Photo by Keith Stewart
Pictured are Jordan Cyphert and Megan Farley in the Little Theatre’s latest production, “Swing!”

July 1, 2015

By Dan Hagen
NP Theatre Critic

The scene: an urban night club during World War II, and if the atmosphere is particularly realistic, that’s because the bricks and the loading dock are the actual back wall of the Little Theatre, cunningly incorporated into the scenery.
More than Jen Price-Fick’s set is cunningly done in this musical, Swing!, directed and choreographed by Amber Mak and Todd Rhoades.
Unencumbered by plot in any but the most abstract sense, Swing! swings from bebop to scat singing to torch songs at a brisk pace that never flags.
Sound problems lost us Brady Miller’s Boogie Woogie Country during the dress rehearsal, but those ought to be fixed when the show opens today.
Colorfully costumed by Jeannine La Bate (orange shirts, blue fringed cowboy jackets, the works), this show is all song and — particularly — dance, and as my friend Bart Rettberg pointed out, a great deal could have gone wrong with the show that didn’t. The dancing is furious yet fairly flawless.
When this show opened on Broadway in 1999, the people who could remember these song and dance numbers first-hand were already in their 60s. Many are now gone, a fact that has to shift the reception of the show somewhat. We’re looking at a lost world being evoked. Read More

Photo by RR Best
Pictured is Kim Warren with her newly planted display at Wyman Park in the background. The display serves as a memorial for Warren’s father, mother, and brother-in-law, all of whom lost their battles with cancer. The memorial was completed just in time for this past weekend’s Relay for Life.

New Wyman park display arrives in time for Relay for Life

June 17, 2015

by Keith Stewart
keith@newsprogress.com

Close to five years ago, Kay Aldridge arranged for a memorial in Wyman Park for her late husband Harris after his fight with cancer. The memorial, three crabapple trees and a stone plaque in the middle, was placed just south of Wyman Lake near the north parking lot pavilion.
Kay herself passed away last August, she too after battling cancer, but her memory was commemorated and the chance seized to raise awareness about the awful disease that took her life when her daughter Kim Warren decided to expand on the memorial just in time to debut for this past weekend’s Relay for Life.
“When we knew they were going to move the Relay for Life out here, I decided I was going to plant it,” said Warren. “Anything with flowers, wildlife, animals, she was all about that–in fact when I went to go do this Kory (Wiley, parks superintendent) said, ‘This is the perfect place Kim because she always came out here. She always parked here. She always picked persimmons over here.’ She chose the site for my dad’s memorial so I worked furiously all week last week and did it all in the pinks, purples, and fuchsias like the American Cancer Society colors.” Read More

Photo by Keith Stewart
Sullivan Kiwanis Club President Cindi Reed (right) is presented the club’s gavel by Jim Dooley as part of the charter ceremony Monday night.

June 17, 2015

Local chapter receives charter Monday

by Keith Stewart
keith@newsprogress.com

Nearly nine months of meetings, soliciting, and discussing came down to Monday evening’s charter celebration as the local Kiwanis group officially reemerged in Sullivan after shuttering several years ago.
Held in a packed side room of the Red Apple Family Restaurant, the charter presentation not only included the installation of 16 members, but also three officers, and saw a show of support from various neighboring Kiwanis groups from Mattoon, Charleston, Decatur and Tuscola.
And two of those groups–the Decatur Golden K Club and the Tuscola club, were instrumental in reviving the Sullivan branch, that, according to member and local historian Paul Stone, was originally founded in 1929.
Dave Butler, who is not only from the Tuscola club, but also the current Kiwanis lieutenant governor for district 27, along with Jim Dooley, the 2014-2015 Kiwanis Governor for the Illinois and eastern Iowa district, and others began by going door to door, soliciting membership late last fall. Read More

Served Five Terms in Congress

June 10, 2015

By Tom Emery
Contributing Historian

Among the leading figures of Sullivan history is John R. Eden, who unsuccessfully ran for governor of Illinois in 1868. It was just one highlight in a long career in public service that included a total of five terms in the U.S. House.

From “John R. Eden 1826-1909 A Compendium of Materials” by R. Eden Martin.
John Eden

Eden was born in Bath County in east-central Kentucky Feb. 1, 1826 and moved with his family by prairie schooner to Rush County, east of Indianapolis, at age five. Young John worked on the farm and attended his first school in a cabin of round logs. The students sat on benches that had wooden pins for legs. The “desks” were actually puncheon boards mounted on pegs set in holes on the wall.
The window of the building was simply a space left by the removal of one log, stretching nearly the length of the wall. It had no glass, and greased paper was used in cold weather to keep out the elements. John, however, embraced his schooling and at age 18 became a teacher himself, for $20 a month and room and board. Read More

Below is the information graduates from the class of 2015 voluntarily submitted regarding their future plans. Graduates from Arthur-Lovington/Atwood-Hammond, Okaw Valley, Sullivan, and Windsor are included:

Sixty-four Graduate in First Ever ALAH Class

Christy Eileen Allen, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Dave Allen, plans on attending the University of Illinois to study agricultural communications. She then hopes to have a career in advertising or public relations.
Toby Wayne Ball, son of Elizabeth Irene Ball and Robert Douglas Ball Sr., plans on attending Lake Land College to study either agriculture business or radio broadcast. He is currently employed with the Arthur IGA.
Tristan Barrett, son of Chris Stilwell, plans to study paleontology.
Tyler Benedict, son of Jerod Benedict and Christy Benedict, has no immediate plans.
Jonathan Bialeschki, son of Ed and Paula Bialeschki, plans on attending Lake Land College.
Dylan Ray Black, son of Rick and Dee Black, plans to attend South Dakota School of Mines and Technology to obtain a mechanical engineering degree. He also plans to participate in football.
Courtney Bontrager, daughter of LaMar and Barbara Bontrager, plans on earning a full time job once out of high school while also beginning to practice photography. She also wishes to start her own charity to put together gifts for children in the hospital with cancer.
J. Tanner Brewer, son of Tod Brewer and Krystal Lester, plans to attend the University of Illinois through the Pathways Program at Parkland College to major in sport management.
Mary Ann Budnick, daughter of the late Paul Richard Budnick and grand-daughter of Valerie Turnbow and Walter Turnbow plans to start work at a facility that deals with long-term health care including the Arthur Home and the Moultrie County Beacon. Read More