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Grandparenting class

[FEB. 28, 2003]  Calling all grandparents! Please join the group on Saturday, March 15, from 10 a.m. to noon at the Lincoln Public Library Annex Community Room to celebrate "grandparenthood."

A brief video will highlight the effects that grandparents have on their grandchildren and provide ideas for staying connected even when far away. The workshop will also discuss various grandparenting roles and offer practical suggestions and activities that will benefit the entire family. This will be a time to share your own unique experience as a grandparent and provide support for other grandparents in our community.

A tour of the children's library will be given for anyone interested. Refreshments will also be provided.

The Lincoln Junior Woman's Club is sponsoring the workshop.

If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Cathy Huerd at the Lincoln Parents’ Center, 735-4192.

[News release]

Get out your favorite recipes
and become a part of history

[JAN. 31, 2003]  The Zonta Club of Lincoln is sponsoring a cookbook in honor of Lincoln's Sesquicentennial this year.

You are invited to be a part in the historical cookbook venture. Your family favorites and specialties will help make the cookbook a highlight of Lincoln's celebration. Your name will be featured along with your recipes. If you have special memories of the recipe, please include them as well.

On May 1, a few months before the city's 150th anniversary, Zonta Club of Lincoln is celebrating its 46th anniversary. Zonta is a classified service organization of executive and professional women.

For over 40 years Zonta Club of Lincoln's major fund-raiser has been an annual turkey dinner served the first Sunday in November. Monies raised support various service projects locally as well as internationally.

Zonta Club of Lincoln is very appreciative of the community's continued support of our annual dinner. We all share in the success of the club's service projects. By working together, we have made a difference in our communities and the world in which we live.

In 1981, Zonta also implemented a health career scholarship program. Approximately 50 area residents have benefited from the scholarship program. There are now nurses, pharmacists, physical therapists, occupational therapists, a dentist, chiropractor, obstetrician/gynecologist, cardiologists, optometrist and others who have completed their studies and are in private or clinic practices today. Don Sielaff, M.D., and Todd Nobbe, O.D., are two doctors who were scholarship winners and have returned to Lincoln for their practices.

A study is being prepared of the whereabouts and accomplishments of the scholarship winners. They are truly part of Zonta Club of Lincoln's history. Zonta is extremely proud of the scholarship program and pleased to have been able to share a small part in the lives and career goals of the recipients.

The new project, the cookbook, will feature recipes from current, former and future Zontians. The club also encourages this year's students to submit a recipe. Recipes will be included from scholarship recipients, area restaurants over the past years, and many families and friends of our community. Please join Zonta in compiling Lincoln's favorite recipes of the past 150 years.

Recipe forms are available locally at:

• Central Illinois Bank
• Illini Bank
• State Bank of Lincoln, Sangamon Street location

• Union Planters, main bank

You may also send recipes to the cookbook chairwoman, Judy Awe, 123 Crestwood Drive, Lincoln, IL 62656-1360. Be sure to include your name and address.

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Please submit recipes before March 15.

Also please indicate if you are interested in reserving a copy of the cookbook. They will be available this summer.

Profit from the cookbook sales will be used for Zonta service projects.

Abraham Lincoln Memorial Hospital -- camp for diabetic children; hospice; Lifeline; intensive care; oncology; obstetrics/gynecology

American Diabetes Association -- camp scholarships for diabetic children

All local and area nursing homes

Local schools

Crime Stoppers

Community Action -- Head Start

Heritage in Flight Museum -- Amelia Earhart recognized by Zonta International

Jaycee Playground

Lincoln Community High School

Lincoln Park District

Lincoln Public Library

Lincoln Swim Club

Lincoln-Logan Underwater Search and Recovery

Logan County Food Pantry

Logan County Health Department

Reading is Fundamental

Ronald McDonald House

T.O.U.C.H.

Eye Clinic for children

Sojourn Shelter for women

Living Alternatives, Crisis Pregnancy

Habitat for Humanity

Domestic violence prevention

Salvation Army

To provide service at the global and local level;

To improve the legal, political, economic, educational, health and professional status of women;

To work for the advancement of understanding, goodwill and peace through a work fellowship of executives in business and the professions;

To promote justice and universal respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms;

To be united internationally to foster high ethical standards, to implement service programs, and to provide mutual support and fellowship for members who serve their communities, their nations and the universe.

[Zonta Club of Lincoln news release]

Time to organize household records

[JAN. 18, 2003]  URBANA -- The beginning of the year is an excellent time to organize and update family and household records, says Mary Ann Fugate, University of Illinois Extension educator in consumer and family economics. Doing this gives record keepers a jump start on the inevitable income tax season. It's also a good way to keep close tabs on where a family's money goes and to take inventory of the family's present financial status.

Fugate recommends getting started by gathering all receipts and documents from 2002, then considering what should be kept and what can be pitched.

For income tax purposes, the law requires that people keep all records that enable them to complete their tax return. "They should hold onto all receipts, canceled checks, vouchers and other evidence to help them verify amounts claimed and deductions for credits," said Fugate. "All such documentation should be kept for at least six years, and all medical bills should be kept for three years to back up the taxpayer's canceled checks."

But it isn't necessary to save everything. Record keepers can lighten the load by discarding checks and bills that no longer serve a purpose. For example, people who are paid in weekly or monthly salary statements can throw these statements away after checking them against their annual W-2 form. Or they can save the year-end statement with the cumulative total for the year.

"This is also a good time to update household inventory records," said Fugate. "If fire or burglary occurs in the home, this record will help families remember what has to be replaced and how much each item is worth. They might find that they need to increase their insurance because their possessions are worth more than they thought."

For each item in the family inventory, include model number, brand name, dealer's name, a general description, how much it cost, when it was purchased and what it would cost to replace it. Taking pictures of the rooms and household possessions now will make future identification or replacement easier.

To download a free copy of Extension's 64-page publication "Household and Personal Property Inventory," go to http://www.ag.uiuc.edu/%7Evista/
abstracts/ahouseinv.html.

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A net worth statement is a good way to keep tabs on personal and family possessions, says Fugate. Net worth can be determined simply by adding the value of all the family owns and subtracting the total of all that they owe. If this is done annually, record keepers can quickly see whether they are getting ahead financially or falling behind, and, in either case, how fast it is occurring.

This is a good time for families to consider their present situation in light of major goals, such as retirement. University of Illinois Extension has developed eight easy-to-use checklists to help you gather and organize important documents, become acquainted with investment and retirement income options, and keep your plan on track as you move from step to step in the process. To order "Your Retirement Planning Checklist" for $16, call 1 (800) 345-6087 and request publication C1376.

When family records have been organized, updated and evaluated, it's time to put papers in their proper location. Important documents that are difficult to replace, such as birth certificates, death certificates, marriage certificates, divorce papers, adoption papers and any other document that is either government- or court-related, should be secured in a safe deposit box.

Family and household records that are kept at home should be stored in one location. Proper storage of family records can be as elaborate as setting up a home office or as simple as investing in an accordion folder that can be kept under the bed, said Fugate.

[U of I news release]

Animals for Adoption

Researchers seek help from anglers

[FEB. 15, 2003]  Researchers at the Illinois Natural History Survey's Lake Michigan Biological Station in Zion are seeking assistance from anglers who fish this region of Illinois in reporting non-native species of carp.

Several non-native species of carp have been introduced into the aquatic ecosystems of Illinois and are thriving in a wide variety of ecological niches. The species include the common carp, big-head carp, silver carp, grass carp, round goby and Eurasian ruffe.

"All these exotic fishes have the potential to cause severe environmental damage to aquatic systems," said John Dettmers, director of the INHS Lake Michigan Biological Station.

To prevent movement of these species between Lake Michigan and the Illinois River, an electric barrier has been installed in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal near Romeoville.

"There are three ways individuals or angling groups can help. They can spread the word about the danger of these fish, report to researchers any tagged carp that are caught and report non-native fishes caught," Dettmers said.

Many non-native carp could have been moved by anglers. At least, that's how scientists think some nuisance species have spread.

"Scientists will surgically implant transmitters in common carp and place some above and some below the barrier. If the barrier is working properly, none of these fish should be able to get from one side to the other. If they do, managers will have to increase the strength of the electric field before the big-head and silver carp reach this part of the canal," Dittmer said.

So scientists will rely, in part, on anglers to report tagged fish.

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Dittmer says that silver carp and big-head carp are moving up the Illinois River at about 40 miles per year. Big-heads are expected to be at the barrier site as early as April.

"These two species would probably out-compete highly valued species, such as yellow perch, if they get into the Great Lakes," Dittmer said.

The fish have one tag that says "Do not consume" and another that gives the phone number for the Lake Michigan Biological Station. It is important for INHS researchers to be notified of the time, day and location where any tagged common carp were caught.

"By learning where these tagged fish were caught, researchers can determine whether the fish passed through the barrier and learn more about carp movement patterns," Dittmer said.

The contact person is John Dettmers, Lake Michigan Biological Station, Illinois Natural History Survey, 400 17th St., Zion, IL 60099; voice phone (847) 872-8677; fax (847) 872-8679.

In a few years, black carp may also be coming up the river toward Lake Michigan. Researchers already know that round gobies have made it through the canal from Lake Michigan into the upper Illinois River. Another species eventually expected to move from Lake Michigan downstream is the Eurasian ruffe.

[University of Illinois news release]

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