15 for adults and $5 for kids 5+. Entry will include entry, food, nonalcoholic beverages and live entertainment. There will be a bags tournament from 1-? and it is $20 per team. Max 20 team registration. Must be registered by Noon. To preregister to guarantee a spot call 217-413-7416. Winner will receive half of profits from the event. A silent auction will be held all day. There are several great prizes from local companies to bid on. Final offers must be in by 7 pm. Winners will be announced that night. There will also be a live auction from 5 pm-6 pm for big ticket items. 50/50 and alcohol barrel raffle will be drawn at end of the night. There will be live entertainment all day featuring local artist Silver Lake Band from 6 pm-9 pm, DJ Club Dub from 11 am to 6 pm and kids bingo, games and entertainment from 1 pm-5 pm.
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Singers Dinner Theatre 2022
Photo by Crystal Reed
Sullivan Singers Jr.
Sullivan Singers Jr. performing their competition show during the dinner theatre. That show included “Breakthrough”, “Grace Kelly”, “Come Together” and “Trying Too Hard”.
Photo by Crystal Reed
Sullivan Singers
The Sullivan Singers performed their competition show as part of the dinner theatre that was held on Saturday, April 9 and 10 at Sullivan High School. Sullivan Singers and Singers Jr. performed their fall shows and competition shows. There were also senior spotlight performances.
Girl Scout Troop Donating Cookie Proceeds
Photo by Crystal Reed
Girl Scout Troop Donating Cookie Proceeds
Okaw Valley Girl Scout Troop #3642 is donating all of their cookie proceeds to Olivia Dunker of Decatur who is fighting cancer at St. Jude’s. From left to right: Gabby Totten, McKenna Connelly, Alaynah Brown, Adalyn Brown, Mattie Pence, Sophia Tice. Not pictured Kira Lutz.
Preston Gregory Receives Amtryke
Photo furnished by Jim Wandmacher, Sullivan AMBUCS
Preston Gregory Receives Amtryke
Preston Gregory with his new Amtryke. His family Amy, Dave, and Miles in middle, with AMBUC members Jason Drury, Mack Young, Scott Bales, Derick Eation and Dave Hudspath aside. Preston enjoyed a couple of rides on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, and lots more to come in the future. The Sullivan AMBUCS chapter is one of 150 chapters nation wide giving away 3,500 Amtrykes each year. In addition, the local AMBUCs build wheelchair ramps in Moultrie County and provides scholarships for physical therapists.
Five Tips for Grandparents Raising Grandchildren
•April 13, 2022•
Cheri Burcham
Extension Educator
University of Illinois Extension
Often grandparenting means a weekend with grandchildren every now and then, an evening babysitting, a summer vacation, or chats on the phone and Facetime here and there. But when life circumstances change, grandparents often assume full- or part-time responsibility for their grandchildren. Here is another great article from Eastern Illinois University Graduate Student Kayli Worthey:
Many grandparents are now taking on the parenting role for their grandchildren, changing the traditional grandparent/grandchild relationship. According to the Pew Charitable Trusts, 2.5 million children were living with grandparents who were responsible for their care in 2005. In 2015, that number rose to 2.9 million (Wiltz, 2016).
There are many different reasons grandparents assume the primary parenting role, including family crises like disability of child or parent, death, divorce, deportation, incarceration, or military deployment. Others may raise their grandchildren due to state removal from parental care because of parental substance abuse, abuse, and neglect, unemployment, mental or physical illnesses, or child abandonment (Wiltz, 2016). Read More
Lake Shelbyville Fish Habitat Day 2022
Photo furnished
Lake Shelbyville Fish Habitat Alliance Receives Award
An award was given to the Lake Shelbyville Fish Habitat Alliance (LSFHA) from The Corps Foundation in recognition of an outstanding and valuable partnership agreement between the LSFHA and the Corps of Engineers. This was a pretty big deal because this partnership between the Corps of Engineers at Lake Shelbyville and the LSFHA was selected out of all of the Corps Projects Nationwide, which number close to 460. The award was actually for the year 2019 but due to Covid-19 and finding a suitable time to present the award, it was just now formally presented to LSFHA. Approximately 650 Christmas trees and 160 artificial fish structures were dropped in the Lake on Sunday, March 27. From left: Mike Mounce - Former IDNR Fisheries Biologist, Bob Kearns - Lake Shelbyville Fish Habitat Alliance, Chip Christensen - Chip’s Marine & Lake Shelbyville Fish Habitat Alliance, Phil Manhart - Lake Shelbyville Assistant Operations Manager.
Photo furnished
Lake Shelbyville Fish Habitat Improvement Day
Lake Shelbyville cubes are prepared to load onto boats where they were taken into the lake and placed on Sunday, March 27. The cubes are 4 feet square and 5 feet tall and give small fish cover in the lake. The cubes were placed by the Lake Shelbyville Fish Habitat Alliance and volunteers.
Obituary 4-13-2022: Joshua Black
Joshua Black
Joshua Michael Black, 28, of Sullivan, passed away at 7:27 p.m., Monday, April 4, 2022, in his home. Read More
State Fire Marshal Awards $2.5 Million in Grants to Illinois First Responders
•April 13, 2022•
The Office of the Illinois State Fire Marshal (OSFM) has announced the recipients of the 2022 Small Equipment Grant Program. A total of $2.5 million was awarded to 104 fire departments/districts and EMS providers across the state. The program was established to provide grants of up to $26,000 each for the purchase of small firefighting and ambulance equipment.
Bethany Fire Protection District is a recipient of a $19,000 grant. “All communities deserve safety, and this program helps ensure our smaller and rural fire districts aren’t left behind when it comes to the tools they need to do their jobs,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “I’m proud to be able to provide more than 100 districts with new lifesaving equipment. It’s another way we can demonstrate our gratitude for all that they do to help their neighbors live safely.” Read More
Moultrie Moment of the Week
Pictured is the Lovington High School baseball team. Team members pictured: front row left to right - Alan Sautelet, Kent Cole, Mike Reedy, Jerry Born, Jim Murphy, Ron Miller, John Mechling, and Joe Wm. Smith. Back row left to right - Chris Long, Manager, Allen Bell, Steve Wall, Jeff Simpson, Ed Webb, Steve Fleming, Dave Elliott, Phil Edrington, Allen Hall, Coach (not pictured are Sid Ferguson, Rick Phillips, Mitch Dawson, Bill Eads, and Dennis Woodard). Please submit photos to the News Progress for future consideration. Originals will be saved for return or forwarded to Moultrie County Historical Society. If you have any other information, please contact the Moultrie County Historical Society at 217-728- 4085.
On Punctuation and Perspective
•April 13, 2022•
By Jim Baumann
NP Guest Writer
Many of you are kind enough to share with me multiple forwarded collections of embarrassing headlines from other newspapers, unfortunate misspellings or captions, punctuation puns and dirty limericks.
Even I’ve shared a few. And I’ve gone so far as to debunk some headlines that were doctored to look bad when they were perfectly fine.
Today, I rooted around for my own truffles. I found something on Facebook that for the briefest of moments made me believe the social media leviathan might be redeemable: a group called “The English Teacher’s Daughter.”
Check it out. It’s a bit like a grown-up version of this column.
There I found a well-worn bit that proves the power of punctuation as well as our inherent biases. Read More