St. Elmo News
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Thursday, April 2
• No school – spring break.
• The Fayette County School Art Show at the Fayette County Museum, Vandalia starts today and will continue through Tuesday, April 7. It will be in the upstairs Artworks Gallery. Monday through Saturday, the museum is open from 9:30 a.m.-4 p.m. This Sunday, it will be open from 1-4 p.m.
• St. Elmo Business Association, noon, Mary Ann’s Restaurant.
• Maundy Thursday service, 7 p.m., First United Methodist Church sanctuary.
Friday, April 3
• No school – spring break.
• Good Friday service sponsored by the St. Elmo Ministerial Alliance will be held at 6 p.m. at Freedom Reigns in Christ Church. Jews for Christ will be doing the service, which will consist of a traditional Seder meal.
Saturday, April 4
• A post-prom bake sale, 7 a.m.-noon, Mary Ann’s Restaurant. All proceeds go to the St. Elmo High School post-prom.
Sunday, April 5
• Easter Sunday – attend the church of your choice.
• First United Methodist Church will have a continental breakfast at 9 a.m. in the Fellowship Hall. Sunday school and children’s Easter egg hunt are at 9:30 a.m. and the Easter worship service at 10:35 a.m.
• The Fayette County Museum in Vandalia will be open from 1-4 p.m. The Fayette County Schools Art Show will be in the upstairs Artworks Gallery.
• St. Elmo Lions Club will have the annual Easter egg hunt at 2 p.m. in the St. Elmo Community Park for children up through the sixth grade.
Monday, April 6
• No school – spring break.
• St. Elmo City Council, 7 p.m., Phillips Building.
Tuesday, April 7
• Consolidated Election – St. Elmo Board of Education, St. Elmo Public Library District and St. Elmo City aldermen. Polls open from 6 a.m.-7 p.m.
• Last day for the Fayette County Schools Art Show in the Fayette County Museum upstairs Artworks Gallery.
• Friendly Neighbors, noon, Mary Ann’s Restaurant.
• Council of Catholic Women, 7 p.m., St. Mary’s Catholic Church Parish Hall.
Wednesday, April 8
• Reverb Youth, 6:30 p.m., St. Elmo Christian Church.
Thursday, April 9
• Fayette County Home and Community Education Get-Acquainted Day in the St. Elmo United Methodist Church Fellowship Hall. Registration will be at 9 a.m., a potluck brunch at 9:30 a.m. There will be a Make It, Bake It, Sew It, Grow It Auction as the major fundraiser. Each of the seven units is to take a gift for a door prize.
• Lunch Bunch, noon, Mary Ann’s Restaurant.
• The St. Elmo Women’s Civic Club will have a salad supper and membership drive at St. Mary’s Catholic Church Parish Hall. The supper will be at 5:30 p.m. After the supper, Jennie Ann Heischmidt of the St. Elmo Historical Society will give a program.
• St. Elmo Public Library District Board, 7 p.m., St. Elmo Public Library.
• Fayette Water Co. annual meeting, 7 p.m., First Church of God, 3001 Thrill Road Hill, Vandalia. Three directors will be elected. A drawing will be held for three door prizes for attending members.
Future Announcements
• Post-prom cookout, Sunday, April 12, 11 a.m.-2 p.m., at the St. Elmo Food Market. Ribeye sandwiches, $4; Nuxoll porkburgers, $3; double porkburgers, $4; Nuxoll hot dogs, $2.50; chips, 50 cents; water, $1; ice cream Dippin’ Dots, $3. All proceeds will go to help fund the 2015 St. Elmo High School post-prom.
• American Red Cross blood drive, 9 a.m.-2 p.m., Monday, April 13, St. Elmo High School.
• Diabetes Awareness sponsored by the St. Elmo Lions Club, 9-11 a.m., Saturday, April 25.
• Boy Scout Sunday will be April 26 at First United Methodist Church. After the 10:35 a.m. worship service, the Scouts will provide a Joe’s Pizza and Pasta spaghetti dinner in the Fellowship Hall.
Royal Neighbors Birthday Potluck
March is the month to celebrate birthdays of members of Royal Neighbors of America #5784. A sandwich and salad potluck luncheon was held at noon on March 21 in the Phillips Building. “Happy Birthday” was sung before cake and ice cream were served to the 27 present.
The RNA Fraternal Organization was started 120 years ago. In June, RNA #5784 will celebrate being in the organization 110 years.
Those present were Ina Abendroth, Phyllis Albright, Jean Brown, Kevin Castick, Wayne and Joan Conner, Carrie Cox, David Cox, Carrie Dodson, Barbara Durbin, Betty Feezel, Anna Ruth Lilly, Clement Lilly, Rosemary Owen, Larry Reed, Marjorie Sarver, Linda Smith, Mark Smith, David Stewart, Della Stewart, Shirley Smith, Betty Wright, Laverne and Leona Wright, Marsha Lilly-Wright, and Oliver and Edna Wright.
The next meeting will be on Wednesday, April 22, at 1 p.m. at the Phillips Building.
Third Season of Events
To help fund the restoration of the Fayette County Museum in Vandalia, Historical Vandalia Inc. has a Season of Events each year. The final of the three for 2014-2015 was held the afternoon of March 22 in the Vandalia First United Methodist Church Wesley Hall. Dr. Kevin Childers of Vandalia, in costume, did an excellent job of presenting “High Priest Caiaphas.”
After the program, a name was drawn for a door prize, $25 gift certificate from the Artworks Gallery Gift Shop in the Museum. Marie Sutton of Vandalia was the winner.
A wide variety of refreshments was served after the program.
Lions Club
Diabetes Awareness sponsored by the St. Elmo Lions Club will be in St. Elmo on Saturday, April 25, from 9-11 a.m. More will be given on this later.
Lions Club will have an Easter egg hunt in the St. Elmo Community Park at 2 p.m. on Easter Sunday. This is for children through the sixth grade.
The club will sponsor the Fayette County Food Bank Program sometime in 2015.
President Dave Maxey opened the March 23 meeting at Mary Ann’s Restaurant by leading in the Pledge of Allegiance and Pee Wee Denton gave the meal blessing. Others present were Don Crawford, Roger Fulk, Max Hollinshead, Dan Laack, Bob Lowe, Richard Lowe, Le Mar Marchman, Al Nevergall, Dee Newberry, Rex Reeder, Lloyd Stanley, Bob Wells and W. Williams.
Fayette County HCE
Fayette County Home and Community Education Board delegates to the March 17-19 IAHCE Annual Conference at Decatur Conference Center were Donna Blair and Carol Bridges, and HCE Board members who attended – Flo Allen, Ashley Davis, Anna Jean Rhodes and Debbie Segrest – gave reports at the board meeting held March 23 in the Vandalia Extension Office. Sefton Unit member Elizabeth Kasten also attended the Wednesday session.
Through the years, the 91-year-old organization has changed with the current times, trends or needs. It was first known as Home Bureau Federation (Fayette County chartered in May 1948). In 1962 it became known as Homemakers Extension Association and in 1996 became known as Home and Community Education. The goal is to educate members about their homes and community and to promote social and economic well being in homes and neighborhoods. HCE is not “your Mother’s Home Bureau” anymore.
IAHCE continues to offer unique and inventive ideas for lessons giving members the opportunity to learn current and relevant information to share with its members as well as local citizens. State and county officers are provided important information which allows them to work, support and promote the community they serve.
Members attending this year’s conference were offered choices of 45 different sessions to attend and then will take this information back to their own counties to share with those members who could not attend the conference.
Of the 102 counties in Illinois, 76 have HCE members and the state total membership is 7638. Fayette County now has a membership of 116. The counties with the largest memberships are Champaign, 379; Madison, 322; Tazewell, 230; McLean, 222; and Adams, 195. Pulaski/Alexander has 29 members and 10 other counties have less than 50 members; 32 counties have 50-100 members; and 29 counties have 101-195 members.
In 2014, the counties collected $14,421.44 for Pennies for Friendship; Fayette County’s collection was $123.29.
Those who would like more information can contact county President Flo Allen at 427-3796 or any of the HCE members or county officers.
Fayette County was second highest in number of volunteer hours for 2014; 47 HCE members from throughout the county turned in 22,291 hours. At the Get Acquainted Day April 9 certificates will be given to all the county HCE members who turned in volunteer hours.
Adams County had 154 members turn in 23,226 hours, Lake County had 56 members turn in 21,942 hours, Jefferson County turned in 16,663 hours, Stevenson County had 56 members turn in 14,883 hours, Champaign County turned in 3,763 hours.
For the year 2014 HCE members from throughout Illinois turned in 563,000 volunteer hours. In March 2014, the cost per volunteer hour was $22.14, so the value of all the HCE volunteer hours in 2014 came to $13,563,902.
At the end of 2014 District 1 had 760 members; Districts 2 and 3, 1215 members; District 4, 1268 members; District 5, 1489 members; District 6 that Fayette County is in, 1529 members; and District 7, 1370 members.
Winner of the County of the Year award was McLean County with 14,270 points. Macon County had 10,270 points, Stevenson County had 7980 points, Champaign County had 7680 points and Adams County had 6780 points.
No other counties were listed on the awards sheet, but Fayette County did well; it received 4250 points on the score sheet.
A project of the Country Women’s Council is to take up funds for greenhouses that can produce crops in Mongolia and provide skills and livelihood to the sparsely populated country.
Fayette County HCE Board wants to participate. The IAHCE 2015 theme – Come Together: Walk With IAHCE – makes one think of shoes. If each member would donate 10 cents for each pair shoes she has, the money will be donated to the CWC for the greenhouses in Mongolia. Units can collect the donations and turn the money in at the June annual meeting.
Those present at the board meeting were all 10 officers – Flo Allen, Panzi Blackwell, Shirley Klitzing of the Sefton Unit, Anna Jean Rhodes of the St. Elmo Unit, Carol Bridges, Ashley Davis, Joyce Mueller, Debbie Segrest, Anita Smith of the Vandalia Day Unit, Donna Blair of the Bingham/Ramsey Unit–and Karen Hyde, chairman of the Wheatland Unit. After the meeting, all except Blair, Blackwell and Mueller ate lunch at Denny’s.
Fayette County Republican Women
Fayette County Republican Women had the second meeting of the year March 23 at the Vandalia National Road Interpretive Center. The first meeting was Jan. 26 and was a combined meeting with the Fayette County Republican Central Committee.
President Tara Hall opened the meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance. The FCRW decorated the tables for the Feb. 28 Lincoln Day Dinner and helped sell the dinner tickets.
A memorial to the Evans Public Library was made for a member and former officer, Marjorie Blythe of Vandalia.
The Lincoln Presenters parade will be held in Vandalia at 1 p.m. on April 19. The FCRW plan to participate in the parade.
Dues of $5 can be sent to the membership chairman, Grace Thull of Vandalia.
Defensive Driver Course
The AARP Smart Driver Course sponsored by the St. Elmo Lions Club was held in the St. Elmo Christian Church all day on Wednesday, March 25, and was attended by 27 who had preregistered. Lions Club provided coffee and donuts. A lunch break was from 12-1 p.m. and several went to Mary Ann’s Restaurant.
It originally had been planned for 8 a.m.-noon on Tuesday and Wednesday, but the instructor, David Maxey, attended his mother-in-law’s funeral on Tuesday. Those who had registered were contacted and chose to meet in one day.
The Smart Driver Course is a driver safety course designed for drivers age 50 and over. They learn defensive driving strategies and tips for staying safe. Those participating may even qualify for an auto insurance discount. For getting a discount, the course has to be taken every three years. The cost for the eight-hour course is $15 for AARP members and $20 for non-members.
The guidebook used was new in 2014 and the information chapters are Why Are We Here?, What’s Changing?, What Practices Make Us Safer?, What Strategies Apply?, What About the Future? and What Have We Learned?
Each chapter lists goals. In the chapter on What’s Changing? the goals are: Learn how a person’s driving is affected by changes – medications, medical conditions, alcohol, vision, hearing, brain health, flexibility, strength and endurance; discussion of new vehicle technologies; review of changes in roadway designs.
Each participant also received the 2014 Illinois Rules of the Road book.
In April ,Maxey is teaching the Smart Driver Course in Effingham. For a course near you, call toll-free 1-877-390-8806 or visit www.aarp.org/driving27.
St. Elmo HCE
The St. Elmo Unit of Home and Community Education met the afternoon of March 26 at the St. Elmo Public Library. The meeting opened with the Pledge of Allegiance. Present were Denning, Rhodes and Noma Moore.
For the March 22 Fayette County Extension Foundation spaghetti dinner held from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. in the Brownstown Elementary Cafeteria, the St. Elmo Unit had to furnish three desserts, and Denning, Rhodes and Moore did.
Fayette County HCE board notes were read. The Get-Acquainted Day will be held in the St. Elmo First United Methodist Church Fellowship Hall on Thursday, April 9. St. Elmo Unit is to do the beverages. The April/May/June quarterly newsletters were given.
Denning gave the February special feature lesson, “Growing Herbs.” Rhodes gave the February major lesson, “Saving Money on a Limited Budget.”
The March special feature lesson, “Cooking with Herbs,” was passed out. Rhodes gave the March major lesson, “Live Your Bucket List.”
Harvest medley mix, praline pecans, mini-candy bars and sodas were served by Rhodes.
Methodist Church News
To open the Palm Sunday 10:35 a.m. service at the First United Methodist Church, Kathy Spitler gave the organ prelude, “The King is Coming.” During the singing of “Hosanna, Loud Hosanna,” the children entered the sanctuary waving palms and paraded through the congregation giving each one a palm branch. After the call to prayer of confession, the congregation sang “Lord of the Dance.” After the children’s time, the choir’s anthem was “The Last Days.” The Rev. Dan Laack delivered the message. The worship closed with the congregation singing “10,000 Reasons.”
A birthday potluck and dessert auction was held in the Fellowship Hall. Twelve tables were decorated according to the month, and each one attending was to sit at his or her birthday month table. Fried chicken was furnished for the potluck.
After the potluck, 12 desserts (that included cakes, pies, cookies and other desserts) were auctioned. Jeff Maxey was the first auctioneer and then Rev. Laack took over. The dessert auction bids ranged from $40 to $140.
Money raised was for the Sunday Night Live, which meets at 6 p.m. most Sunday evenings, but did not meet Palm Sunday evening and will not meet Easter Sunday.