CENTRAL ILLINOIS

Jazz musicians to perform April 17

The sweet sounds of live jazz can be heard at an April 17 concert presented by the Central Illinois Jazz Society.

The concert will feature the Dunlap High School Jazz Band at 6 p.m. and the Western Illinois University Jazz Studio Orchestra at 7:15 p.m. at the Starting Gate Banquet Room in the Landmark Recreation Center, 3225 N. Dries Lane, Peoria.

The Dunlap Jazz Band under the direction of Jason Shea will perform a variety of big band styles including swing, Latin and ballad. Featured soloists will include Dillon Lang on tenor saxophone, Samantha Tabor on tenor saxophone, Drew Berg on alto saxophone, Nick Xie on piano, and All-State jazz musician Aaron DeSalvio on flugelhorn.

The Jazz Studio Orchestra (JSO) is the top-performing large jazz ensemble at Western Illinois University. The group performs contemporary music from jazz composers such as Jim McNeely, Chuck Owen, Maria Schneider, Mike Crotty and other well-known composers including WIU jazz faculty-composer John Cooper. The JSO performs annually with national jazz artists at the Macomb, Illinois Al Sears Jazz Festival held in September and the WIU Jazz Festival held in February.

The JSO tours the Midwest annually and has toured Europe. Among its many awards is a Grammy nomination for Jazz at The Cross Roads, as well as four-star recognition from Downbeat magazine for CD release, “The Third Degree.”

Admission for Central Illinois Jazz Society members is $5; for non-members, $7; free for students.

For more information about the Central Illinois Jazz Society, call 692-5330 or visit www.cijs.org.

PEORIA COUNTY

Almost 900 child abuse and neglect cases are pending in Peoria County, and a public event is planned to raise awareness of these cases. Hands around the Courthouse will be held at noon Friday, April 15, in the Peoria County Courthouse Plaza, 324 S. Main St., Peoria.

April is Child Abuse Prevention Month, and the Youth Services Network Panel is hosting its ninth annual Hands around the Courthouse to draw attention to the 872 cases in the county. During the event, advocacy officials will talk about the cases still pending and the importance of child abuse prevention. 

Hands around the Courthouse participants are encouraged to wear blue to show their support of Child Abuse Prevention Month. For more information about the event, call Court Appointed Special Advocates or CASA at (309) 669-2939.

PEORIA

Professionals urge public to make their health care wishes known

OSF HealthCare, UnityPoint – Peoria and Pekin Hospital are coming together to educate the community about health care decisions and introduce important resources available to patients.

“Advance Care Planning is important because it allows individuals to express their wishes for health care now, in case there comes a time when that individual can no longer express their wishes,” said Karen Renken, Advance Care Planning coordinator for OSF HealthCare, in a prepared statement. “When those wishes are discussed and recorded, families and medical providers can rest assured those wishes are being followed.”

Two free community programs, “The ABCs of Advance Care Planning,” are being offered in honor of National Healthcare Decisions Day (NHDD). NHDD exists to inspire, educate and empower the public and providers about the importance of advance care planning. NHDD is an initiative to encourage patients to express their wishes regarding health care, and for providers and facilities to respect those wishes, whatever they may be. The theme for 2016 is “It Always Seems Too Early, Until It’s Too Late.”

The public is encouraged to attend one of two presentations at:

• The Park Court Conference Center at Pekin Hospital, 600 S. 13th St., Pekin, 1-4 p.m. Tuesday, April 12, and

• Hult Center for Healthy Living, 5215 N. Knoxville Ave., Peoria, 5-8 p.m. Thursday, April 21.

Registration is appreciated but not required. For more information, call (309) 308-5953.

Seminar to explore living with Parkinson’s

April is Parkinson’s Disease Awareness Month, and the Illinois Neurological Institute (INI) is teaming up with the American Parkinson’s Disease Association (APDA) to offer a free educational seminar on the disease, its treatments and quality of life care.

The seminar will be held 12-4 p.m. Saturday, April 2, at OSF Center for Health, 5114 N. Glen Park Place, Peoria. Check-in will start at 11:30 a.m. Register as soon as possible by calling (630) 933-4392, or visiting apdamidwest.org.

Speakers will talk about new, improved treatments for Parkinson’s and give tips on living life to the fullest after a Parkinson’s diagnosis.

INI Movement Disorder specialists will attend; INI has the only such specialists in the region who care for patients with Parkinson’s disease.

Richwoods students compete in science, engineering challenge

Fourteen Richwoods High School students have qualified to compete in the Worldwide Youth in Science and Engineering (WYSE) Academic Challenge state competition, April 13 at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.

Emlee Ballowe, Justin Chen, Alex Cheng, Galen Curtis, Neeti Gandhi, Matt Grebner, Gus Jennetten, Erica Kerr, Elizabeth Lindqwister, Winston Lindqwister, Isaac Ngo, Julianna Rees, Zach Settelmyer and Aaron Thune advanced after placing higher than numerous schools from Bloomington, Ottawa, LaSalle-Peru and Metamora.

The Richwoods WYSE team is coached by Joseph Baumgardner. 

Academic Challenge is a battery of tests created by WYSE program offered to high school students. Subjects tested are biology, chemistry, computer science, engineering graphics, English, mathematics and physics. Each student tests in two of the seven subject areas. The team score is determined by averaging the top two scores in the top five categories and comparing that to the averages of the competing schools. Prior to competing, the students took tryout tests to determine their academic strengths. From these results, Baumgardner formed the teams to compete in each subject area.

The WYSE test material is drawn from high school senior and college freshman curricula to present a bridge between secondary and higher education. Tests are written by teams of faculty members at colleges and universities in Illinois, Missouri, Georgia, Tennessee, and Michigan. Each team produces sets of tests that increase in level of difficulty in a progression from regional, to sectional, to state finals.

–Peoria Area News Briefs–