Every Thursday night around 93 children sign onto one of three Zooms happening simultaneously to participate in a book club. This is a new addition to Club Compass, one of the programs under the umbrella of Compass for Kids. In any other year, students in first through fifth grades would be meeting in person at […]
Cinda Ackerman Klickna
Cinda Klickna is a former teacher from Springfield and past president of the Illinois Education Association.
Posted inArts & Culture
The library that Dolly built
For several years there has been a waiting list in Sangamon County for children to receive free books through Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library (DPIL), a program that helps get children ready for kindergarten, beginning at birth. This week United Way, which administers the program, announces that an anonymous donor has come forward with a donation […]
Posted inSpecial Issues
A passionate and compassionate educator
A few years ago, Linda “Lin” Rakers of Springfield told her friend Barb Lestikow that she planned to go sky diving. “That was Lin,” explains Lestikow. “She always had a zest for life, and when she was determined to do something, she did it.” Another friend, Harriet Arkley, tells of the time years ago when […]
Posted inArts & Culture
World War II South Pacific vet remembers there was… “A lot of praying going on.”
To Ed Sathoff, 94, of Petersburg, Veterans Day is an important holiday. “It is hard to explain, but it means everything to me,” Sathoff says. “It means we must remember our freedoms. We have the freedom of speech, the freedom of religion and the God-given right to vote. Many other countries don’t have these rights.” […]
Posted inNews
Susan Lawrence Dana’s neighbors
Horse-drawn carriages, trolleys, some delivery vans – these were the modes of transportation in the early 1900s in Springfield. Cars were scarce. People walked, hopped the trolley or took the train on Third Street to venture out of the city. Downtown was the site of numerous groceries, drugstores and shops that catered to every need […]
Posted inSpecial Issues
Leave a legacy
Josh Jalinski admits up front that his book, Retirement Reality Check – How to Spend Your Money and Still Leave an Amazing Legacy, is a book that will be “an in-your-face look at how traditional financial planning has failed you.” This seems at first to be a strange comment about financial planners, since he is […]
Posted inNews
Life on the Old Leland Farm
Once, large, beautiful homes stood all over Springfield and were occupied by citizens who owned key businesses and held important positions within the city. Unfortunately, many of the homes have been demolished. Yet some still stand, thanks to people who have preserved them. Daily, people pass by these grand buildings: the Brinkerhoff House (North Fifth, […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Springfield’s first African American high school graduate
Last year North Point Boulevard in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was renamed Morgan Avenue. Readers might not think that noteworthy until they learn that the person honored with a street name was a Springfield native. She was Gertrude Wright Morgan, an African American whose life, and the lives of others in her family, were remarkable evidence that […]
Posted inArts & Culture
After Lincoln left Springfield
On Feb. 11, 1861, when Abraham Lincoln stepped onto the train in Springfield for what would be a 13-day journey to the nation’s capital, America was “on the verge of a precipice,” as a French visitor observed. Ted Widmer tells the story of the grueling and dangerous journey in his masterful book, Lincoln on the […]
Posted inSpecial Issues
Make your money last till you’re 100
Whether you buy Suze Orman’s claim that she owns only one pair of gold earrings, or accept all of her financial advice, chances are you have seen her on TV, bluntly stating what people should and should not do for their financial security. In her latest book, The Ultimate Retirement Guide for 50+:Winning Strategies to […]
Posted inNews
The polio quarantine of 1949
There are stark similarities between the coronavirus pandemic and the 1949 beginnings of the polio pandemic in Springfield. Then, as now, the length of isolation was set at 14 days; people were urged to stay away from others and practice clean hygiene. There was a call for nurses to help with the increase in hospital […]
Posted inArts & Culture
What’s everybody reading?
During the weeks of staying home, hunkering down and keeping safe, people have binged on shows like “Tiger King,” created colorful paisley designs in adult coloring books, tried new recipes, exercised more and opened up a good book – or two or three. Reading is always the go-to activity no matter what is happening around […]
