St. Elmo News

By Editor | April 16, 2014 |

ANNOUNCEMENTS
Thursday, April 17
• Vit-Em-In Sunday school class potluck, 5:30 p.m., First United Methodist Church Fellowship Hall.
• Maundy Thursday service, 7 p.m., First United Methodist Church.
Friday, April 18
• The Fayette County Schools Children Art Show starts in the Fayette County Museum, Vandalia, 9:30 a.m.-4 p.m.
• Ministerial Alliance Good Friday service, 6 p.m., First Baptist Church.
Saturday, April 19
• St. Elmo Community Clothes Closet, 9 a.m.-noon, First United Methodist Church parsonage.
• The Fayette County Schools Children Art Show, 9:30 a.m.-4 p.m., in the Fayette County Museum, Vandalia.
• Culpepper & Merriweather Circus in Deken Park. The tent rising is 9:30-10 a.m. Show times are 2 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. The circus is being sponsored by the St. Elmo Business Association. In advance tickets are $10 for adults, $6 for ages 2-12 and they are available at St. Elmo City Hall, Fayette County Bank and St. Elmo Pet Clinic, and from SEBA members. On circus day, they are $13 and $7.
Sunday, April 20
• Easter
• St. Elmo Christian Church will have a Sonrise service at 7:30 a.m. There will be a potluck breakfast at 8:15 a.m. and a regular worship service at 9:30 a.m., followed by an Easter egg hunt.
• The First Church of God will have a sunrise service at 7:30 a.m., and the children and youth will provide specials. Following the service, there will be an Easter egg hunt and an Easter breakfast. There will be no Sunday school or other morning worship.
• The First United Methodist Church will have a continental breakfast at 9 a.m. in the Fellowship Hall. Sunday school and an egg hunt will be at 9:30 a.m. Worship service is at 10:35 a.m.
• Freedom Reigns in Christ Church will have a potluck breakfast at 9 a.m. The Easter worship service will be at 10 a.m.
• The First Baptist Church will have Sunday school at 9:30 a.m. The 10:30 a.m. worship service will serve the Lord’s Supper.
• The New Horizons Church will have Sunday school at 9:30 a.m. and the worship service at 10:30 a.m.
• The First Assembly of God Church has Sunday school at 9 a.m. and the worship service and children’s church at 10 a.m.
• The Fayette County Schools Children Art Show, 1-4 p.m., Fayette County Museum, Vandalia.
• Lions Club sponsored Easter egg hunt for children through sixth grade, 2 p.m., St. Elmo Community Park.
Monday, April 21
• The Fayette County Schools Children Art Show, 9:30 a.m.-4 p.m., Fayette County Museum, Vandalia.
• Historical Vandalia Inc. Board, 6:30 p.m., Fayette County Museum.
• St. Elmo Board of Education, 7:30 p.m., Unit Office.
Tuesday, April 22
• The last day for the Fayette County Schools Children Art Show, 9:30 a.m.-4 p.m., Fayette County Museum, Vandalia.
• Avena Township Park Board, 6 p.m., St. Elmo Community Park Centennial Building.
• St. Elmo Masonic Lodge #769, 7:30 p.m., Masonic Temple.
Wednesday, April 23
• Royal Neighbors of America #5784, 1 p.m., Phillips Building. Today items will be collected for Lighthouse Pregnancy Center in Vandalia.
• Reverb Youth, 6 p.m., St. Elmo Christian Church.
• Kids Klub, 7-8 p.m., First Church of God S.H.E.D.
Thursday, April 24
• Exxon Mobil Annuitants, noon, Vandalia Ponderosa.
• The St. Elmo Unit of Home and Community Education, 1:30 p.m., St. Elmo Public Library.
Future Announcement
• Boy Scout Troup #444 will have its annual garage sale on Saturday, April 26. It will be held from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. at St. Elmo Christian Church. Donations from the garage sale will go toward boys attending summer camp.
If you would like to donate items to the garage sale, contact Justin at 918-0169 or Tamela at 292-7373, or you can drop them off anytime on the porch at 721 Elm St., St. Elmo.
Scouts also are selling raffle tickets for a Remington 1100 20-gauge sporting gun or $1,000 cash.
All proceeds go toward the purchase of a new Scout trailer. The one the Scouts have is unsafe and unreliable.
The Scouts need $7,500 to buy a trailer fully equipped for camping. If you would like to make a donation toward the purchase of the trailer, contact Tamela or Justin at the above phone numbers.
Fayette County Museum Special Exhibits
Special exhibits for the month of April in the Fayette County Museum in Vandalia are Bible collections from the 1820s, Christening Gowns from late 1800s and church memorabilia.
The walls upstairs have been replastered and work is underway to get that area ready for the School Children’s Art Show.
The School Children’s Art Show will be open to the public from April 18-22. Monday through Saturday hours of the museum are 9:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Easter Sunday hours are 1-4 p.m.
Five display cases of artifacts also will be located in the upstairs area. They include a camera collection donated by Jerry Maas; a hat collection from Cletess Brungard and Cletess P. Stevenson; historic photo albums; and two other cases. More than 30 artifacts that were restored last year are hanging on the south wall.
Group tours may be scheduled by calling the museum at 283-4866.
Avena Township Park Board
At the Avena Township Park Board meeting held the evening of April 8 in the St. Elmo Community Park Centennial Building. President Greg Haslett had a $300 check from the St. Elmo Community Clothes Closet.
Three bids had been received on mowing the park, and the bid was awarded to the Doty Mowing Service.
Discussion was on vandalism that has been in the park. The barbecue pits have had trash and diapers burned in them, and the two lids on the dumpster have been broken, evidently by being jumped on very hard.
Other discussion was on the building maintenance. The inside of the Centennial Building is to be painted. Also discussed was to apply for a grant to update the playground equipment.
Those present at the meeting in addition to Haslett were Daryl Calvert, Jim Caraway and Buddy Mitchell.
Because more business needs to be transacted and there is much to do in the park, another meeting for April has been set for 6 p.m. on Tuesday, April 22, in the Centennial Building, and the board will welcome all who have ideas, and muscles, to help with the park to attend the meeting.
American Legion
Fourteen were present at the April 8 meeting of the American Legion Post #402 held at the Legion Home.
The Legion has a pool table for sale. Anyone is interested can contact a Legion member.
Discussed was the Memorial Day service, which will be held at 1 p.m. on Monday, May 26, at the Veterans’ Memorial. It will include a 21-gun salute.
Bids for the remodeling of the interior of the Legion Home bids were opened. The bid was let to the Mark Lash Construction Co., which will start work as soon as possible.
The World War II plaque is being taken down from inside the building, but the restoration of it is put on hold until the interior is done.
Those present at the meeting were Doyle Beck, Charles Bosomworth, Stewart Chandler, Dave Cox, Bill Goodwin, Bob Heckert, Bud Himes, Clement Lilly, Wayne Lovett, Richard Lowe, Ernie Myers, Jack Sproat, R.W. Smith and Max Watson.
Lunch Bunch
Gene Clark of Salem took Easter favors to the Lunch Bunch gathering that met at noon April 10 at Mary Ann’s Restaurant – chocolate rabbits, ducks and chickens. Others present were Pat Porter of Farina, and Karen Denning, Mary Harrison and Marjorie Sarver of St. Elmo.
County HCE Get Acquainted Day
The annual Get-Acquainted Day of the Fayette County Home and Community Education held April 10 in the Brownstown Golden Years Club Building had 46 in attendance.
The state IAHCE theme “Been Cookin’ 90 Years” was carried out. Most of those attending wore an apron, abd the tables were decorated with little chef hats and kitchen utensils on blue and white checked cotton squares. On one side of the room, there was a lighted tree that held tiny aprons and Easter eggs.
Registration at 9 a.m. preceded the 9:30 a.m. brunch. Cultural Enrichment Debbie Segrest gave the welcome, President Flo Allen led in the pledge of allegiance and Carol Bridges gave the meal blessing.
After the brunch, all repeated the HCE “Aims of the Homemaker,” and Segrest read a “Been Cookin’ 90 Years” poem that was written by Panzi Blackwell.
Several of those who wore aprons told about them. Erna Koontz wore the old crocheted apron her grandmother made and Sandra Runge wore the apron she made in a school class when she was 10 years old. Some of those who told about their aprons had their picture taken as a group.
Family Issues Donna Blair presented the CVU awards that she received at the IAHCE state conference in March. She showed the certificate Fayette County received for the highest number of volunteer reports received from District 6. She said that the 77 county reports totaled 549,809 volunteer hours from HCE members during the 2013 year.
CVU certificates were awarded to Donna Blair, Ashley Davis, Ruth Brackenbush, Carrie Hill, Joyce Mueller of the Vandalia Day Unit; Flo Allen, Dee Dee Diveley, Carolyn Graham, Elizabeth Kasten and Marilyn Yakel of the Sefton Unit; and Karen Hyde of the Wheatland Unit.
Seals for certificates received in earlier years were awarded to: Panzi Blackwell, Shirley Klitzing, Carol Oldham, Phyllis Pryor of the Sefton Unit; Ethelyn Williams of the Wheatland Unit; Karen Denning and Anna Jean Rhodes of the St. Elmo Unit; Elaine Dunn, Alvenia Noffsinger and Debbie Segrest of the Vandalia Day Unit.
Several who were not present to receive the certificates or seals will get them later.
Segrest reported on the Relay for Life fundraisers the HCE Honeys committee from the Vandalia Day Unit are having. Tickets are being sold for a handmade quilt – $1 each or six for $5 – that will be given away at the Relay for Life.
The HCE Honeys also will have a bake sale from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. on Saturday, April 19, at the Vandalia Rural King. Any HCE member who wants to help with the Relay for Life can donate to the bake sale.
The program was given by The Scarf Lady, Glenna Taylor of Beecher City. She had on display many kinds of scarves and showed how they were worn by putting them on people in the audience whose garment colors could go with the scarves.
A navy and white scarf was draped on the oldest county HCE member, Lucille Fisher of the Sefton Unit, who soon will be 102 and had on a navy jacket.
Next on the agenda was the Make It, Bake It, Sew It, Grow It auction.
Auctioneer Debbie Swain was assisted by Dee Dee Diveley and Debbie Segrest. Treasurer Dorothy Harpster kept track of the auction bids and collected the money after the auction. The auction made $462 for the county HCE budget.
Thanks go to Carol Oldham and Rita Miller for making the little chef hats for the table decorations and also to Don Smail for hooking up the microphone.
St. Elmo Unit was in charge of registration, Sefton Unit did the decorations, Bingham/Ramsey Unit was in charge of the beverages, Vandalia Day Unit arranged the food on the tables and the St. Peter, Wheatland and Wright’s Corner Units were in charge of cleanup.
Door prizes taken by the units were won by Carol Behrends, Connie Green, Elizabeth Kasten, Erna Koontz, Carol Oldfield, Una Tish and Betty Williams.
Guests present in addition to the speaker were: Betty Wright, invited by the Wright’s Corner Unit; Carol Behrends, Connie Green and Barbara Morrison, all invited by the Sefton Unit; Beverly Short invited by the Vandalia Day Unit; and Marilyn Sproat invited by the Wheatland Unit.
Unit members present were the following: Bingham/Ramsey-Evelyn Probst, May Della Probst, Veda Stout; St. Elmo-Karen Denning, Loretta Heischmidt, Anna Jean Rhodes; St. Peter-Dorothy Harpster, Sandra Runge; Sefton-Flo Allen, Sally Behrends, Panzi Blackwell, Dee Dee Diveley, Delores Dukeman, Lucille Fisher, Lora Foutch, Carolyn Grames, Lois Jackson, Elizabeth Kasten, Helen Klitzing, Shirley Klitzing, LaVonne Kramer, Carol Oldham, Debbie Swain, Sharon Wilhelm and Betty Williams; Vandalia Day-Ashley Davis, Donna Blair, Carol Bridges, Ardith McFarland, Joyce Mueller, Debbie Segrest, Anita Smith, Lura Tarter; Wheatland-Erna Koontz; and Wright’s Corner-Kate Jennings, Irene Reed, Shirley Smith, Una Tish and Leona Wright.
The next county HCE meeting will be the annual meeting in June: the date will be determined at the April 28 County HCE Board meeting.
St. Elmo Women’s Club
The St. Elmo Women’s Civic Club had a salad supper the evening of April 10 in St. Mary’s Catholic Church Parish Hall. Guests present were LaVonne Kramer of Brownstown, Loretta Heischmidt and Mary Jane Mattix of St. Elmo and Oleta Massey of Carterville.
The social committee was the officers and the tables were decorated in an Easter theme. At each place setting were paper cups of nuts and candies.
After the supper of a variety of delicious salads and desserts, Massey was the guest speaker. She had on display a variety of aprons and told the history of aprons that goes back to the Bible.
After the program, President Pat Porter had all give the club collect and the pledge of allegiance.
She had each one around the table tell her name and if she brought a guest, introduce her. Porter extended an invitation to the guests to become members of the Women’s Club.
Officers elected for the 2014-15 year are Pat Porter, president; Lucille Koeberlein, first vice; Libby Kessel, second vice; Karen Denning, third vice; Anna Jean Rhodes, recording and corresponding secretary; and Elizabeth Stoner, treasurer.
Members present were Susan Belden, Karen Denning, Norma Engeljohn, Sheila Himes, Libby Kessel, Noma Moore, Pat Porter, Anna Jean Rhodes, Ann Rowland, Elizabeth Stoner and Karen Wegscheid.
The last meeting of the 2013-14 year will be held at the Raintree Restaurant in Effingham at 6 p.m. on Thursday, May 1. Those going will meet at St. Mary’s Catholic Church parking lot at 5:20 p.m. to pool rides. After the dinner, there will be reports and installation of the officers.
The next regular meeting of the St. Elmo Women’s Club will be on Thursday, Sept. 4, and most of the meetings are held at 7 p.m. in the St. Elmo Public Library.
Library District Report
After approving the minutes and paying the bills, Randy Watson spoke to the
St. Elmo Public Library District Board at the April 10 meeting about putting some trophies in the museum that are stored at the high school and presented ideas to utilize the library museum space more efficiently.
Ginny Wilbur said the Brownstown Branch Library has continued to leak and she has been using Shop Vac almost daily.
Billie Enlow reported that the new ceiling fan switch in the St. Elmo Library isn’t working properly. The St. Elmo Library had nearly 50 kids at the after school craft on April 10. They have planned the St. Elmo volunteer event for Sunday, May 18, at 2 p.m. Jo Stine said the summer extension program will be from 10 a.m.-noon on June 11, 12, 18, 19 and 25 and will be limited to about 25 participants with the last day being family day.
JoAn Evans said the Beecher City Branch volunteer event will be on Saturday, May 17 at 2 p.m. The Beecher City Branch Library had 27 kids and six adults at their after school craft on March 20.
Frontier has fixed phones and Longhorn Builders has put deflectors on the roof. They had an Eagle Scout meeting at the library, with 12 in attendance. Effingham County HCE donated the book “The Ultimate Quilting and Patchwork Companion” to the library. They plan to offer a Kindle class.
The books are being ordered for the Back 2 Books 2 grant. Cameras were tabled again. Westendorf should be finished with the roof at Brownstown on April 11.
The floors will need to be redone. The sewer has been opened at Beecher City. Brownstown’s book drop, cart, file cabinet and copier have arrived.