Library News

2 MT. MORRIS TIMES MT. MORRIS TIMES MT. MO RRIS BE AT oglecountynews.com ShawLocal.com OFFICE 113-115 Peoria Ave. Dixon, IL 61021 815-732-6166, ext. 2592 Mt. Morris Times / ShawLocal.com • Friday, Sep 2, 2022 SUBSCRIPTIONS $39 in Ogle County, and $52 outside Ogle County. Single-copy price is $1 To subscribe, make a payment or discuss your delivery, call 815-732-6166, ext. 2518, from 7:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Monday-Friday or send an email to subscriptions@ oglecountynews.com. You also can subscribe online by going to oglecountynews.com and clicking on Subscribe. CLASSIFIED SALES classified@shawlocal.com HELP WANTED employment@shawlocal.com LEGAL NOTICES sauklegals@shawlocal.com Alzheimer’s Support More than six million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s Disease. One in three seniors die with Alzheimer’s or another form of Dementia. This disease kills more people than breast cancer and prostate cancer combined. Over 11 million Americans provide unpaid care for people with Alzheimer’s or other Dementias. If this disease has not affected you yet, someday, in some way, it will. So, what can we do? Something they are doing at the Mt. Morris Senior Center is hosting an Alzheimer’s Caregiver Support Group. This group is led by Kathy Heid and it will meet on the first Thursday of each month from 6-7 p.m. This is a great opportunity for those who are taking care of their loved ones with this horrible OBITUARIES disease to connect and support one another. saukobits@shawlocal.com Deadline for obituaries is Sometimes it helps to hear that you are not alone 2 p.m. Tuesday for Friday’s edition and that someone else is in a similar situation. To join this group simply come to the Mt. Morris

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news@oglecountynews.com Senior Center at 9 East Front Street on Thursday, Sept. 1 at 6 p.m. If you have any questions or would like more information just call Melissa at 815-734-6335.

High Community College Fitness Class

- Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday the Walk and Stretch Fitness Class meets at 9 a.m. This class helps with balance, strength and more. The cost is $40 for 10 weeks (30 classes). To try the class out stop by 9 East Front Street or call 815-734-6335

Book Club – This month our book club is reading The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel by Deborah Moggach. We will discuss the book on Tuesday, Sept. 6 at 11 a.m. and then we will have lunch and watch the movie together. You are welcome to join us even if you do not have a chance to read the book. To sign up call 815-7346335.

Breakfast with the Mayor – Mt. Morris Village President, Phil Labash, will be at the Mt. Morris

Tootsie Roll drive set for Sept. 9-10 in Oregon, Mt. Morris

MT. MORRIS SENIOR CENTER

Senior Center for breakfast and conversation on Wednesday, Sept. 7, 8-10 a.m. All are welcome to join us for biscuits and gravy and pancakes. Call 815-734-6335 for more information.

Cookbook Club – The Mt. Morris Senior Center and the Mt. Morris Public Library are working together to bring back the Cookbook Club! This club will meet at the Mt. Morris Senior Center (9 East Front Street) on the second Tuesday of each month at 5:30 p.m.

Here what you need to do to join this group… stop by the Library (105 South McKendrie) during open hours to check out our cookbook of the month, choose a recipe and have a copy made, then make your dish, and bring it to the club.

We will all be able to try all of the dishes and collect all of the recipes! If you have any questions, call the Library at 815-734-4927 or the Senior Center at 815-734-6335. See you on Sept. 13 at 5:30 p.m.

The 53rd annual Knights of Columbus Tootsie Roll drive in Oregon and Mt. Morris will be held Friday, Sept. 9, and Saturday, Sept. 10.

“Last year we raised $5,600 with help of a few businesses and from Knight families and friends,” Tootsie Roll Drive Chairman Dave Starke said. “The funds that were raised help to support the Knights of Columbus programs in Illinois, such as Special Olympics and homes for some intellectually disabled. Local organizations which also split $4740 were Village of Progress, Oregon School district special education program and Stouffer Terrace.

“I want to thank the people in Oregon and Mt Morris for their generous support again this year,” he said.

Publisher Jennifer Heintzelman 815-632-2502 jheintzelman@shawmedia.com

General Manager Earleen Hinton 815-632-2591 ehinton@shawmedia.com

News Alexa Zoellner 815-632-2590 azoellner@shawmedia.com

Advertising Sales Jennifer Heintzelman 815-632-2502 jheintzelman@shawmedia.com

Mt. Morris Times, Ogle County News and oglecountynews.com are a division of Shaw Media. Ogle County Newspapers also prints the Mt. Morris Times, Oregon Republican Reporter and Polo’s Tri-County Press.

The MT. MORRIS TIMES (USPS No. 365-440) is published weekly by B.F. Shaw Printing Co., Shaw Media. Periodical postage paid at Mt. Morris, Illinois. POSTMASTER Send address changes to MT. MORRIS TIMES, P.O. Box 8, Oregon, IL 61061. Phone 815-732-6166, ext. 2516.

MT. MORRIS LIBRARY

The Giving Pump

Stop by Shell to help support Children’s Programming at the Mt. Morris Library. Our local gas station has generously chosen to donate a portion of the proceeds from their Giving Pump toward our library. This pump will be wrapped and available through October, just look for the purple Giving Pump signs on pump 1 or 2! We would like to thank Shell for their support of community programming! Thank You!

Sleepy Story Time!

Come have a restful time as we learn about sleep this Wednesday, Sept. 7. It will be a dreamy time for all! Stop by with your little ones to enjoy stories and a craft at the library! Wednesdays at 11:15 a.m.

Cookbook Club!

Join us as we reconvene The Cookbook Club! This is a wonderful club where a different cookbook is chosen each month, you stop by to choose your recipe, then bring the dish to pass at our next meeting! This month we are using “Rachel Ray’s Book of 10”! Stop by to choose your recipe and join us on Tuesday, Sept. 13 at The Senior Center for an exciting meal!

Lego Club

Our next Lego night on Thursday, Sept. 15, from 6-6:45 p.m. Bring a friend and build some fun with Lego bricks! All children and parents are invited. Children under 8 need to bring a parent with them.

Adult Book Club

The August book is Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson. Everyone is welcome to join this book club group! Copies of the book are available at the library. This group will meet in-person at the library on Monday, Sept. 26 at 3:30 p.m.

Display Case Showings

Stop in to see our new display for September! Local artist, Rhonda Cheek, will showcase her personal art creations. They are beautiful pieces of artwork that will make you appreciate and contemplate the beauty! Stop by to admire these beautiful pieces of artwork! We are always looking for collectors or artists who are willing to share their treasures in our display cases. If you are interested, please call, 815-734-4927.

Newspapers Available

We now receive the Dixon Telegraph daily and the Mt. Morris Times each week. If you want to keep up with the local news-stop on by!

Explore More Illinois-Anderson Japanese Gardens Offer

Explore More Illinois is a cultural pass program that provides discounts at museums, visual and performing arts centers, park districts, and more around the state. Use Explore More Illinois to find fun and educational places to go on a free afternoon or for a little getaway. Explore More Illinois is easy to use with your library card. Visit the library’s website to browse attractions. You can find the information on our website, www. mtmorris-il.org under the resources page.

Rock River Center

The Rock River Center has a representative in our library the second Thursday of every month. Services provided by Rock River Center are designed to enable older and disabled persons to remain independent, thereby avoiding costly long-term care. No appointment necessary but, if you want to make an appointment with the Rock River Center you may call 815-732-3252.

Adult Programming

We are trying to get back into the swing of offering monthly programs for adults. We would love to hear from you. Do evenings or weekends work better? Do you have any program ideas? Do you have a program you would like to share? Contact Mary Cheatwood at the library through email at mmlib@mtmorris-il.org or call 815-734-4927.

Curbside Service is available!

We want to remind everyone that you still have the option of having your materials delivered to your vehicle. If you have holds waiting for you, call us to tell us you are on your way, and we will bring them out to your vehicle when you arrive. Call us if you need more information.

Additional Services Offered

We make copies (25¢ per black and white page). We fax ($2 for the first page and 50¢ each additional page). We can scan a document and send it to email ($2 per document). You can use a computer without a library card for $1. Resume software is available on our computers. Come visit us and let us help you!

Earleen Hinton/Shaw Media Pegasus Property Manager Dave Diveley talks to workers at the therapeutic riding center on Monday. A Sunday evening storm caused more damage at the site on Carthage Road just five months after the center’s “hoop” barn was heavily damaged during a March wind event. The center had just started repairs Aug. 22, just six days before the Aug. 28 storm hit.

A nother storm hits Pegasus r iding center, damages buildings

BY EARLEEN HINTON ehinton@shawmedia.com

For the second time in five months, buildings at an Ogle County riding center have been severely damaged by strong winds.

“I received a call at 6:29 p.m. on Sunday that our loafing shed was gone and our entryway, which we had just picked up and moved to the side in order to work on the barn, had been tossed,” said Donna Fellows, Pegasus Special Riders president on Monday. “They just started dismantling the barn on Aug. 22 to repair the damage in March and now six days later we get more damage.”

In March, a strong storm ripped through southern Ogle County and, in a matter of minutes, heavily damaged the main arena building at the therapeutic riding center.

Located on Carthage Road, south of Oregon, just north of the Lee County line, the center was still reeling from that storm, which took the south end of the “hoop” arena barn off its moorings, rattling the 11 horses that were housed under the wooden haymow at the south end of the 62-by-420-foot building. The horses and two cats that resided in the structure were not hurt.

The wind also pushed the north end of the building in, twisting and bending the large garage door.

T h e “ h o o p ” b u i l d i n g w a s c o n structed in 2002. Its roof and sides consisted of a large tarp called a “coverall” that stretched over the steel frame. Sections of the tarp were torn from the frame and deposited nearby, while some sections remained on the frame with large gaping tears.

The large arched entryway that was at the north end of the barn was salvaged from the March storm and moved just a few yards away from the barn while contractors began dismantling the main structure last Monday.

But Sunday’s windstorm changed all that, twisting the entryway and dumping it onto its side while stripping metal siding from the loafing barn and depositing it across the driveway while wrapping some pieces around several trees to the north.

The horses and cats were again rattled by the destruction, but unhurt, Fellows said.

“ T w o h o r s e s d e c i d e d t o g o t o another pasture because the fence was down, but they all get along so that was OK,” she said. “We were again so

Ost fr iesland to G erman Valley, Illinois

40 visitors from Germany stop in German Valley as TV crew documents trip

By KATHY PASCH Special to Shaw Media

Moin!! Not a greeting we’re accustomed to hearing, but it rang out continually Aug. 18 in the halls of Silver Creek Reformed Church. By invite, I had been included in this gathering t h a t h a d n ’ t o c c u r r e d s i n c e 2 0 1 9 because of COVID-19.

Arriving by busload was a group of 40 international visitors from the Oldenburg area of Western Germany. They had been touring locations of early Ostfriesian settlements in Minnesota and Iowa, with German Valley as the last stop, it being known as the “Mother Colony” of the East Frisian settlements.

The trip known as “Route to Roots” was led by Dr. Wolfgang Grams. The group included a German TV crew of N D R / A R D , a N o r t h e r n G e r m an branch of the Public Broadcast System making a documentary of their journey.

I came well prepared to make contacts armed with a copy of an old map of Ostfriesland marked with the locations where my ancestors had lived and my family tree. Although my father could speak fluent Plattdeutsch, a dialect known as Low German, I cannot. I knew that only a few in the group could speak English.

It was refreshing to see two brothers in their 20s that accompanied their grandpa and another of the same age that was there with his mother. I could sense a strong commitment to family. It was humbling to think that I might share DNA with any of these people.

Everyone was more than friendly with familiar last names such as Kruse, Freese, Peters, Reiners, Muller, Hildebrandt and not so common first names such as Helwig, Waltraud, Jutta and Hannelore to name a few.

As the Harms name is part of my family tree, I took a seat at a table next to a couple whose name tag showed their last name as Harms. His name was Otto, and I was lucky he spoke English quite well.

Soon we all were enjoying our delicious food when Otto asked if it was common to have both bread and potatoes at a meal. I noticed many followed a practice of holding a fork in one hand and knife in the other, using both the whole time while eating.

Once the meal was over, Otto suddenly said to myself and two other “locals” seated at our table, “Come with me, I want to take a picture.” We followed him to the table of gifts the group had brought. He handed each of us a linen placemat and said, “This shows the Ostfriesenrose. We want you to have it.” Looks like we had made new friends!

The group had brought a number of gifts to show their appreciation. Norman Osterloo received rohrzucker sticks (sugar sticks for tea) coming from the oldest in their group going to the oldest host.

M a n y m e m o r i e s w e re s h a r e d including a heartfelt story from a man stationed in Germany in the 1950s. In later years he was able to return and find the house where his mother had lived. During the luncheon at one table, a sentiment was expressed that the people in Ostfriesland felt they had been deserted by those that went to America and never talked about them. Another sentiment was “We as a people are one, it’s the governments that set us apart.” The day was a memorable and valuable experience.

The host to these international visitors was Rund De Teepott, a group interested in their Ostfrisian roots.

They meet the first Monday every other month at 1:30 p.m. at Silver Creek Reformed Church, 326 S. Bunker Hill Road, German Valley, with their next meeting to be held Oct. 3. Visitors are always welcome.

The majority of the German Valley, Forreston and Baileyville area early settlers came from Ostfriesland.

I did not realize until recently that m y g r e a t - g r e a t g r a n d f a t h e r t h a t arrived in 1851 had connections to and lived little more than a mile from where the Arends (known as the first settlers of German Valley) lived. But that’s another story.

Photos provided ABOVE LEFT: Otto Harms of Aurich Haxtum, Linda Staska, Kathy Pasch, Helen Ukena Jones, Marianne Harms, also of Aurich Haxtum, pose for a photo. TOP RIGHT: Johann Köster of Leer speaks with Loga and Ron Timm of Baileyville. ABOVE RIGHT: The TV crew films the event. BELOW: Oldest and oldest: Norman Osterloo of German Valley and Luise Huismann of Aurich Egels.

Earleen Hinton/Shaw Media ABOVE LEFT: Pegasus officials Donna Fellows and Dave Diveley examine storm damage at the therapeutic riding center Monday. A Sunday evening storm caused more damage at the site on Carthage Road just five months after the center’s “hoop” barn was heavily damaged during a March wind event. ABOVE RIGHT: Two of the horses graze in a pasture east of the hoop barn.

• PEGASUS

Continued from Page 3

lucky that the animals were not hurt.”

Fellows, who helped reestablish Pegasus in 1996 by overseeing the therapeutic horseback riding program and the purchase and development of the land on Carthage Road, said it is likely the insurance settlement will not cover the entire price of rebuilding from the first storm, let alone the second.

“We found out that we had a $250,000 ‘cap’ on our insurance so we could be responsible for the rest to just replace what we had,” she said noting that the barn cost $150,000 to construct in 2002.

“Now that has doubled in price,” she said. “And it was $45,000 just to disassemble the barn last week. It all adds up.”

She said officials had looked into many different types of buildings, rather than the hoop (engineered building) but this hoop design was the type of building best suited for the riding area.

Metal buildings are primarily used for storage and don’t have the ventilation or floor suitable for the riding area, she said adding that a softer ground was needed for aging horses used in the facility’s programs.

Sunday’s storm also was selective in its destruction, leaving a cornfield to the west and soybean field to north untouched.

“We’ve been here since 2002 so why pick on us now and then twice,” she said.

Pegasus Special Riders is a nonprofit organization providing therapeutic horseback riding to northern Illinois residents with physical, mental and emotional challenges.

“We do not turn anyone away due to their inability to pay,” their website states.

David Diveley, the property manager, is the organization’s only fulltime employee. Dedicated volunteers step in to help with daily chores and events, Fellows said.

Pegasus is marking its 25th anniversary this year and will be honored as a Unit of Honor at the Harvest Time Parade at Oregon’s Autumn on Parade on Sunday, Oct. 2.

Visit www.PegasusSpecialRiders. org for information or to donate.

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