Woodford County News Briefs

Chronicle Media
Eureka College students carried buckets of water from Lake Eureka to the college campus to raise funds and awareness for the sub-Saharan Africa Water Project on April 2.  (Photo courtesy of Eureka College)

Eureka College students carried buckets of water from Lake Eureka to the college campus to raise funds and awareness for the sub-Saharan Africa Water Project on April 2. (Photo courtesy of Eureka College)

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.

WOODFORD COUNTY

Funds sought for system to locate missing sick adults, disabled children

The Woodford County Sheriff’s Office is partnering with Special Needs Assistance Program to get the Care Trak radio frequency locating system initiated for the county. This system was originally proposed to counties to aid in the locating of adults with debilitating diseases such as Alzheimer’s.

The system was then recognized as a potential support for families of children with disabilities, who are at risk for wandering without the cognitive ability to differentiate danger and safety. Woodford County would like to provide this service to families of aging adults as well as to families of children with disabilities.

In order to start the program, the sheriff’s office is raising funds for the startup purchase of the system. The service includes a radio frequency antenna along with a bracelet that links to the antenna when in a designated range. The bracelets cost $300 each.

After the initial startup cost, the sheriff’s office will assume fiscal responsibility for the maintenance of the system including changing batteries in individual watches every 60 days. Families of children with disabilities will get financial aid to buy bracelets through Special Needs Assistance Program. Families of adults with other cognitive impairments will be required to pay for bracelets, unless the sheriff’s office has extra funds to help with the cost.

The sheriff’s office is asking Woodford County residents and business owners for financial commitments to aid in the startup cost and later to donate toward the purchase of individual watches.

To pledge a donation, contact Chief Deputy Dennis Tipsword at (309) 467-2375. At this point only pledges are requested.

Donors will be contacted at a later date to make their contributions if it is determined sufficient funds will be available.

Woodford slips in yearly ranking of healthy counties

Woodford slipped to No. 6 from its No. 1 ranking of healthiest counties in Illinois, according to a respected, nationwide measure that ranks the health of residents by county.

The seventh annual County Health Rankings was released recently by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute. The complete report is at www.countyhealthrankings.org.

The rankings are a measure of how counties are doing on more than 40 factors that influence health, including percentage of people who report being in poor physical and mental health, percentage of low birth rate babies, smoking and obesity rates, physical inactivity, excessive drinking, sexually transmitted infections, access to health care and unemployment and education levels.

EUREKA

Students carrying water to raise money for Africa

What is it like to have to carry water for miles to your home? Eureka College students carried buckets of water from Lake Eureka to the college campus to raise funds and awareness for the sub-Saharan Africa Water Project. The Water Walk took place April 2.

Participants walked from the Burgess Avenue parking lot to Lake Eureka, where they will fill buckets of water to carry back to campus. The walk is approximately 2.5 miles each way.
Besides raising money, the walk will simulate what many people in developing countries have to do on a daily basis, just to obtain dirty drinking water for their homes.

Proceeds will benefit The Water Project, Inc., a non-profit organization that provides communities in sub-Saharan Africa with programs that offer access to clean, safe water by providing training, expertise and financial support for water project construction.

Registration forms for the Water Walk are available at the Student Programs and Services office in the college’s Cerf Center. Registration is $5, with additional donations welcomed.

The Multicultural Student Union and Students Advocating a Greener Environment (SAGE) of Eureka are sponsoring the Water Walk.

–Woodford County News Briefs–