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Features

[APRIL 15, 2002]  Trees will be planted at six Lincoln elementary schools on Wednesday, April 17, to celebrate Arbor Day, according to Don Osborne, Lincoln street superintendent.

The schedule is as follows:

• Carroll Catholic School, 9-9:20 a.m.

• Jefferson School, 9:30-9:50 a.m.

• Chester-East Lincoln School, 10-10:20 a.m.

• Washington-Monroe School, 10:30-10:50 a.m.

• Adams School 11 a.m.-noon

• Northwest School, 12:05-12:30 p.m.

Events will include a presentation by the Lincoln Community High School National Honor Society. First-graders will participate in the tree plantings in every school except Chester-East Lincoln, where fifth-graders will participate in planting a memorial tree. The public is invited to attend at any or all of the schools.

[Joan Crabb]

[APRIL 11, 2002]  NORMAL — Over 100 junior high and high school students will soon get a hands-on perspective on several health-related careers. Demonstrations of technology and techniques that are incorporated in the daily life of health care professionals will be featured at the Career Information Fair today, Thursday, April 11, at Heartland Community College. The college has coordinated with BroMenn Regional Medical Center in Normal, OSF St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Bloomington and OSF Saint James Hospital in Pontiac to provide junior high and high school students with a health care career exploration fair.

The event was designed to help address the current and prospective need for qualified and motivated professionals to keep central Illinois health care industries well staffed. Information that relates to needed college preparation will be directed toward the high school audiences. Junior high students will be introduced to the many professional options available in health care, as well as the various techniques and equipment used for various areas of medical professions.

Professionals will show equipment used and technology relevant to a broad range of careers within the health care industry. Fields to be featured will include registered nurse, or RN; licensed practical nurse, LPN; certified nurse aide, CNA, respiratory therapist, RT; surgical technologist, tech; radiology technologist; and dietitian.

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Parkland College, Illinois State University Mennonite College of Nursing, Illinois Central College, Illinois Wesleyan University and Bloomington/Normal School of Radiology will also participate in the fair.

Junior high students will attend from 9 to 11:30 a.m., and high school students will be present from noon to 2:30 p.m. An estimated 140 students are expected to attend the event.

[HCC news release]

Impromptu assembly gets students’ attention

[APRIL 8, 2002]  After years of skirting the issue, someone has finally decided that it’s time to talk about it. Kids have been ready for years. They know all about it, or at least they know what they can learn about it from television and movies. But they never get the truth, because parents are never ready to talk about it.

And yes, I am talking about the big "IT." I am talking about sex. And so was Scott Phelps when he spoke to Lincoln Junior High School students last Friday in an impromptu assembly.

Scott Phelps is one of the writers of the abstinence program for teens called "A.C. Green’s Game Plan." The program, administered by Project Reality, was written using NBA star A.C. Green’s testimony on his life of abstinence, in combination with a sports theme. It gives a "Game Plan" for students to use to remain abstinent.

[Photo provided by Project Reality]
[Scott Phelps]

Phelps was in Springfield last week trying to raise funding for the program and decided to stop by Lincoln on his way home. He spoke to a group of students on the importance of abstinence and the dangers of being sexually active.

His manner of speaking connected with the students. His style was in-your-face, no-nonsense and all those other hyphenated adjectives. Instead of skirting issues and talking in vague terms that only create curiosity in students that age, as many adults do, he said what he had to. "Sex sells." "Sex is good. It’s so good, you should save it up!"

He used many illustrations that were just graphic enough to communicate to the students. In talking about how media uses sex to sell products, he laid out the following situation for them:  What would you say if I told you I like to go into people’s houses and watch them having sex? Almost in unison, the students responded, "Pervert!" Then he made the connection between that and watching a sex scene in a movie. He pointed out the hypocrisy in this, asking them if it is perverted in real life, why is it not perverted on television.

He used students to perform three illustrations:

1. He had four students stand across the gym floor to represent a timeline. The first student represented birth. About three feet beyond her, another student represented 13-15 years old. About two feet farther on, the next student represented age 25, an approximate age for marriage. And lastly, about 15 feet beyond that, the last student represented death, about age 80-90. The students saw how a very short time in their lives (their teen years) can affect the rest of their lives, which is much longer. It helped to illustrate the "big picture" that the Game Plan program focuses on.

[Photos by Gina Sennett]

2. A boy and a girl were chosen to represent the fictitious couple "Jack" and "Jill." Jack and Jill are high school seniors who had remained abstinent until they graduated. One night Jack pressures Jill into having sex. Shortly after that, the relationship begins to change and Jack feels pressured. So he leaves Jill but gives her a gift before he goes. The boy had a box which he handed to the girl, and then he sat down. Jill opened the box, which contained a slip of paper that said "herpes."

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3. Nine individuals were chosen at random, both boys and girls. Each individual was given a Jolly Rancher candy and told to suck on it but not to chew or swallow it. While they did this, Phelps continued his talk. After a few minutes, each student was told to wrap his or her candy back in the wrapper and drop it in a plastic bag. Then a few uneaten candies were dropped in the bag as well. A 10th person was chosen and told to choose one candy from the bag without looking or feeling around and eat it. Completely disgusted, she chose one of the eaten and rewrapped candies. She vehemently refused to eat it. Phelps gave her a fresh candy, and she ate it. This illustrated the chance taken when choosing to have sex with an individual, the chance of getting an STD from that person.

Phelps provided the students with an even mixture of positive and negative images. Before he scared them with personal stories and disgusting illustrations, he reassured them: "Sex is good," but also, "Sex is private." He contrasted today’s movies and television with those of the 1950s. He explained that the separate twin beds shown in the bedrooms of married couples did not mean that sex was bad, just that it was a private affair not meant for the rest of the world to know about.

In one of the "scarier" portions of the assembly, Phelps gave the students a straightforward overview of sexually transmitted diseases. There are two types of STDs: viral and bacterial. Bacterial STDs can be cured. Viral STDs are permanent; they can be treated but not cured. Approximately one in four people has a viral STD. There are four viral STDs: HIV/AIDS, hepatitis B and C, herpes, and the human papillomavirus (HPV). HIV is the least common STD, even though it is the one most heard about. HPV is the most common and is the least heard about. This was possibly the most sobering part of his discussion.

In the last few minutes, he gave two final illustrations that he wanted to leave the students with. The first was his own personal story, which in the program workbook is listed as the story of "Steve and Tina."

Steve and Tina had been dating for about six months and had just graduated from high school. As their relationship developed and they were preparing to go to college, Tina began to pressure Steve for sex. He had been abstinent and was planning to save sex for marriage. One night when they were alone, she told him that if he truly loved her he would prove his love to her by having sex with her. He refused and left the house. Their relationship ended shortly afterward.

Two months later Steve learned that Tina was already pregnant on that night when she was trying to get him to have sex with her. Tina became a single mother at age 18.

The last illustration was of three roses. The first represented a person who has sex with this person and that person, giving a part of himself to each person. Petals fell to the floor. Finally when that person met someone he wanted to marry, all that was left to give was a dead stem. The second rose was a person who saves himself. To his wife, he has a full, beautiful rose to give. The final rose was someone who gave himself to many people, but then decided to stop and become abstinent. He did not have a full rose, but most of the rose was left, and there was still a beautiful flower to give to his wife. Phelps wanted to make sure that the students understood that "abstinence is not just for kids who have not been sexually active. …Yesterday is gone, but you can choose it now."

[Gina Sennett]

[APRIL 5, 2002]  During three sessions at the Lincoln Public Library, Chief Richard Montcalm taught home-schooled children important lessons about how to avoid conflict and get along with others.

In their first session the students learned how to interact with people they don’t know. They practiced a "meet and greet" activity.

Their second lesson was about how fights start and stop. Both lessons involved videos and role-playing activities.

On graduation day, students got a review of their past lessons, and goodies were handed out, including T-shirts.

This was the first time the course has been taught to home-schooled children. Chief Montcalm has previously taught the course to public school students. He said it was a different experience with these students. Most noticeable was that there was a large age difference between the students in the class. They ranged from 6 to 10 years old. But as always, he said he really enjoys the kids.

[Jan Youngquist]

[APRIL 5, 2002]  Youth from Lincoln Junior High School joined kids from across the country who are fighting for their lives. Each day more than 2,000 kids become new regular, daily smokers; one-third of them will ultimately die prematurely from a tobacco-related illness. To combat this problem, youth from Lincoln Junior High School hosted a rally on April 2 against "Big Tobacco."

The Dump Big Tobacco’s Trash rally was used to "dump" tobacco merchandise to demonstrate that the youth of Lincoln Junior High School are tired of the trashy promotional techniques used by tobacco companies to hook teenagers on cigarettes.

[Kristi Lessen, prevention specialist
with Logan-Mason Mental Health]

Honors & Awards

Announcements

[APRIL 17, 2002]  NORMAL — The Bloomington Rotary Club is offering three scholarships to District 540 residents attending Heartland Community College during the fall 2002 semester that begins Aug. 15.

Two $750 scholarships are available to full-time students (12-18 credit hours). One $500 scholarship is available to a part-time student (less than 12 credit hours). Scholarships are renewable for one semester based on satisfactory academic performance.

The scholarships will be awarded based on financial need, evidence of community service and involvement, and satisfactory high school or college performance.

For consideration, students must complete the Heartland Community College scholarship application and address the scholarship criteria. Those interested can obtain an application from HCC’s financial aid office or at www.bccfoundation.org.

[HCC press release]

[APRIL 16, 2002]  Junior high school and high school students have an opportunity to attend summer camp offered by the Touch of Nature Environmental Center at SIU-Carbondale.

These camps combine adventure skills such as canoeing, caving, camping and hiking with a challenge to both physically and mentally develop an awareness and respect for our environment. Through a series of activities, campfire discussions and presentations, students are involved in current environmental issues, which will help them become problem-solvers of the future. This appears to be an excellent opportunity for any student interested in the field of conservation.

This year’s programs include Ozark canoeing expeditions for high school students and an Ozark Riverways canoe trip for sixth- to eighth-grade students. Program information has been sent to all high school and junior high schools in Logan County.

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The Logan County Soil and Water Conservation District will be sponsoring one full scholarship or two partial scholarships, depending on the number of applications received. Students interested in information concerning scholarship applications and funding should contact the district office, 1650 Fifth Street Road, Lincoln; (217) 732-2010, Ext. 3.

Students will need to submit a short description of their interests and why they would like to attend one of the workshops.

[SWCD news release]

Menus

• Lincoln Elementary Schools

• New Holland-Middletown Elementary District 88

• West Lincoln-Broadwell Elementary School District 92

(Milk served with every meal)

Monday, April 15 — Cereal, pop tart, juice

Tuesday, April 16 — French toast sticks with syrup, fruit

Wednesday, April 17 — Cereal, cinnamon toast, juice

Thursday, April 18 — Trix yogurt, cherry cobbler, juice

Friday, April 19 — Cereal, toast with jelly, juice

Monday, April 22 — Cereal, peanut butter and jelly sandwich, juice

Tuesday, April 23 — Scrambled eggs, potato wedges, toast

Wednesday, April 24 — Cereal, rice crispy treat, juice

Thursday, April 25 — Breakfast pizza, fruit

Friday, April 26 — Cereal, cinnamon toast, juice

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(Milk served with every meal)

Monday, April 15 — Spaghetti with meat sauce, peas, garlic bread, pears

Tuesday, April 16 — Hamburger on bun with cheese slice, french fries, trail mix, strawberry applesauce

Wednesday, April 17 — Sausage pizza, green beans, jello, fruit cocktail

Thursday, April 18 — Chicken fried steak, broccoli and cauliflower with cheese, bread and butter, peaches

Friday, April 19 — Roast pork, mashed potatoes, bread and butter, whipped dessert

Monday, April 22 — Corn dogs, bean salad, french fries, pretzels

Tuesday, April 23 — Hot turkey and cheese, hash brown, orange juice, peaches

Wednesday, April 24 — Tacos with lettuce and cheese, peas and carrots, tortilla chips with salsa, applesauce

Thursday, April 25 — Chicken and noodles, green beans, bread and butter, pears

Friday, April 26 — Pizza burgers, corn, carrot sticks, fruit cocktail

(Two percent white or chocolate milk, bread, butter and peanut butter served daily. Menu may be subject to change.)

Monday, April 15 — Macaroni and cheese, peas, applesauce, O’Henry bars

Tuesday, April 16 — Sloppy Joe, bun, green beans, mandarin oranges, oatmeal cookie

Wednesday, April 17 — Ham and cheese sandwich, corn, peaches, vanilla pudding

Thursday, April 18 — Beef "tator" bake, peas, apple slices, Texas cake

Friday, April 19 — Cheese pizza, lettuce salad, strawberries, peanut butter fingers

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Monday, April 22 — Salisbury steak, mashed potatoes and gravy, pears, "go gurt"

Monday, April 15 — Chicken fillet on bun, potato wedges, peas, peaches

Tuesday, April 16 — Ham, egg, cheese on muffin, potato rounds, corn, applesauce

Wednesday, April 17 — Spaghetti with meat sauce, tossed salad, green beans, garlic bread, cake and cherries

Thursday, April 18 — Creamed turkey on biscuit, potatoes, buttered broccoli, mixed fruit

Friday, April 19 — Sloppy Joe on bun, french fries, slaw, pear halves

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Monday, April 22 — Breaded beef patty, potatoes and gravy, corn, peaches

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