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Tuesday, May 10, 2016
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Garland sells to McDonald Funeral Homes Garland still plans to be involved in business By Pam Eggmeier Shaw Media Service
WALNUT/ROCK FALLS – McDonald Funeral Homes is expanding southward, giving the business a presence in three counties – Whiteside, Carroll and Bureau. Rock Falls-based McDonald bought Garland Funeral Home and Monument Co., bringing businesses in Walnut and Tampi- Joe McDonald co into the McDonald fold. There also are McDonald Funeral Homes in Rock Falls, Sterling, Prophetstown, Fulton and Milledgeville. Tom Garland and wife, Deb, bought what was then Allen Funeral Home from Donald Allen in 1984. The Garlands had been with Allen since 1978. Garland, 69, said he has considered relinquishing the ownership reins for a while, but he plans to continue working at the Walnut and Tampico funeral homes. “I think age is catching up with me after all the long days,” Garland said. “With this arrangement, I can do what I enjoy, and do it on my own terms.” The Garlands have no retirement time frame, he said,
and new owner Joseph McDonald, also the Whiteside County coroner, said he’s happy to have them there. “I would guess I’d be around several years with the two funeral homes, and then I can slowly wean myself from them,” Garland said. The Garlands and McDonald have been linked for more than 20 years. Sterling native McDonald received Garland’s help while getting his business set up in 1995. “When we first began construction in 1995, we already had families that wanted us to serve them, and Tom graciously let us use their facilities through part of 1996,” McDonald said. McDonald’s first funeral home was a new building with a crematory in Rock Falls. The business first expanded in 2003, buying an existing building that would become the Prophetstown funeral home. The former Allen-Grennan sites in Sterling and Milledgeville were purchased from the Alderwoods Group in December 2004. McDonald then moved into Fulton in April 2008. Throughout the years, the owners have covered for each other when they were out of town. Those years of working together made the purchase seem like a natural step to take, McDonald said.
BCR file photo
Garland Funeral Home at 14733 state Route 92 in Walnut is one of two sites Tom and Deb Garland, who plan to retire, sold to Rock Falls-based funeral director Joseph McDonald. The other is the Tampico location, at 115 Main St. “We’re used to their facilities and equipment, and our staffs have worked well together before,” McDonald said. “Tom will help out from time to time because he still wants to serve the people of those communities.” The combined staff, which will remain intact, now numbers about 20.
Funeral home Page 3
BCR photo/Eric Engel
Ashley Fiolek, a world-renowned motocross athlete with an overflowing trophy case, has been deaf since birth, but she does not let that limit her ability to perform or her enjoyment in teaching others the fulfillment and exhilaration found atop two wheels.
BCR photo/Joann Bowman
Just for Mom ...
X Games gold medalist rises high above the ground to lift up her fans
Hornbaker Gardens’ Molly (Hornbaker) Blogg (right) helps Maddex Shepard with a plant he created for Mother’s Day. Hornbaker Gardens in rural Princeton hosted an event on Saturday, May 7, for area children, where they were able to create a special treat for the holiday. Several area children participated in the fun-filled event.
Gateway to the future ...
Logan band and choir students traveling to St. Louis to perform and expand their horizons By Eric Engel eengel@bcrnews.com
PRINCETON — When Emily Stover was entertaining the initial stages of her musical career, she went on a big school trip every year to expand her musical repertoire and be introduced to the historical culture of performance.
Now that she’s Logan Junior High School’s band and choir director, she is pleased to return the favor to the up-and-coming generation of musicians. “Being with my friends was awesome, but it was kind of my first chance to be away from my family and learn how to take care of myself for a while,” Stover said, who joins
Band and choir Page 2
Year 170 No. 56 One Section - 16 Pages
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Kicking up dirt with Ashley Fiolek By Eric Engel eengel@bcrnews.com
WALNUT — Ashley Fiolek, a four-time Women’s Motocross National Champion and two-time X Games gold medalist, recently visited Sunset Ridge in Walnut to provide an aerial education and kick the wheels with motocross riders from all around the area. As part of Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month, the Bureau County Republican caught up with the energetic extreme athlete — who has been profoundly deaf since birth — to ask her about the heights she has experienced in her career and how she uses them to encourage others. BCR: What is motorcross riding to you? Fiolek: It is what I always wanted to do. Since I’m deaf I had to have an Individualized Education Program at school every year to determine how I was doing and what I wanted to do in the future. Each year they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, and I said a
Motocross Page 4
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