Matt Jackson sets out chairs, turns on music and the small group gathered for the Monday morning Fitness for You class on the third floor of the Simmons Cancer Institute join him as he begins leading them through a stretching warmup. The mood is light and casual as participants move through the 45-minute workout. John […]
Roberta Codemo
Posted inSpecial Issues
Celebrating the holidays with children
This is the time of year when people gather together to celebrate the holidays. For six local families, the focus is on teaching their children the true meaning of the holidays and passing down their values through their traditions. It’s important for each to preserve their religious heritage and to raise their children the way […]
Posted inSpecial Issues
SIU’s fertility center helped them have a baby
Ann Gemberling of Springfield always wanted children. “I wanted to get pregnant,” she said. “I talked about it all the time.” She and her husband, Jay, knew they would be great parents and would be able to provide a good life for a child. Both in their late 20s, the couple knew it was going […]
Posted inSpecial Issues
A decade of Girls on the Run
Girls on the Run gives girls in grades 3-8 the tools to break out of the girl box. Adolescents enter the girl box when they begin to morph into what they think they should be instead of who they really are. The 10-week program is open to all girls and is designed to educate and […]
Posted inSpecial Issues
Skydivers know how to have a great fall
When Brian and Tracey Meade’s air conditioner went out, club members showed up with two window units. The club is the Mid-America Sport Parachute Club, based out of the Taylorville airport. “It’s like a family,” Tracey said. “Everybody helps everybody.” The laid-back family atmosphere makes this the best drop zone in central Illinois. According to […]
Posted inNews
A reason to celebrate
My father retired in 1995, and, beginning in 1997, he and my mother began spending their winters in Weslaco, Texas. Our family would celebrate the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays in October before they left for Texas during the first half of November. At Christmas, my brother, sister, and I would get together and celebrate, rotating […]
Posted inNews
Navel gazing
On a recent Monday evening, 10 women are gathering in Kari Dotson’s dining room. There is much to do this night, and they arrive ready and dressed for business. As Middle Eastern music fills the air, the barefoot, bare-bellied women, adorned in brightly colored gypsy skirts and tops, begin rehearsing a Gypsy kashlimar, one of […]
Posted inNews
Jumpstart
Work on recreating historic New Philadelphia, the first American town organized by a black man, has received a major shot in the arm with the award of a grant to fund excavation work and undergraduate training. New Philadelphia, located near Barry in Pike County, was founded in 1836 by Frank McWorter, who was born into […]
Posted inMusic
Local drummers explore the frontiers of percussion
Drumming is an obsession for Dennis Maberry, who started banging away on a drum set 25 years ago. For years, he played with rock bands until he couldn’t maintain a semblance of a normal life. He settled down, married, and got a job. Then, nine years ago, during a visit to Seattle’s World Percussion Festival, […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Miner turns curator to share coal’s story
You could say William Stone has coal in his veins. After more than three decades working for Mr. Peabody’s coal company and more than a decade in retirement, Stone opened a museum devoted to — what else? — Illinois solid black gold. Located off of the Taylorville town square, the Christian County Coal Mine Museum […]
Posted inNews
History in the making
November 8 was cold and windy, with gray, overcast skies threatening rain, but that didn’t stop a group of archaeologists and volunteers from walking over a tilled field about 65 miles west of Springfield. They were looking for remnants of the past. The field was once part of New Philadelphia, the first American town founded […]
