Latest / WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio / Talk-Line: Charlene Bielema and Brandon Clark on Petunia Festival

Transcript

Talk-Line: Charlene Bielema and Brandon Clark on Petunia Festival · WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We are happy to have with us our representatives from
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Shaw Local News join us on this Wednesday, the days
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: before our Independence Day weekend and the fourth of July
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: weekend coming our way, and we're happy to have the
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: managing editor of the Dixon Telegraph and Sterling Gazette on
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: board with us. Charlene Bilama joins us on this Wednesday
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: here at w Axing. Good morning man, well there, and
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: joining her is our reporter out of Shaw Local News,
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Branding Clark is also live with us this morning. Good morning, sir,
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: good morning. Nice to have you both with us. We're
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: going to get an update of Shaw Local News and
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: Information today and we're going to start right where we
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: have been talking for the last couple of months leading
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: up to this fourth of July holiday weekend. Here it
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: comes our sixty first annual Dixon Petunia Festival, Is it right, Red, Well,
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: it's already kicked off with a couple of preliminary activities,
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: but Charlene again, we're going to get hit deep into
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: Petunia Festival, right. Yeah.
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: So we've had actually today a lot of our coverage
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: within our print product today is exactly that we have
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: had a column from the new police chief from Ryan
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: Bivins talking about the community. I know he had sent
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: that out to different news outlets to saying basically, hey,
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: if you see something, say something, keep an eye on
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: your children, because every year we have a couple of
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: lost children.
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: And that's easy to do in a carnival.
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, especially when it's really busy, and just a word
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: of hey, we're you know, gonna all celebrate this together
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: as a great Independence Day.
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: So that ran to day.
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: We had some preview of the setup because yesterday things
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: were really going up. I know yesterday morning when I
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: came into town there was the ferris wheel, which is
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: always exciting, games up and so yes, we will have
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: coverage throughout the weekend of that too, mainly photos, mostly photo.
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: But of course then you know we'll be there at
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: the Reagan Run, and which is great. We've had a
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: column pretty much every week, couple times a week about training.
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: And inspirational stories about that.
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: We have a great story that just ran in yesterday's
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: addition about a mother and son. The mother had been
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: asked to train several years ago with a friend and
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: she had a son. The person who was training had
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: a son that said, you know, he run with her
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: and then over time it just became kind of like
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: their bonding thing and so they've ran together with the
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: exception of COVID.
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: It looks like it's going on ten years or several years.
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: Yes, and as you can see his time, we post
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: times from year to show, you know, the gains that
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: he had.
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: So those kind of stories are always heartwarming.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, and always come about during you know, a
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: special event like the Petunia Festival. And again, as Charlie mentioned,
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: the brunt of the Patunia Festival does start tomorrow Thursday.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: It's you know, the first full day at Patunia Festival activities.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: But the carnival does open today at five o'clock along
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: the river front and the Queen gets together with our
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: good friends from the Dixon Public Library and her court
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: for that library visit, which is an annual thing and
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: the kids love that as we will during summer reading time.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: So again a couple of preliminary activities, but again the
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: brund of the Patunia Festival is July third through July
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: the sixth, and again all over our community a lot
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: of events taking place. And look for sharlt I love
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: the pictures too when it comes to you know, seeing
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: all of the great activities going on. It's pictures really
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: that you know, spell the word you know, as far
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: as Dixon Patunia Festival is concerned. So we're going to
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: see a lot of photos of catch that on Shaw
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: Local coming up this weekend. Also, this this report includes
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: a special event.
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: We're gonna shift gears.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: We're gonna go from Dixon to Rochelle.
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: From Rochelle we did it was post Traumatic Stress Awareness
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: Yes Day on the twenty seventh of June. And so
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: Floyd Dunn, who was probably really well known around here
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: for his work with veterans to help them cope with
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: PTSD also support things that they need. He had set
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: up a day where he had a group of thirteen people,
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: mostly veterans, some volunteers, businesses supported them. And what they
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: did is they purchased skydiving sessions, lessons I wouldn't say lessons,
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: more like sessions to go up to Rochelle and to
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: jump in the Skydives Center. There as a day of
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: camaraderie to kind of like like I think, as he
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: put it, if you have PTSD and you're doing this activity,
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: the activity of jumping out of a plane is something
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: that you can focus on and as you're dealing with that.
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: Plus you know, we got great photos. Alex Pascal was
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: in the plane. Oh my god, he was Yeah, Because
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: when I looked at the photos and he came back,
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: I was like, oh, these are really good.
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: Some more ground shots and I'm like, wait a minute,
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: wait a minute. He was in he was in the plane.
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: Was he in the plane?
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: And they're like, yeah, he was in the plane shooting
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: the photos as they came in. And I said to
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: I said to my reporter, Peyton had covered that. I said,
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: I'm looking at these photos and I'm nervous.
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: It looks it looks claustrophobic to me.
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: And you could see the seriousness of you know, serious,
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: but then on the ground you can see the kind
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: of like the glee, the joy that.
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: Came from from jumping out of those planes. So that plane.
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: So that story, great story. It's up online on our website.
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: It ran in print. So and Floyd continues to do
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: really good work. I turned into a nonprofit last year
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: and so just really looking to grow that, grow the
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: experiences and the help that they can give the community.
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: Excellent, excellent, So a good story out of Rochelle, that
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: special event held again on behalf of that area that
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: Charlene talks about this morning here at wi accent. Let's
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: go to Morrison and we're gonna go to Morrison. We're
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: gonna go to Brandon. You have some information concerning Morrison,
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: Illinois today.
• 5:15
  Speaker 4: Yeah, Morrison High School students and this is part of
• 5:19
  Speaker 4: an ongoing national project. But in two thousand and three,
• 5:23
  Speaker 4: ten Morrison High School students took part of a hands
• 5:26
  Speaker 4: on science project with NASA and the University of Michigan
• 5:30
  Speaker 4: helping track solar activity using five hundred dollars rooftop antenna
• 5:34
  Speaker 4: kits that the yeah, yeah, the one of the University
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: of Michigan researchers is actually a Morrison High alum, so
• 5:44
  Speaker 4: he actually came down and helped the students assemble the
• 5:47
  Speaker 4: kit on top of the school's roof. So these were
• 5:50
  Speaker 4: ten students from the Morrison High School physics class and
• 5:54
  Speaker 4: they teamed up with Chip Manchester for anybody who might
• 5:57
  Speaker 4: remember Chip, and so that they install that antenna. It
• 6:01
  Speaker 4: detects radio waves from solar storms and that data actually
• 6:05
  Speaker 4: contributes to NASA's Sunrise mission, which aims to better understand
• 6:09
  Speaker 4: how those solar eruptions could impact satellites, power grids, and
• 6:12
  Speaker 4: even astronauts when they're out Well, I don't want to
• 6:15
  Speaker 4: stay in the field because they don't have the ground.
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: Inappropriate. We get it.
• 6:22
  Speaker 4: Yeah, So again, it's part of a nationwide program that's
• 6:25
  Speaker 4: already got eighteen high schools and doing more. And so
• 6:29
  Speaker 4: they're using affordable student build antennas that researchers can can
• 6:33
  Speaker 4: monitor to track these low frequency radio signals that are
• 6:38
  Speaker 4: linked to space weather events.
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: And just a handful of schools across the country, you know,
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: eighteen so far, eighteen.
• 6:44
  Speaker 4: They're so looking to work with more. This data just
• 6:48
  Speaker 4: continues to help to an ever growing mission that helps
• 6:53
  Speaker 4: them understand how these storms work and how they affect
• 6:57
  Speaker 4: our equipment, and then that in turn helps them to
• 7:01
  Speaker 4: you know, provide advanced warning, uh design better equipment you
• 7:07
  Speaker 4: know that that can shield you know, the astronauts in
• 7:09
  Speaker 4: their gear when these things are coming.
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: So yeah, good good, that's right.
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: It is like, well, here's the weird part. So we
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: find there's always a weird part. I always say, already
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: lead back to wherever you're at. All roads kind of
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: lead back there.
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: So the story was just.
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: Something independently we got a news release on that it
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: was that it was happening. Hey, this is a big deal,
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: and actually the story wasn't this the one that was embargoed.
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: They said that, Okay, so we could do the preparatory work,
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: but we couldn't release it because it was based on
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: the study. We had to wait for a certain date
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: to release it. So Brandon was able to do some
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: like work. And I'm reading that after he's got it written.
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: I'm reading it and I'm editing it, and I'm like,
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: wait a minute. This University of Michigan, Michigan researcher is
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: Chip chip Manchester was a high school Chip Manchester. This
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: brother is one of our best friends. I didn't know,
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: so it was just interesting to hear.
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: So, yes, we.
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: Would want to.
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah, no, it would not.
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: I'm sup okay, so yeah yeah, yeah, married into the group.
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: So that's sure.
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: They all are.
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: But yes, but you know those kids are they still
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: are the class kids.
• 8:14
  Speaker 4: The kids there there there, they've graduated, but the the
• 8:17
  Speaker 4: antenna is still on top. So although Chips graduate or
• 8:22
  Speaker 4: he's retired now and or excuse me, the high school
• 8:27
  Speaker 4: teacher that was that had led that he's retired now
• 8:30
  Speaker 4: said they may still be it's up there, so I
• 8:33
  Speaker 4: have to imagine it's still collecting data.
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: And they're looking for schools.
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: That was one thing to the last thing kind of
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: was a shout out so if you had area schools
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: or any school that would see that story that wanted
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: to get involved. So it's not like a project that's
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: over a living projecting.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, that out of Morris and then we
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: go to Amboy.
• 8:51
  Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, very very interesting, kind of heartwarming story.
• 8:56
  Speaker 4: So long time wildlife rescuer Jane Hawksteatter, she's kind of
• 9:01
  Speaker 4: racing to save the wildlife rescue that she's built over
• 9:06
  Speaker 4: the last thirty years, ten of which has been in
• 9:08
  Speaker 4: a farmhouse that she's been renting that was recently sold.
• 9:12
  Speaker 4: So she's got till the end of September to have
• 9:15
  Speaker 4: her She's probably got what I want to say about
• 9:18
  Speaker 4: forty plus raccoons, now many of them babies that she
• 9:22
  Speaker 4: nurses back to health and releases back in the wild.
• 9:25
  Speaker 4: The interesting thing is she's kind of positioned in an
• 9:28
  Speaker 4: area where she's like one of the only wildlife rehabbers
• 9:31
  Speaker 4: from here to I think it was like Rockford in
• 9:35
  Speaker 4: a big, big area. So her she's called it. Her
• 9:39
  Speaker 4: rescue is called Calamity Jane's Wildlife Rescue. And so right
• 9:44
  Speaker 4: now she's just kind of looking for support. She's set
• 9:49
  Speaker 4: up a GoFundMe page and she's just looking for another property,
• 9:52
  Speaker 4: something that has out buildings. The home itself doesn't have
• 9:56
  Speaker 4: to be too big. She's actually a very handy lady.
• 9:59
  Speaker 4: She's started getting into wildlife rescue while on a roofing
• 10:02
  Speaker 4: job and two raccoons it had popped out and they
• 10:06
  Speaker 4: weren't sure what they were going to do, and she
• 10:08
  Speaker 4: nursed them back.
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: And the rest is kind of industry okay, And she's
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: kind of up against the clock.
• 10:13
  Speaker 4: Now, it sounds like, yeah, and end of September, she's
• 10:18
  Speaker 4: got to find a place and be out. She'll be
• 10:21
  Speaker 4: releasing what raccoons are in her care a little later
• 10:24
  Speaker 4: this year, but she's hoping to be able to continue
• 10:27
  Speaker 4: her work because this is something she's been doing for
• 10:29
  Speaker 4: over three days.
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: And we looked it all up to That's one thing
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: I with the Brandon and I talked about whenever you
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: have like somebody who's a rescue, we double checked to
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: make sure that they're that they are rescue. She's permitted, Yeah,
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: Illinois Department of Natural Resources. She's on their website. Yeah,
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: and then checking she is really kind of a solitary
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: person for this very large area.
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: On top of it.
• 10:52
  Speaker 4: So yeah, and I mean older lady doing this herself. She's,
• 10:56
  Speaker 4: you know, kind of got some serious health conditions. So
• 10:59
  Speaker 4: you know, anybody who maybe wants to kind of help out,
• 11:02
  Speaker 4: couldn't reach out to her Facebook page Clamity Janes Wildlife Rescue.
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: Okay, all right, and one more feature that Brandon's going
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: to talk about, and that's a benefit for a Sterling.
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 11:13
  Speaker 4: So Jeremy Hunter is a Sterling man who had recently
• 11:16
  Speaker 4: suffered a stroke and as part of that, had suffered
• 11:20
  Speaker 4: some brain swelling, so kind of had had to have
• 11:22
  Speaker 4: part of his call removed for that. And it's actually
• 11:25
  Speaker 4: a joint benefit because those are the benefits helping not
• 11:29
  Speaker 4: only his medical bills, but he has a young four
• 11:31
  Speaker 4: year old daughter with a terminal illness. Yeah, and so
• 11:35
  Speaker 4: those treatments helped along her life. And so that'll be
• 11:38
  Speaker 4: happened July twelfth at Nick Tap in Rock Falls. Okay,
• 11:40
  Speaker 4: if anybody wants to go and help, I'm sure absolutely
• 11:44
  Speaker 4: would appreciate it. That story will be coming out.
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: Later absolutely and again you know so well, we'll continue
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: to follow all of these stories as we cover obviously
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: the sixty first Annual Dixon Petunia Festival this weekend and
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: all of the other activities taking place through Shaw Local News.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: Continue our coverage and again watch for all of those
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: great photos as Charlene talked about coming out during Petunia
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: Festival time and all of the activity, as Brandon talked about,
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: some really heartwarming stories and some really kind of you know,
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: you know, catching stories that Brandon wanted to bring you
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: up to date on right here on w ACCENT for
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: Shaw Local News. Charlene Bilama and Brandon Clark. Guys, we
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: thank you so very much for the update today. Have
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: a great fourth of July holiday weekend. We'll see after
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: the holidays back here on WIXON. Thanks for joining us today.
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: That's our report today on wi axent fourth of