Photo of the Day - December 3, 2020

Victory Dance

St. Joseph-Ogden dance team member Kirsten Dalton performs during halftime of the Spartans' football game against Iroquois West with the SJO Dance. The Spartans improved to 3-2 on the season after rolling to 34-14 homecoming victory over the visiting Raiders on September 26, 2008.

PhotoNews/Clark Brooks

The Giving Place helped Unit 7 families

The Giving Place is a community outreach program that helps those going through hard times economically. Designed to help families in the Unit 7 school district, the ministry provides food and clothing for those in need.

In the past week, The Giving Place provided assistance to 12 families, 25 adults and eight children.

The charitable organization thanked Pastor Catherine Thomas and several volunteers for serving those who sought help during the past week and for their help in cleaning, sorting and stocking racks on Wednesday. They also thanked everyone who generously donated food or money to the ministry to make their work possible.

"We are in need of the following items: canned fruit, (especially pears, fruit cocktail, mandarin oranges, pineapple & applesauce), snack items of all kinds, and peanut butter," wrote Mike Williams in an email.

Normally, The Giving Place does not accepting clothing items, but with cold, winter weather now settling in East Central Illinois, they are now accepting donations of new or gently used, clean winter coats, hats and gloves/mittens. Due to the COVID-19 crisis, the organization is not accepting new volunteers at this time.

IHSA reconfirms no high school sports until 2021

Illinois High School Association Executive Director Craig Anderson reiterated in a statement yesterday that the Board of Directors for the organization has no expectation to begin any winter sports seasons until 2021.

Meanwhile, despite the state under the Governor J.B. Pritzker's Tier 3 Resurgence Mitigation restrictions, the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) reported 9,757 new confirmed and probable cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 238 additional deaths yesterday. The statewide December 2 statistics marks the highest number of single-day fatalities from the disease in Illinois since May.

The statement comes as no real surprise as a large number of communities and counties around the state continue to resist adopting and following state health department's mandates and governor's guidance during a time when normal seasonal airborne viral infections flourish.

"To reiterate, the Board has no expectation to begin any winter sports seasons until 2021, but will remain agile in their preparation and willingness to adapt should a window present itself sooner," Anderson said.

He explained that the Board remains committed to creating as much opportunity as possible for all sports that remain to be played this school year and they ask that schools be adaptable in the coming New Year as more information and guidance becomes available from the IDPH and the governor. The start and ending dates are fluid depending on when the winter season can official resume.

"Given Governor Pritzker’s current mitigations, the Board has no expectation of starting low risk winter sports prior to January. The Board and IHSA staff will continue to monitor the Tier 3 Resurgence Mitigation in effect currently. When there is a timeline for the state to emerge from these restrictions, the Board is prepared to restart lower risk winter sports quickly," Anderson said. "In addition, the Board hopes to reestablish contact days in January for any winter sports that cannot begin, as well as spring and summer sports. The introduction of the contact days will be based on mitigations from the Governor and the Illinois Department of Public Health at that time. Further guidance on contact days limits will be established at a future Board meeting."