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WRONG NUMBER Jane Connelly was so fed
up with getting “bad” phone calls that she disconnected her
home phone and, at age 55, decided to get herself one of those newfangled
cellular phones. She was happy with her decision, until she realized that
the number AT&T assigned to her phone had previously belonged to
someone named Gail Simpson. Connelly, a home health aide who scheduled her talk
with us around her Bible-study group, had no idea who this Simpson person
was, aside from the fact that she seemed to get a lot of calls. “I haven’t really talked to them. None of
them have really told me what they want, because I tell them it’s a
wrong number,” Connelly says. She was surprised to hear that these wrong-number
callers were expecting to talk to Ward 2 Ald. Gail Simpson. The suggestion
that she could impersonate Simpson seemed to give Connelly a giggle.
“That would be funny! Then I could find out the
scoop,” she says. Simpson and one other council member, Ward 4 Ald. Frank Lesko, had city-issued
AT&T cell phones that were deactivated during February budget cuts.
Lesko’s number was inherited by a woman who says she hasn’t yet
received a single call for the alderman. “I’ve had a coupla bill collectors call,
and I can’t think of the name [they asked for], but it wasn’t
Lesko,” she says.
LOST IN “SLUDGE CITY”
Kids who attend camp at St. Patrick Catholic School
next week won’t be allowed to touch a computer — unless, that
is, they’re approaching it with tools to thoroughly dismantle the
machine. Called Camp Invention, this one-week course encourages kids to use
creativity and teamwork to exchange ideas, test those ideas, and solve
problems. Each camper also has the chance to bring an appliance
from home, take it apart, and use the guts to create something new. The curriculum was developed by the National
Inventors Hall of Fame Foundation, in Akron, Ohio, and was implemented at
St. Patrick’s last summer. School principal Cora Benson says the relationship
between the school and the camp began when then-board president Rick Maiocco happened to
sit next to a National Inventors Hall of Fame representative on a flight to
Philadelphia. Last year’s camp theme played off the TV show Lost. Campers were challenged
to imagine that they had wrecked their airplane on another planet and find
a way to survive and get back home. “They had to figure out how to
survive by finding shelter, food, learning how to fish, and becoming
friends,” Benson says. In another class, kids were challenged to
build “car safety seats” for eggs. This year, campers will be lost in “Sludge
City,” where they’ll need to find ways to address pollution,
Benson says. The camp begins Monday morning at 9:30. The cost is
$180 per child, but some $25 discounts are available, Benson says.
KUDOS Last week’s cover girl, Chevonne Watson, will be honored
Friday night at the Lawrence Adult Education Center’s graduation
ceremony as the recipient of the Peg Stroh Scholarship. Named after a late
assistant principal, the $250 award is given to the college-bound graduate
selected by a vote of all teachers at Lawrence. Watson, a single mother
with two young children, plans to attend Lincoln Land Community College to
study medical transcription [see Dusty Rhodes, “Least likely to
succeed,” May 29]. Barbara Rochelle, family
literacy specialist at Lawrence, says Watson has another surprise or two
coming during the graduation ceremony, but declines to provide details.
SECOND CHANCE Last week, Springfield sculptor Jeff P. Garland installed some
35 pieces of his colorful Prairie Kinetic artwork throughout the Washington
Park Botanical Gardens. To entice local art patrons, he threw an opening
party, complete with cocktails and hors d’oeuvres. Sadly, just as the
soirée should have been starting, the sound of sirens was heard
throughout Springfield. Looking at garden art while sipping Chablis is so
much more fun when there’s no tornado warning! “Four people showed up early, at 5, and that
was about it,” Garland says. Everyone on the grounds retreated to the
basement of the Botanical building, except the artist, who bravely stayed
above ground with his work and his Chablis. Because the opening never really got off the ground,
Garland’s hosting a reopening, 5:30-8 p.m. Friday, June 6.
International Carillon Festival-goers are welcome. Garland’s flora-
and fauna-themed art will remain on display (and on sale) through the month
of June.
This article appears in May 29 – Jun 4, 2008.
