Illinois Valley Chamber of Commerce Monthly News Letter
March 18th 2022
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Upcoming Events | March/April
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Community Fun Night Drawdown and Casino Night @ Senica's Oak Ridge
Doors Open at 5:00pm
Feeling Luck?? Join us at this years annual drawdown and try your luck and winning up to $2,000. We will have music by Steve and Steve following dinner and casino themed games where you can earn tickets to enter our prize raffles.
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State of the Cities 2022 @ Grand Bear Lodge 11:00-2:00
We have brought back our annual event that allows our community to hear from our local municipal leaders. For $30 you will be provided a plated lunch, the opportunity to hear about the vision for growth in our communities as well as get some questions answered.
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Business Breakfast Seminar
Murder by Hybrid Meeting
7:15am Stone Jug BBBQ
This is one you wont want to miss! Join us as Marie- Genevieve Pawlak talks reviews the nine ways people whave tried to murder each other in meetings and how to stop them. You will laugh, cry, and admit that you have attempted to "kill" your co-workers in meetings. In the end, you will walk out with an action plan on how to make your next Hybrid, Virtual or In-Person Meeting a great meeting. Learn ways to foster an environment of trust, loyalty, and collaboration in all meeting worlds. This session is really about how to create a productive engaging meeting.
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After Hours Block Party
Peru Airport
We will do another block party afterhours similar to years past. This one will feature our partners from Peru, Mendota, Lamoille, Spring Valley, and Princeton.
If you'd like a spot at this event send Penny or Bill an email.
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Meet Jennifer Scheri- Director of Continuing Education and Business Services- IVCC |
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Jennifer Scheri has spent her entire career dedicated to continuing education and workforce development. A 28-year employee of Illinois Valley Community College, Ms. Scheri spent the first five years of employment with the college as a Career Counselor and Employer Relations Representative in the Dislocated Workers’ Center focusing on getting dislocated workers back to work. In 1998, she transitioned to the Continuing Education and Business Services Division (CEBS) where she worked with business and industry in coordinating customized training programs for employees. Jennifer currently serves as the Director of CEBS where she plays a key role in many of IVCC's workforce development initiatives.
In addition, Jennifer is active in the local organizations, and she serves as the secretary to the North Central Illinois Council of Governments’ Board of Directors, and is the chair of the American Welding Society Section #139. When not at IVCC, Jennifer can be found volunteering her time at area schools, where she has actively been involved in the L-P Athletic Booster Club for the past 8 years. For the past ten years, she has served as a member of the Peru Education Foundation, serving as the chair for three years. In her free time, Jennifer enjoys spending time with her family, attending sporting events, and travelling.
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Meet Ingrid Cushing- Principal at LaSalle-Peru Township High School |
Mrs. Ingrid Cushing has served as the Principal of LaSalle-Peru Township High School since July 2020. Previously, Mrs. Cushing has served LPHS as Associate Principal for Teaching and Learning for four years. Before coming to LPHS, Mrs. Cushing served as Principal of Grand Ridge Grade School for two years, along with fifteen years prior to that as an English/Language Arts and Mathematics teacher.
Mrs. Cushing has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in psychology along with a second bachelor’s in elementary education from Illinois State University. She earned her master’s degree in educational leadership from Concordia University Chicago.
Having grown up in the Illinois Valley, she values the impact that high schools have on their communities and wanted to be able to influence this in a positive manner. While she is a native of Ottawa and currently resides there with her husband, Mike, and two children, Luke and Emma, she enjoys supporting the growth and development of the students of the LaSalle-Peru communities. LPHS is a high school with a tradition of excellence in both the academic offerings as well as the athletics and activities offerings for students. She is proud to have to the opportunity to serve the students, staff, and community so that upon graduation the Cavaliers are able to use their talents to give back to the Illinois Valley.
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Meet Marianne Carus- Founding Editor at Cricket Magazine |
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Marianne Carus began Cricket in 1973 after years of dismay over what she considered the sorry state of children’s reading material, including the books that her own three children brought home from school.
Ms. Carus believed children could appreciate high-quality writing and artwork. She knew her magazine had to appeal to adults, too. “We want parents to read to their children,” she told the Associated Press in 1982. “But parents can’t be bored stiff. If they are, kids notice it right away.”
With a small staff, Cricket initially was put together in an office above a tavern in La Salle. Ms. Carus and her husband, Blouke Carus, recruited an advisory board including Mr. Singer and Clifton Fadiman, an authority on children’s literature and a former New Yorker book critic.
Before launching Cricket, Ms. Carus had never worked for a magazine. What she had was the courage to prop up her convictions. Even authors with famous names couldn’t be sure of selling a story to her. In the early days of the magazine, William Saroyan submitted a story. It wasn’t very good, Ms. Carus said later. “We just couldn’t use it.” She sent a brief rejection letter. Mr. Saroyan tried again, and his second offering made the cut. Mr. Singer, a future Nobel Prize winner in literature, submitted a story for the first edition. “I was scared stiff to edit it,” Ms. Carus said later. “But I cut it in half, and he was very nice.”
Ms. Carus passed away March 3, 2021 but her legacy as a strong female leader, with the courage to take ideas from plans to reality lives on through her daughter Inga Carus, and all the women leaders that work throughout the Carus Company today!
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Thank You Platinum Sponsors! |
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