St. Elmo News
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Wednesday, December 19
• Reverb Youth, 6:30 p.m., St. Elmo Christian Church.
• Kid’s Klub, 7 p.m., First Church of God S.H.E.D.
Thursday, December 20
• Exxon/Mobil Annuitants, noon, Vandalia Ponderosa.
• Threads of Friendship Quilt Club Christmas party, 7 p.m., St. Elmo Public Library. Meat and tableware will be provided for the potluck. There will not be a gift exchange, but those attending are asked to put $10 in a signed Christmas card and the group will decide on a charity to give the money to.
Friday, December 21
• Winter begins – daylight will start becoming longer.
Sunday, December 23
• St. Elmo Christian Church will have a program, “Just a Little Christmas,” at 9:30 a.m.
• First United Methodist Church will have a children’s Christmas program during the 10:35 a.m. worship service.
• First Baptist Church will have a Communion service at 6 p.m. Following the service, there will be refreshments of hot chocolate and sandwiches served.
Monday, December 24
• First Church of God will have a come-and-go candlelight Communion service from 5-7 p.m.
• Instead of a come-and-go Communion service, First United Methodist Church will have a candlelight worship service at 6 p.m. The service will complete the lighting of the Advent wreath, and have the Christmas story in song, scripture, sermon and Communion. The service will last no longer than one hour.
• St. Elmo Christian Church will have a candlelight service at 6 p.m.
• New Horizons Church will have a candlelight Communion service at 6 p.m.
Tuesday, December 25
• Merry Christmas to everyone!
St. Elmo Public Library District Report
The St. Elmo Public Library District December meeting was held on the evening of Tuesday, Dec. 12, at the St. Elmo Public Library. After approving the minutes and paying the bills, JoAn Evans reported that 38 children attended their December after-school craft day at the Beecher City Branch Library.
Ginny Wilber reported that the Brownstown Branch Library had some lights burned out and needed to get the furnace filters changed.
Kim Karnes reported that the St. Elmo Library has a new Arab Pest Control worker; Head Start’s topic for December was chairs and they played musical chairs; the St. Elmo craft day is to be December 28; and the cookbooks are here, and several have already been sold. They are $11 each.
Letters have been sent to other libraries about lost books from the interlibrary loan program.
St. Elmo Public Library District will apply for the Overdrive program. It is only offered quarterly and the next open time is after Jan. 1. The Library should have the program up and running by the end of May.
Reverb Youth ‘Sweet Treat Surprise’
The St. Elmo Christian Church Reverb Youth on the evening of Dec. 12 took cookies to various area residents. Also in the box was this poem: “Here is a sweet treat surprise from someone to you.
They want to say Merry Christmas and you mean a lot to them, too! We hope you enjoy these treats and when you eat them they make you smile for we know Christmas is a wonderful time to celebrate Jesus, the Holy Child!”
Fayette County Extension Foundation
A meeting of the Fayette County Extension Foundation was held the evening of Dec.10 at the Extension Office in Vandalia, with the following present: county Extension adviser Rachelle Hollinshead, President Brian Willenborg and Caryl Hickerson of Vandalia and Lynn Tappendorf and Anna Jean Rhodes of St. Elmo.
The board voted to have a Gift of Grain fundraiser. Grain gifts will provide opportunities for 4-H youth locally and can achieve savings in self-employment tax, federal income tax and state income tax.
Those who participate can deliver grain to their local elevator and ask the elevator to provide a warehouse receipt showing the Fayette County Extension Foundation as the owner.
The foundation can be contacted to tell where the grain is stored. After the transfer, the foundation assumes the cost of storage, transportation and marketing, and bears any risk of loss.
The foundation will call the elevator to verify the details (type of grain, number of bushels, date it was delivered, price on the date it was delivered).
Once verified the foundation will sell the bushels of grain and have the proceeds check transferred to the receiving Foundation.
Tax savings: Cash charitable contributions are deductible only as an itemized deduction from adjusted gross income which results in reducing federal income tax only. Many farmers do not itemize deductions because the standard deduction has greatly increased over the years. By gifting crops to a foundation, the cash basis farmer avoids having to include the sale of the cash crop in income, which results in saving self-employment tax, federal income tax and state income tax.
Gifts of grain can be donated from the current or previous year’s harvest. The gift should be from unsold crop inventory with no prior sale commitment.
St. Elmo HCE Christmas Party
Members of the St. Elmo Unit of Home and Community Education that went to the Capitol View Restaurant in Vandalia on Dec. 11 were Karen Denning, Loretta Heischmidt, Noma Moore, Anna Jean Rhodes and Karen Wegscheid.
After lunch Denning had two games. The first was the nativity word search and it was won by Wegscheid. The second was Pass the Box when she read a snowman story. The last person who held the box was Heischmidt. Both received snowman kitchen towels.
Rhodes then read “Santa and Sarah – A Christmas Story,” and Denning read a Happy New Year article.
They did much visiting before leaving for home.
Wegscheid gave each one a choice of a dessert from the restaurant to take home—chocolate cake, coconut cake or carrot cake.
Those who were unable to attend because of other obligations were missed.
Avena Township Park Board
Santa in the Park, from 4-6 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 9, was sponsored by the Avena Township Park Board. The Centennial Building in the St. Elmo Community Park had been decorated for the Christmas holidays.
Children visiting with Santa could have their pictures taken by Heather Mitchell and receive them immediately. The cost was $2, and the proceeds went to the park board budget.
Board members thank those who donated cookies that were served along with the hot chocolate and coffee furnished by Daryl’s Dine In.
Present for the Dec. 11 Board meeting held in the Centennial Building were board members President Greg Haslett, Daryl Calvert, Jim Caraway, Ro Mars, Buddy Mitchell and Janice Russell, and a guest, J. D. Russell
Some of the Board members need to take the online Illinois Municipal Public Affairs Training Class.
Tables and chairs for the Centennial Building were ordered.
Discussed was the winterizing of the outside comfort stations. Attorney Richard Day has to sign the budget by December 24.
The Centennial Building can be rented for private parties, family gatherings, etc by calling Haslett at the Bradford Supply, 829-3240.
American Legion
The American Legion Post #420 met the evening of Dec. 11 at the Legion Home and the following opened the meeting with the pledge of allegiance: Doyle Beck, Charles Bosomworth, Dave Cox, Xon Hanna, Clement Lilly, Ernie Myers, Dave Stewart and Laverne Wright.
The Legion was asked to provide the color guard ceremony before the start of the St. Elmo Holiday Basketball Tournament championship game Dec. 15 and they voted to do so.
The Legion voted to purchase two new fire extinguishers for the Legion Home and to donate $100 to the Caring and Sharing and $100 to Santa’s Elves.
The Legion didn’t sell poppies for the past couple of years, but they voted to do so in May 2013.
The evening of Dec. 15, the Legion did the color guard ceremony.
Those participating were Doyle Beck and Ernie Myers of St. Elmo; Mozarelly of Effingham, the area army recruiter; and McCarty of Patoka, a young man who has completed his first class as a national guard.
Lunch Bunch
Present for the Lunch Bunch luncheon at Mary Ann’s Restaurant December 12 were Karen Denning, Mary Harrison, Anna Jean Rhodes, Arvilla Sarver and Sue Stites of St. Elmo and Pat Porter of Farina. There was no gift exchange, just visiting.
Caring and Sharing
The Caring and Sharing program sponsored by the St. Elmo Lions Club prepared boxes of food, Christmas toys, etc., for 80 families in the area. The boxes were packed with items donated by churches, organizations, businesses and individuals. Monetary donations provided perishable foods for the boxes.
The Lions Club thanked all who donated and the many who helped prepare the boxes that were picked up on Dec. 15 at the Avena Township Hall.