(Left) Flossy Leonard, 85, sits in her living room Sept. 9 with her great grandkids, R.J. and Emily Massey, and her granddaughter, Ashley Dixon, 17, all of Anna. Dixon said she, 2-year-old Emily and her boyfriend volunteered to move in with Leonard a year ago after her husband died because she needed someone to take care of her. Dixon said she stopped going to school after Emily was born so she could stay home and raise her, but she plans to get her G.E.D. when her daughter is older. “I wake up and give Grandma and Emily a bath, get them breakfast,” she said. “I cook, I clean, and grandma usually keeps an eye on the kids when they play.” Along with caring for her grandma and daughter, Dixon also watches R.J., her 2-year-old cousin, during the day. (Top) Emily hugs her baby doll in her grandma’s home while her mom prepares her dinner. “Emily is the most important part of my life,” Dixon said. See pg. 4 for a third photo. JESSICA TEZAK DAILY EGYPTIAN
An SIU alumnus who works for the St. Louis Cardinals earned a World
Series championship ring last season without ever appearing in a game. Todd Thomas, a 1992 SIU graduate, has worked for the Major League Baseball team as the in-game emcee at Busch Stadium in St. Louis since 1997 and is responsible for entertaining thousands of Cardinal fans in between innings at every home game. The Cardinals view Thomas, who is known as “That One Guy” at games, to be so important that they gave him a ring following the team’s championship title in 2011.
“It’s a dream come true,” Thomas said. “Even when I was in high school, it was my dream job. I knew I wanted to be a DJ or do something in the sports field. To have this job is really very special.” After graduating with a degree in speech communications Thomas — a lifelong Cardinal fan from Bement — immediately started to pursue his dream. He sent out resumes to several professional teams across the country, but after numerous rejections, he sold cable advertising and worked in the
grain industry. Eventually, Thomas began to work as a disc jockey in St. Louis before he landed a job interview with the St. Louis Rams football team. To prepare for the interview with the Rams, Thomas called the Cardinals for advice, and they were so impressed after talking to him that they created a position just for him. Thomas has been with the Cardinals ever since. At first, he was hired to do just one promotion each game. Now, after 16 years with the team, the Cardinals have Thomas at the center of
entertainment at Busch Stadium. “Once they realized that I was very good at ad-libbing, energetic and entertaining, the Cardinals started to give me more and more to do at the games,” he said. “I’ll also DJ before the games and at team pep rallies from time to time.” Kristin Casey, manager of promotions and entertainment for the Cardinals, said Thomas is very important to the overall environment at the ballpark.
A group on campus is working to get students to think about sustainability. The Sustainability Council, a group on campus that helps improve SIU’s environmental impact and initiatives,
is working to introduce more students to the concept of sustainability on campus. The council has worked to establish its first paid position and a required textbook for freshmen, and it has started to look for its latest project. The paid position belongs to Kris Schachel, sustainability coordinator.
The job operates on a two-year contract and is paid for with 50 percent of the Green Fee fund, which is a $10 fee all students pay with their tuition. The fee was approved in May 2009. “My position was created so someone could be devoted to this type of work that is not with a volunteer capacity,” she
said. “Sustainability is not just a concept that exists only on college campuses.” The nine Sustainability Council members are all volunteers and leads all the work on campus sustainability, said Makayla Bonney, a graduate student in geography and environment resources and chairperson of the
Sustainability Council. Schachel said she can serve as the go-to person for all sustainability-related activities and initiative information since the council members are students who all have additional priorities.
Todd Thomas
Please see CARDINALS | 3
Please see SUSTAINABILITY | 3