Earlier this year, Pletkovich was recognized at the 2017 Missouri Cherry Blossom Festival in Marshfield, Missouri, with the Ella A. Dickey Award for Civil War Fathers. Past Dickey Award recipients have included former First Lady Laura Bush, former Texas First Lady, the late Nellie Connally, and 1972 Democratic Party presidential candidate and former United States Senator, the late George McGovern. Pletkovich will sign copies of Civil War Fathers at the December 7 event at 6:00. The cost of his book is $25.
During Thursday night's presentation, Pletkovich will focus on the father-son combination of Wisconsin Governor William H. Upham and his son Fred. Currently a resident of Fort Collins, Colorado, Fred was featured in a 2014 video by National Geographic pertaining to his father's appointment to West Point by President Lincoln.
Earlier this year, Pletkovich was recognized at the 2017 Missouri Cherry Blossom Festival in Marshfield, Missouri, with the Ella A. Dickey Award for Civil War Fathers. Past Dickey Award recipients have included former First Lady Laura Bush, former Texas First Lady, the late Nellie Connally, and 1972 Democratic Party presidential candidate and former United States Senator, the late George McGovern. Pletkovich will sign copies of Civil War Fathers at the December 7 event at 6:00. The cost of his book is $25.
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Come into the library this week to vote on your favorite wreath displayed during the Festival of Wreaths. If you find one that you particularly enjoy, you can purchase the wreath at this time. You can buy raffle tickets for our raffle baskets, also. The tickets are $1 each or $5 for 6 tickets. Listed here is a brief description of each basket, please stop by the library for more information:
1) Summer Fun Basket - passes for South Pointe Pool and various family summer gear and toys, retail value over $200 2) El Paso Basket - gift certificates to various restaraunts and businesses in El Paso, retail value over $400 3) Play and Swim Basket - passes to Central Illinois zoos, museums, golfing instruction and South Pointe Park Pool, retail value almost $200 4) Just for Kids Basket - toys for boys and girls, including a $50 Amazon gift car, retail value over $200 This Thursday (November 30th), Katie McKnight will be at the library to hold a Child ID Program for interested parents. She will be here from 10 am to 11 am in the history room area. She is an agent with New York Life. She holds free child ID events as part of her community service. She will create an ID badge for the parents with the child's picture and fingerprints. The parent keeps the ID and it can be used in an emergency rescue situation. New York Life does not store any information on the child or parent. If the parents request more information, they are free to complete a follow up post card, however that is not required to receive a badge. She can do all ages, so if someone has a grand parent along, the machine can switch to senior IDs. Don't forget to visit the library this Saturday, December 2nd for the 9th Annual Christmas Extravaganza! The hours are 9 am to 2 pm. The activities include the Kiddie Bazaar, Craft Sale, Festival of Wreaths, Christmas Cookie Sale, and Raffle Basket drawings. Also, I would really like to encourage our upcoming December adult presentations. The first is on Thursday, December 7th at 6 pm. Peoria educator and author, Tim Pletkovich will be at the library on Pearl Harbor Day to talk about his book, Civil War Fathers: Sons of the Civil War in WWII. Mr. Pletkovich is very enthusiastic about this subject! It started out as a project he gave to his middle school students and it turned into a book. The students interviewed World War II veterans whose fathers were in the Civil War. We also have the book at the library available for check out! On Tuesday, December 12th at 6 pm, the library will host D. Paul Miller. Mr. Miller recently celebrated his 100th birthday. He has led a very interesting life. He will talk specifically about his experiences in the Senior Olympics, the latest being in June 2017. Come learn about his amazing experiences! Hope to see you at the library! There were 3 of us at the book club meeting last night. We had a very good discussion about the book, Touch the Top of the World by Erik Weihenmayer. Erik was just a baby when his father noticed that his eyes could not follow a football being tossed back and forth in front of him. That was the start of 2 years of tests and doctor visits. At the Boston Eye Clinic when he was 3 years old, the doctors said that he would lose his vision in his early teenage years and that he had retinoschisis, an extremely rare eye disease. It was interesting for us to compare the support that Erik got from his parents with some of the other books that we have recently read for book club. I won't give the rest of the book away except to say that Erik became the first blind man to climb the Seven Summits, which means that he has climbed the highest mountains in all 7 continents. He is a tremendous athlete and you can read about his further adventures at his website, http://www.touchthetop.com/eriks-adventures. Erik also is very active in helping others with disabillites, http://www.touchthetop.com/outreach
The really interesting thing about book clubs is that by talking about books, we start to learn more about each other. If you would like to meet new people and talk about books, let us know. The book club is open to any adult who would like to attend. We will not meet in December. Our next meeting will be in January. We have not picked the January book yet. I will post the next book on Facebook when we decide. ![]() Eleven people came to the presentation last night by Bill Kemp of the McLean County Museum of History. Mr. Kemp is so knowledgeable not just of the dates and places but of how the story fits into the bigger picture of history and society. We learned about Isaac Funk and how much land and influence he had in McLean County. He also had influence on a national and international scale by driving his livestock to markets in Cincinnati and Chicago. I tried to imagine myself walking to Chicago in the winter crossing creeks and rivers and trying to keep a bunch of wild hogs together. I have a feeling I wouldn't have made it very far! Mr. Kemp told stories of the hardships that faced the drovers especially in some of the bad winters. Thank you, Mr. Kemp for coming to our library and giving this interesting presentation! The raffle last night included a bag from the McLean County Museum of History, a book on the history of corn in McLean County, and a Dairy Queen gift card. Congratulations to the winner! I would encourage you to visit the McLean County Museum of History in downtown Bloomington. We are lucky to have such a rich resource nearby. ![]() A link to this website is now on the home page of our website. This website organizes recipes by country. You can make a country-themed meal. It will even help figure out how to make substitutions for ingredients that are hard to find in our Midwestern grocery stores. You can also send a grocery list to your phone. This is a great resource for those involved in International Day at the EPG schools! The website is like 174 Country Cookbooks in one Online Resource You can learn to make classic dishes from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. Key topics include:
There were 5 of us in attendance for Social Media for Adults at the library last night. Alex DePauw presented a lot of information and tips about Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter. It was enjoyable and informative! Thank you Alex DePauw.
Did you know that at every adult presentation we have a raffle for a small prize? Christy Willert won the raffle prize which was a Dairy Queen gift certificate. Thanks to all who attended! Monday, November 6th - 6 pm - Crochet & Knit Club
Tuesday, November 7th:
Walter Lipe, Bureau of Blind Services
Thursday, November 9th - 6 pm - Social Media For Adults by Alex DePauw There are still spots left in this class. Register by calling the library at 527-4360 or stop by the front desk. Please sign up for Pioneer Cattle and Hog Droving presentation by Bill Kemp of the McLean County Museum of History! The presentation is Tuesday, November 14th at 6 pm at the El Paso District Library.
We hope to get some people to sign up for this presentation by Bill Kemp. He is a wonderful speaker and I'm sure you would enjoy it! We picked this topic to appeal to farmers and history buffs so please sign up. Before the coming of the railroads, McLean County Farmers marchedlivestock to markets as far away as Chicago and Cincinnati. Can you imagine driving 2,000 hogs 120 miles to Chicago in the wind, ice, and snow of November? Isaac Funk and other area livestock farmers lived to tell the tale! And yes, it is not a misspelling - it is droving. Wikipedia defines it this way: Droving is the practice of moving livestock over long distances by walking them "on the hoof". Droving stock to market, usually on foot and often with the aid of dogs, has a very long history in the Old World. Come learn something new! We are rescheduling the class, Social Media for Adults. It was orginally scheduled for this Thursday, November 2nd but it will now be Thursday, November 9th. It will still be at 6 pm. Please register for this event by stopping by the library or calling us at 527-4360.
Alex DePauw will be teaching this class. He will teach us about Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram and he will answer any questions that you might have, also. |
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