St. Elmo News

ANNOUNCEMENTS
Thursday, July 30
• ExxonMobil Annuitants, noon, Maverick Restaurant in Litchfield.

Friday, July 31
• See the Sew Simple Workshop announcement in the Future Announcements; the registration deadline is Aug. 2.
Saturday, Aug. 1
• Lighthouse Pregnancy Center, now located at 1703 W. Fletcher, Vandalia will have an open house from 9 a.m.-noon. Refreshments will be provided. There will be a door prize drawing at noon. A prayer ceremony will be held at 9 a.m. to dedicate the new building.
• American Legion Post No. 420 will host an open house from 11 a.m.-4 p.m. The public is invited and a special invitation goes out to all the generous donors who helped restore the WWII plaque.
Hot dogs with all the trimmings and all sorts of apple desserts will be served as Legion treats.
There also will be an all Chevy Cruise-In – car guys and gals can take their new or old Chevy.
The Legion Home is north of the railroad tracks on Main Street, then one block east on Ninth Street.
Sunday, August 2
• The Lovett Reunion will be held in the Phillips Building with a noon potluck. All family and friends are very welcome to attend.
Monday, August 3
• The St. Elmo City Council, 7 p.m., Phillips Building.
Tuesday, August 4
• Friendly Neighbors, noon, Mary Ann’s Restaurant
Wednesday, August 5
• Wright’s Corner Unit of Home and Community Education for the August special activity will eat lunch at 11 a.m. at the Altamont Dairy Bar.
Thursday, August 6
• St. Elmo Business Association, noon, Mary Ann’s Restaurant.
• Wheatland Unit of Home and Community Education for the special activity will go to the Altamont Fair to see the crafts, needlework, canned goods and attend the horse races.
Future Events
• Sew Simple workshop – Youth between the ages of 8-18 will have the opportunity to learn some sewing skills and support an excellent not-for-profit organization, ConKerr Cancer.
Two sessions will be at the Fayette County Extension Office next Thursday – one at 9 a.m. and one at 1 p.m.
At each session, a youth will make a pillow case for the ConKerr Cancer and one for themselves.
The cost per participant is $10 and the fee will include all the materials to make the two pillow cases along with a beginning sewing book.
The workshop is being made possible through an Illinois 4-H Foundation Grant and volunteers with Heartland Dental in Effingham. Fayette County Home and Community Education members have volunteered to help with the workshop – each youth will have a helper.
Registrations can be made by calling the Extension Office at 283-2753 or going online at http://web.extension.illinois.edu/cefj/. Registration ends Sunday.
• An American Red Cross Blood Drive will be held from 1-6 p.m. Monday, Aug. 10, in St. Mary’s Catholic Church Parish Hall. Food and drawstring bags will be given to all presenting donors.
‘Color Splash’ Fun Run/Walk
The Fayette County Museum in Vandalia is having a “Color Splash” 5K Fun Run/Walk on Saturday, Sept. 26. It will start at 9 a.m. in front of the Vandalia Moose Lodge at 328 S. Third Street.
Fees are $25 for an adult and $15 for kids 6-12 paid by an adult. Children under 5 are free when with a paid adult. To get a free T-shirt, registrations have to be made by Saturday, Sept. 5. All registered participants will have their names entered for prizes. Flyers soon will be put up with all the information needed.
Plans for the museum’s fundraiser have been finalized by the “Color Splash” chairman, Donna Blair, who is a member of the Historical Vandalia Inc. Board, which met the evening of July 20 in the Museum.
Other museum fundraisers will include booths to sell the museum’s anniversary cookbooks and Fayette County games.
Both will be on Saturday, Sept. 26 – one at the Vandalia Harvest Festival and one at the Ramsey Festival.
Also discussed at the meeting were Season of Events programs that possibly will be held in September and November of this year and in March of 2016.
It takes thousands of dollars each year in the operation fund to keep the museum open to the public from 9:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday through Saturday, even though all but one of the workers are volunteers.
Other expenses include insurance, utilities (electricity, heat, air conditioning and phone), mowing the garden on the west side of the museum, etc.
The restoration fund still needs several thousand dollars to finish the upstairs; the floor is the project. Also, the Historical Vandalia Inc. wants to install an elevator because the upstairs in not handicapped-accessible.
Many previously stored museum items are now on display upstairs, and the upstairs is where the Fayette County Schools, Town and Country Amateur and Professional Art shows are held each year. Walking up the curved stairs is hard for people with canes and those who use walkers, and those in wheelchairs have to use an elevator.
The estimated cost of an elevator just large enough for a wheelchair with a person accompanying the wheelchair is $75,000.
The board would like to install an elevator as soon as possible, before prices keep going up, but cannot do so without the funds.
Vice President Jim Brewer of Ramsey conducted the board meeting, with the following present: Donna Blair, Allison Magnus, Joyce Mueller and Mary Truitt of Vandalia, Mary Ann Rhoades of Ramsey, Marilyn Beyes of Smithboro, Barbara Buckland of Brownstown and Anna Jean Rhodes of St. Elmo.
Truitt reported the museum had 213 visitors in June, and Beyes reported the garden is excellent. She also told that at the June art shows, 40 percent of the entries received blue ribbons and they are eligible to enter the State Town and Country Art Show this fall in Champaign.
Donations to the museum since the last meeting include many types of books, many photos (including one of Abe Lincoln), a hand grenade and early 1840s land deeds.
Summer vegetables are available at the museum for donations; right now, the vegetables available are cucumbers and zucchini. You can call the museum to see what is available. Also orders are being taken for gooseberry pies that are delicious; the large pies sell for $15.
The museum’s phone number is 283-4866.
RNA #5784 School Collections
At the meeting of the Royal Neighbors of America on July 22 at the Phillips building, the following school supplies were collected: 33 subject notebooks, six composition books, six packages of notebook paper, 17 packages of pencils, an eight-pack of tissues, one pair of scissors, four boxes of washable markers, 11 boxes of crayons, two packages of colored pencils, three packages of cap erasers, two big erasers, 15 glue sticks, four bottles of glue, six rulers, two packages of ball point pens and  pencil box.
RNA also is collecting milk money for children whose parents cannot pay for the milk during the milk break. Anyone who would like to donate money may do so by contacting St. Elmo Elementary School or any Royal Neighbor members. You can mail a check to Della Stewart at 900 N. Olive St. in St. Elmo and mark it milk money; she will gladly take it to the school.
Present at the meeting were Ina Abendroth, Jean Brown, Marjorie Sarver, Della Stewart and Leona Wright. Anna Ruth Lilly sent school supplies to the meeting.
 

School supplies donated by the Royal Neighbors of America