Christmas lights contest in Tolono

The Tolono Fun Days committee is sponsoring a holiday lighting contest next month. Winning lighting displays and holiday scenes will be eligible to win gift card prizes provied by local business and the committee.

To enter, Tolono residents that wish to participate in the contest will need to turn their outdoor holiday displays and lights on by 6p on Friday, December 4. There are three categories that will be award prizes at the village tree lighting ceremony on Saturday.

The three divisions are the Fuse Buster, Frosty's Pick and Low Watt.

Fuse Busters are big, bold bright displays "that is spinning the watt meter" according to the flyer circulated by the committee on Facebook. The Frosty's Pick award will go to the best display that features a snowman. The Low Watt entries will be judged for the best display with a few lights.

The Tolono Fun Days committee asks that residents bring a non-fragile, weather-proof ornament for the village tree lighting at the police station 6p on December 5.

"Join us for a social distancing event to bring in the holidays."


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Winners named in The Sentinel Halloween photo contest

There were cute ones, there were silly ones and scary ones. We received 42 entries for The Sentinel's first-ever Halloween photo contest.

First off, a special thank you to Blondies for their generous donation to help make this contest possible.

Second, The Sentinel would like to thank everyone who entered the contest. You made it a difficult challenge selecting our top three winners which is why it took so long to make today's announcement. It was so difficult that The Sentinel made a witching hour decision to add one new category!

With so many cute baby and toddler photos, we created a separate catergory for those entries. We selected two runner-up photos and winner, each will receive a $25 Sentinel gift certificate good toward the purchase of a Signature Announcement. The winner of the Best Picture award will receive a $50 Sentinel gift certificate.

Runner-up for the Toddler category

Right: Hannah, the Narwhal, age 6 months from St. Joseph - - - Left: Little Pumpkin

Best Picture in the toddler category

Maddox, age 3, and Carter, age 1, dressed as Harry Dunne and Lloyd Christmas from Dumb and Dumber.

Finalists for the best costume of 2020

3rd Place
$25 Sentinel Gift Certificate
Briley, age 6, from Muncie, IL, vampire

2nd Place
$50 Sentinel Gift Certificate
Kai, age 11 from Mooresville, NC, Covid-19 Cell

1st Place
$75 Gift Card to Blondies
Emily (left) & Emma (right), both 15 years old and St. Joseph, portray the twins from Stephen King’s The Shining

Best handmade costume of 2020

$25 Sentinel Gift Certificate
Little Sully

See all of this year's entries here:
2020 Halloween Costume Photo Contest Gallery


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Oswego runner Kelly Allen
Kelly Allen lets out a roar while running in the half marathon course on Washington Ave in Urbana. Allen, hailing from Oswego, NY, finished the course at 2:33:30, good for 46th out of 75 runners in the women's 45-49 age group on Saturday. See more photos from the 2024 Illinois Marathon here.

Photos: Sentinel/Clark Brooks