NewsTribune_Boomers magazine_053020

ILLINOIS VALLEY

Boomers TODAY May 2020

AFTER THE QUARANTINE What Boomers missed this spring Lessons learned after 50: After months without freedom

Interview with a submarine captain: Perspective from under the sea publication

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Telemedicine Services Due to the COVID-19 pandemic IVCH understands that patients may not want to come in for their scheduled doctor visit.

Your health and safety are our main concern. IVCH doctors and healthcare providers now offer telemedicine services to their patients.

These visits can be made by a video conference call from the comfort and safety of your own home.

If you would like a telemedicine visit please call your healthcare office for an appointment.

IVCH Covid Hotline: 815-780-3425 www.ivch.org 2 May 2020 | Illinois Valley Boomers | A NewsTribune Publication

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CONTENTS

PHOTOGRAPHY BY TOM COLLINS

On the cover SUBMITTED PHOTO

USS Maryland Capt. Steven Davito, now retired, and his crew stand in front of the USS Maryland in dry dock in 2003.

Readers can gain some life lessons from an interview with Davito, a 1975 Hall High School graduate who served for 14 years on submarines and spent time at the Pentagon, leading a training facility and as a senior officer reporting to a three-star admiral in the Middle East. Page 12

How have the coronavirus pandemic and quarantine rules affected your outlook on life?

Attorney Louis Bertrand says it certainly makes him appreciate everything more. Dozens of baby boomers provided their perspectives. Page 8

History 5

Boomers Today

Goals 18

Publisher Dan Goetz

Remember lining up for shots at school? How a vaccine, 50 years ago, halted the spread of disease and cut back on birth defects.

Dozens of baby boomers discuss how they’ve realized what matters, what doesn’t and what they want to do as quarantine restrictions ease.

Arts

21

A Bureau County artist and his wife raise funds and take their art to the suddenly empty streets.

426 Second Street La Salle, Illinois 61301 (815) 223-3200 (800) 892-6452 www.newstrib.com

Advertising Director Jeanette Smith

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Writers Tom Collins Kim Shute Craig Sterrett Photographer Tom Collins Designer Liz Klein

Coming next month in IV Woman: Pick up some great ideas from Illinois Valley women.

Published by: est. 1851

A NewsTribune Publication | Illinois Valley Boomers | May 2020 3

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4 May 2020 | Illinois Valley Boomers | A NewsTribune Publication

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HISTORY

Vaccination vs Contagion As birth defects mounted in America, development of rubella vaccine took years

By Craig Sterrett

I

f you were in grade school anywhere in America in 1970, you probably recall lining up to get a battery of shots in the shoulder from someone holding a futuristic-looking gun.

“I went to Peru Catholic School,” said Joan Fernandez, who today is married to a doctor and works in public relations at Illinois Valley Community Hospital. “I remember thinking, ‘It’s so cruel — they’re giving us a shot at school.’”

But it wasn’t a practice in brutality.

U.S. health officials wanted to immediately provide a new vaccine for a cruel disease that presented mild, vague symptoms in children.

Children had been bringing the virus home to their households — often with disastrous consequences.

The Centers for Disease Control considered See Rubella page 6

Above, Quarantine Signs: The novel coronavirus was by no means the first virus that required quarantines and caused a search for a vaccination. There were these (above) in the early 1900s and before, and a less deadly but destructive virus, rubella, for which a vaccine finally was developed a half century ago.

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A NewsTribune Publication | Illinois Valley Boomers | May 2020 5

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Students lined up in the late 1960s and early 1970s to receive immunization shots from health professionals holding devices that looked like guns from 1960s science fiction movies. Like the deadly coronavirus, German measles had mild symptoms in many people but caused disastrous circumstances for certain groups — most pregnant mothers who contracted German measles (rubella) had babies with heart, eye or hearing defects or mental disabilities.

NATIONAL INSTITUTES FOR HEALTH PHOTOS

Rubella FROM PAGE 5

rubella — German measles — a serious epidemic by 1964, but it had been causing problems for decades before that.

An immunization did not become available until 1969.

Health officials wanted to immunize primary school populations, preschool students and kindergartners as quickly and as thoroughly as possible when sufficient amounts of the vaccination became available.

“The children are the carriers,” a La Salle Daily News-Tribune article warned on April 30, 1970, when an-

nouncing dates for the wholesale immunizations at schools.

Before that, children who contracted the disease — less severe to them than the measles of the mid-20th century — brought it home to their parents.

By the mid 1960s, doctors discovered if a pregnant mother got rubella, her child not only could but likely would have a baby with developmental issues, and often blindness and hearing problems.

Retired La Salle surgeon Dr. Ed Fesco said it was especially damaging to fetuses of mothers who were three months pregnant or less. Fesco noted that during his career he saw a lot of terrible diseases finally

eradicated worldwide or in the United States by vaccinations or inoculations, such as rubella (eradicated in America by 2004) and polio.

Fesco says he finds it extremely troubling that there are some people who want their children to avoid immunization shots, and it’s horrifying to think that diseases such as crippling polio or rubella could rise again if people avoid vaccinations.

“German measles can affect a pregnancy going on in the early part of the pregnancy,” Fesco said. “German measles was found to cause some abnormalities in the fetus.

And actually it led to people having German measles parties in the old days. They’d

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invite all the young girls to have a picnic or a party and they would hope they would contract German measles… because you can’t get German measles twice. German measles is rarely if ever a problem while you have them, a little rash, two or three days and it disappears.

“There could be some strange damage that occurs early on in the pregnancy during the first three or four months.”

More than 50 years ago, Dr. Fesco took a precaution by quarantining one of his daughters after his girl, Carol, got a rash. Carol Fesco, director of development at the nonprofit Horizon House in Peru, said when she had some skin irritation, her parents sent her to live with her grandmother for a little more than a week — “It seemed like a month.”

Carol’s mom was pregnant with her youngest sister, Beth, and her parents didn’t want to take any chances of damaging the baby.

“It seemed like forever,” Carol said, but recalled that the time away from home wasn’t all that bad: “Grandma spoiled me rotten.”

Around the same time that health agencies were researching rubella and birth defects, they learned smoking and alcohol use by a pregnant mother also could lead to various problems for babies, Dr. Fesco said.

“Nowadays, when you’re pregnant, you just don’t drink alcohol,” Dr. Fesco said.

It’s tough to compare the rubella epidemic of the 1960s with the novel coronavirus epidemic that has had much of the world staying at home and the economy partially shut down since late winter and into early spring 2020.

However, in both, the carriers might not know they have it or only have mild symptoms, but they can give it to someone else, with tragic consequences.

“You can be infected with that and not show anything for two weeks,” Fesco said of COVID-19. With German measles, “the rash was the only way they found they had it. You didn’t have nausea or vomiting or headaches or fever. It was just a red rash

that itched a little bit, lasted three or four days and disappeared.”

“The fact that it might damage the fetus was the big problem. Of course you don’t see that much of it anymore.”

Dr. Louis “Luke” Lukancic, also retired, and one of the most-popular Spring Valley physicians for many decades, remembers the German measles problem.

Lukancic said the German measles, or rubella, wasn’t initially feared, as it was “very benign” and certainly not potentially fatal like the measles that killed 400 to 500 Americans each year, usually youths younger than 12, in the 20th century until a vaccination was found in 1963 for the common measles.

Lukancic recalled how an Australian researcher in the 1940s determined that rubella could cause cataracts or blindness in a baby if the mother had rubella while pregnant.

Lukancic also recalled how rubella during pregnancy could cause heart defects, deafness and mental disabilities in babies.

Mayo Clinic notes that 80% of babies born to mothers who contracted rubella in the first trimester of pregnancy would have defects of some sort.

“The kids would carry it to the mother and if a pregnant woman got German measles it was pretty much a disaster,” said Lukancic.

Lukancic said he believes a vaccine for the novel coronavirus will be found soon — but that can mean years when it comes to developing immunizations.

“It’s moving very quickly,” Lukancic said of the search for a vaccine for COVID-19.

“The hallmark of the disease is it’s so contagious.”

Says Fesco: “They’re working on it and they’ll find it.”

Fesco is a big believer in vaccinations, having seen them work in virtually eradicating polio and measles.

He participated in comprehensive vaccinations of the public to help elim-

inate the polio virus, which crippled tens of thousands of people each year in the 1940s.

“Years ago the La Salle County Medical Society decided to do a general vaccination of everybody in the county on a Sunday afternoon,” Fesco recalled. “And the doctors all pitched in. The vaccination material was obtained from the public health people, and all the doctors in all the towns in La Salle County would vaccinate for polio.”

He fears that many horrible diseases could come back to America if people refuse to have their children vaccinated.

In the same way that he believes people should listen to their doctors and health officials about the need for vaccinations, Fesco is listening to the experts about coronavirus.

“I’m just doing the things the government and epidemiologists say to do so we can get rid of it without having any recurrences,” Fesco said.

As for remaining in his house and adhering to social-distancing measures with the coronavirus still pervasive nationwide and worldwide, Lukancic said that’s easy for him.

“At my age, I sit at home anyway,” Lukancic said.

“Now my children are watching so I don’t go out. We have role reversal.”

Craig Sterrett is News Editor at the NewsTribune.

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COVER

During stay-at-home order,

Boomers rethink what matters

A

By Kim Shute and Tom Collins

As we get older, it’s natural for our perspective on life to change.

Right now, though, it seems the universe is giving cause for a bump in introspection. During this time of uncertainty in our world, some local baby boomers shared their thoughts on how the coronavirus isolation has changed their outlook on life. “Not that life is short, but I am looking at what I really want to accomplish in the next few years — goals I want to achieve, things I want to do, travel I want to do, and all that seems a little bit more on the forefront of my mind than it did before the coronavirus,� Jeff Sudakov of Sheffield said. “That is my perspective as a 53-year-old.�

Pam Warren said she’s a natural homebody, but social distancing for her has taken things to the extreme. “I miss my work friends — we are rotating days to social distance — and definitely miss our family.�

Missing out on normal social activities is a common theme for everyone. “I miss helping and talking with the Flags of Freedom People, Ladies of the Auxiliary,

Moose Lodge family and friends, most of all my Friday night supper group and Saturday breakfast group,� said Peggy Gomez of Princeton. “Shopping in stores, and just saying, ‘let’s go out and eat at Oriental Garden’ or walk around Hornbaker Garden, Twiggy’s farm and nursery with my friends, showing my inlaws beautiful homes for sale out here or even land so they can rebuild their dream home in Princeton or the surrounding areas has affected me a lot,� she said.

Still others are using this time for personal housekeeping. “It’s sharpened my focus on worthwhile relationships — family, friends, businesses,� Amy Johnson mused.

While many people are focusing on the interpersonal aspect of isolation, others are looking at the economic impact. “I believe some things are worse than death,� Cris Spiegel said. “I feel bad for a lot of people who are going to be ruined financially because of this. And for a lot of businesses it will take years before they are well again.�

See Rethink page 10

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Attorney Louis Bertrand gives his granddaughter, Aleeah, a hand with a horse on his property north of Peru.

When asked how the stay-at-home orders and coronavirus concerns have changed how he looks at things, Bertrand said: “I don’t think it has changed my outlook really, but it has made me more appreciative of what we have. My wife and I live in the country and can walk out our door and take our dogs and walk for miles and not see a soul. I have a son and daughter-in-law that live in Chicago. Not only do I worry about them coming in contact, but I look at what they can’t do and appreciate what we have in rural areas.”

SUBMITTED PHOTO

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Rethink FROM PAGE 8

Has isolation changed your outlook?

Lori Christopherson, La Salle: “It has made me more aware of the freedoms I take for granted and more importantly for my health and the health of those I love. PS, I will never take my nail technicians for granted again!”

Chris Herman, Peru: “I think being in close proximity with family has taught me to really work on my patience and tolerance of others! It is easy to fall into fear and anxiety but I believe things will work out and we will be better for it! I need to stay strong and positive for the next generation! Easy to fall into negative patterns of thinking during uncertain times! Have to fight that tendency!”

Walt Marini, Spring Valley: “The change in my outlook is that I have a deeper appreciation of people’s disregarding themselves and helping others. This was seen in many walks of life during this time.”

Jeff Greathouse, Granville: “Yes, it has changed my outlook just knowing things in life we took for granted everyday changed that quickly and the short amount of time so many lives were lost. Things will never be “back to normal” as we knew it again.”

Gary Hammers, La Salle: “It has made me realize how important people are to me. I love communicating with people and being part of their success stories.”

Carrie Lijewski, Oglesby: “The philosophical question has me leaning towards how things will never be the same and rightfully so in some cases.

We are doing so much more telehealth and I see this as an option that will continue to grow.

Mindfulness of disinfecting and frequent hand washing will (hopefully) also continue into the new norm.”

Tom Jagiella, Peru: “Yes, and this is a bit dark. I am deeply disturbed by the zeal with which some frightened people have embraced their inner Nazi and demanded that their neighbors obey their personal interpretation of the stay-at-home orders. I am similarly troubled by the recklessness of others who disregard responsible steps we should all be taking to ‘flatten the curve.’ I am amazed at how all data on the pandemic somehow twist depending on partisan political filters. I question our current ability to sacrifice for the common good.”

Rachael Mellen, Peru: “Yes, I am beginning to like life in the slow lane and don’t think I will go back completely to the pace I kept up before. I will also value face-to-face contact much more, not take it for granted. And to be able to attend Mass in person again will be a real joy.”

Mary Jo Credi, Spring Valley: “No, isolation hasn’t changed my way of thinking but, our leaders of this country have.”

Don Grant Zellmer, La Salle: “First, to take no one or nothing for granted. Things can — and do — change in a heartbeat. We discover that as we grow older — perhaps this event will trigger that in people of all ages. Next, I’ve learned I’m more adaptable than I gave myself credit for. And lastly, I’ve discovered I probably watch far too much news, that I definitely drink too much coffee, and feel somewhat vindicated that being a lifetime germaphobe isn’t a bad thing at all.”

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WHERE ARE THEY NOW: Q&A

Lessons from Under the Sea Social distancing is no problem for ex-captain of submarine

By Craig Sterrett

T

hree decades spent on submarines taught Steven Davito a lot about what’s important to him and about getting along with people.

And long before his state’s government put rules into place for preventing the spread of the coronavirus, the former Spring Valley resident had plenty of experience with isolation and self-enforced social distancing.

The retired former commander of the U.S. Navy’s USS Maryland could live pretty much anywhere he wants and do whatever he wants for the rest of his life. And over time and after coming home from Florida every fall to work the harvest and haul grain for Lamps Farms of Peru, the submarine captain realized one of his favorite things to do is to drive a truck three days a week.

He currently drives a semi for a service near his home, and in recent months was hauling materials from a paper mill for medical and essential workers’ personal protective equipment. He and “his admiral” and high school sweetheart, the former Kristine Padgett from Ladd (Hall class of 1976) share their home on Amelia Island near Jacksonville with their daughter and 3-year-old granddaughter and Steve’s 100-year-old mother.

The 1975 Hall High School and 1982 Bradley University graduate shared some of

his insights on life, the pandemic and human nature that he absorbed from spending months submerged in Cold War submarine search and reconnaissance situations and leading men and women in the Navy.

What’s the longest time you spent on a submarine, not coming to shore?

That’s different than not surfacing or going to a port. The longest I was gone from home port was about 7½ months and the longest I was submerged, totally away from another port, was 136 days. We ran out of food and we had to pull into a port.

What was the mission?

That was on my first submarine when I was a junior officer. That was in the middle of the Cold War, 1985. And, I’m trying to figure out what I can say… We were doing the Hunt for Red October, I guess that’s all I can say. I spent a good portion of that under ice, so that gives you a good notion of what part of the world we were in.

Are there any ways that being on a submarine prepared you for (social distancing)?

We’re under stay-at-home orders here and up until a week and a half ago, the only time

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I left the house was to get groceries. Being on a submarine is a little bit different. There’s no television, there’s no real communications.

We used to get a family-gram. You would hear from your loved ones, I think they got 28 words that they could send you. You would get four of those for a six-month period. The civilian broadcast, you can receive while you’re under water, but it will only get 67 words a minute and at 67 words a minute, it’s very important that you get all of your operationals. That’s why the family only got 28 words. So you learned how to abbreviate or my wife would use new and unique words.

How did being aboard a submarine teach you about dealing with lack of freedoms? I know you chose to do it.

I loved what I did and I was with absolutely wonderful people. It was more than a job for me. What did I learn from that? It was real good discipline and I got to read. When I went to college I was an engineering major so I never really got into literature. But when you’re on a 300-foot steel tube, it’s not like being in your house. You don’t really have your own private space. I read classics of literature and I really enjoyed reading. And since this home-bound thing has come, I’ve started reading again. I just recently read a couple of Jack London. I was waiting to see “Call of the Wild” so I had to read the book first.

And a good friend of mine, Tom Tonozzi, sent me a good book, “Sailing True North.”

The author in it said in our society now, nobody takes time to read. It really broadens your mind and keeps your mind sharp. When you’re 15, 16 years old and they’re forcing you to read literature, it doesn’t really hit you. But when you’re in your 20s or 30s and kind of cooped up; I remember reading “Tale of Two Cities” and I thought, “What a fantastic book!”

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times: what a way to start the book and it ends with “it’s a far, far better thing…” And to think it was written in the 19th century.

On a submarine, I suppose you had to get along.

Are there different rules for people on a submarine than the regular Navy?

A submarine is a lot less formal. And what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. The first thing you learn on a submarine is if someone exposes a weakness or something that bothers you, 120 people will be doing it to you. So you learn how to get along. You really learn how to respect other people’s space. Even though there isn’t much space, you truly respect space.

I noticed as I left the Navy, before the social distancing, I really don’t like being around a crowd and I don’t like how close people get to See Davito page 14

The USS Maryland at the surface. Hall High School graduate Capt. Steven Davito (U.S. Navy, Retired) served as its captain and later had assignments at the Pentagon, leading a training center and in Bahrain.

SUBMITTED PHOTOS

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Now retired, Capt. Steven Davito, formerly of Spring Valley, was dressed up for Christmas in his stateroom on the USS Maryland in 2002. He also served on the USS Minneapolis-St. Paul, USS Alabama and USS Hyman G. Rickover.

SUBMITTED PHOTO

Davito FROM PAGE 13

you in a checkout line. We never did that on a submarine. You always gave people their space.

What else have you noticed?

People weren’t rude to other people on a submarine. I absolutely was amazed by the way people are, ever since I retired from service.

I don’t understand why everyone is in such a hurry. If you ever notice how people drive. It just blew my mind. On a submarine, nothing was like that. There were things that had to be done in a timely manner, but the whole pace was just different.

You had your own vessel for how long?

I was a captain of a submarine from 2000 to 2003. I made three strategic deterrent patrols.

They were 77 days under water on all three.

The Maryland has two crews. There’s a blue and a gold crew. So that ship would go out for a little more than 10 weeks, then be in port for two weeks and another crew would go off with it. We would spend the weeks doing training.

I was on two types of submarines. The Maryland and the strategic missile submarines have two crews. They’re also very big.

It’s about an 18,800-ton submarine. The smaller ones, the attack submarines, I served on two of those, they’re about 315 feet long and they displace about 6,800 tons. There’s really no room on those ships at all. They do this thing called hot bunking and that’s probably one of the reasons there’s so much mutual respect. There are three fellas that have to use two beds. One person is always on watch. I think you learn how to treat people differently than what I see as I run around here in Florida.

“Other than being blessed with my family, serving in the Navy was the greatest accomplishment in my life. The men and women with whom I served are some of the finest in the world. Hard working, dedicated, intelligent, loyal and devoted professionals who have given us many of the freedoms we take for granted.

Very few know what they do or what real isolation is like.”

Capt. Steven Davito

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What did you do at the end of your career and since retiring?

The last job I had I spent the last 18 months in Bahrain, a little island by Saudi Arabia. I was chief of staff for Naval Forces Central. My boss was a three-star admiral and the 5th Fleet commander. I was the reporting senior captain for about 150 people. The last job I had was political (an appointment) but most of the jobs I had in the submarine force, it was the Peter principal, you performed or you didn’t get promoted.

I made captain, the next rank would have been admiral. After 30 years if you don’t make admiral, statutorily you have to retire. I loved what I was doing.

When you got out, was there awhile when you didn’t know what you wanted to do?

I made a really, really dumb mistake. When I was in Bahrain, I had a friend who was a retired admiral. (With direction) I immediately got a job with Progress Energy. It was a nuclear power plant. My master’s degree is in nuclear engineering. I probably should have taken some time off. I hadn’t really been around my family, and I came home and

jumped into a job that was just like being in the Navy. After four years, it just wasn’t worth it to me at that point in my life. I was working long hours.

Even though I was working at the power plant in Georgia, I always come back to Illinois in the fall. I’ve been doing it since 2014. I haul corn for the Lamps brothers, and I absolutely love driving a truck. There’s nobody but you and the truck, and you have to watch out for other people. My father had Davito Lumber Co. and I drove his trucks when I was growing up. Dealing with the idiots that are driving the cars is a lot different than having the responsibility of running a nuclear power plant.

FOOTNOTE: In addition to reading, Davito has been involved in distance running, but mainly enjoys spending time with and caring for his family. His son is a pharmacist in Jacksonville, Fla., and he resides with his wife, who’s a registered nurse; his daughter, who survived a four-month coma after being struck by a car in Norfolk, Va., 20 years ago; his 3-year-old granddaughter and his 100-year-old mother.

“Other than being blessed with my family, serving in the Navy was the greatest accomplishment in my life. The men and women with whom I served are some of the finest in the world. Hard working, dedicated, intelligent, loyal and devoted professionals who have given us many of the freedoms we take for granted. Very few know what they do or what real isolation is like,” Davito said.

Craig Sterrett is news editor at the NewsTribune.

Officers surround Davito in the torpedo room.

After three decades in the Navy and four years running nuclear power plants, he still wanted to work. He chose to do something he enjoys: driving a truck.

Sailors were topside for a swim call on the Maryland.

Steven Davito and family at the 100th birthday of his mother, Josephine.

SUBMITTED PHOTOS

A NewsTribune Publication | Illinois Valley Boomers | May 2020 15

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GOALS

What do you want to do when this is over?

By Kim Shute and Tom Collins

“I’m going to Disney World” It used to be a celebratory battle cry — athletes high on a win loudly exclaiming, but right now a global pandemic put the kibosh on any such trip.

As people continue to shelter in place, unsure of the future, one thing for sure is they’re starting to make plans for when social distancing eases up and life starts to return to normal, at least a new normal.

So what are those big plans?

For many, it involves family and fun.

Mike Kohr said family is uppermost on his mind: “I’m going to hold my granddaughter, hug SUBMITTED PHOTO my mom, and not be as worried Raymond Haines of Oglesby dove into some hobbies this spring, about my wife and daughter and such as making a wooden motorcycle for a grandchild. With stayother family members that are at-home orders in effect from the state, he and his wife changed nurses or are in the medical field.” their spending habits on non-essential things and started preKristi Warren of Princeton remaking more meals and freezing more food. What does he miss? plied, “Have my kids and grand“We really want to visit our daughter and grandson in Elgin badly. kids over to eat and celebrate my daughter’s birthday which was in We’ve chatted with our daughter and friends on FaceTime. It was March, Also I really want to go a big help. I miss cooking my own T-bone steak at Prime Quarter to Flour House. I miss my scones steakhouse in Princeton. My wife, Elizabeth, wishes we can go and coffee friends and really back to the IKEA store in Bolingbrook sooner.” want to go out to eat with our many great friends and family.”

Amber Morris shared a similar sentiment, saying she’s cautiously optimistic about resuming regular activities.

“I want the knowledge that I can go to a place of business,” she said. “I really miss The Flour House, and I want to pick up my favorites. I’ll be slow to increase my activities, I’ll be 66 in May, and I don’t want to get sick, or cause others to be sick, or put an unnecessary burden on our rural healthcare system.”

Most others have a similar list prepared. They aren’t looking for big excitement it seems, just a return to what they know and love.

Bill Bouxsein, of Princeton wants to go swimming; Kristen Madson Ryan said her first wish is to “have a big ol’ party and hug all the people.” and Sara Hudson said the first thing she’ll do is fly to Sacramento to be with her fiance.

Vicky Rick Orr wants to spend time with her dad, her son and daughter-in-law and of course her grandsons and Sally Revell can’t wait to see family and go sit at her favorite restaurant Marseilles Family Restaurant and go back to the gym.

18 May 2020 | Illinois Valley Boomers | A NewsTribune Publication

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What’s at the top of your to-do list?

Lori Christopherson, La Salle: “When this pandemic is over, I would like to take a nice long weekend in Chicago, see a Cubs game and Broadway show, and stay in a nice hotel.”

Carrie Lijewski, Oglesby: “My mother will be 88 next month and I would love nothing more than to have a family dinner to celebrate this beautiful woman. That’s first on my to do list.”

Glen Pratt, Peru: “Is the pandemic over?

Tests show that it’s over now. I’ll be getting back to my same routine, only with a greater appreciation of it all.”

Tom Jagiella, Peru: “First, when it’s over I will 1) go to Mass, 2) visit family and 3) go camping.

Chris Herman, Peru: “I would like to visit some ball parks with my son! Have always wanted to see a Cardinals game in Pittsburgh!”

Walt Marini, Spring Valley: “I think my list is pretty simple. I want to be able to get back to a relatively normal way of life. Be able to see and hug my children and grandchildren. Be able to be to go to church, be with friends, have an enjoyable meal at a restaurant and just be able to be in public and not be concerned.”

Jeff Greathouse, Granville: “When this is over, first thing will be to see family we have been away from and then be glad we can return going to our cabin and property we weekend at in Wisconsin.”

Louis Bertrand, La Salle attorney: “I am 62 years old and have taken this very seriously as have my family; children and siblings. I want to be able to go out to eat and visit face to face with all of them.

Texts, phone and even FaceTime does not replace face-to-face personal contact.”

Gary Hammers, La Salle: “Hug my grandkids. Take grandma out for lunch. Walk downtown and visit all of the entrepreneurs that have made our downtown great.”

Rachael Mellen, Peru: “When all this is over I am having a big party for the birthday I didn’t get to celebrate properly! Plus I’ll zoom over to the Veterans Home to see (my husband) Robert as I have not seen him in person since March 11. Maybe I should do that first.”

Mary Jo Credi, Spring Valley: “I want to do what’s on my to-do list now! This is not living in my eyes. It’s existing. We need to figure out (smart) ways to keep living during this pandemic! I want to live my life now!”

Don Grant Zellmer, La Salle: “I believe, like everyone else who has taken the stay at home order seriously, I am most anxious to see our friends and family in person instead of on the computer screen. The light at the end of the tunnel is to make that in-person connection to the people we miss so very much. Hugging my daughter and holding our 9-month-old grandson is high on my list! Then I hope to get back to business in the ‘new normal.’ I was in rehearsal for a new show, and working on a new project — all of which ended abruptly. I posted on the IVCC Fine Arts Facebook page, ‘What do you miss most about the theatre right now?’ With dozens of replies, they all shared a common theme: ‘The connection,’ ‘the friends,’ ‘the people,’ ‘being a part of something big with people you love.’”

A NewsTribune Publication | Illinois Valley Boomers | May 2020 19

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20 May 2020 | Illinois Valley Boomers | A NewsTribune Publication

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ARTS

Coronavirus rules push artist outdoors And plein air is just fine with Hugo Heredia

By Kim Shute

Maybe you don’t know Hugo Heredia, but chances are you’ve seen his work somewhere in the Illinois Valley.

The Spring Valley artist, who runs Imagine U Studio with his photographer wife Jennifer, has left his mark literally and figuratively on buildings and walls of schools, libraries and businesses in La Salle and Bureau counties. He’s the man behind the Hall Red Devil, he orchestrated some recent murals in the children’s room at Spring Valley’s library and he’s had a rotating series of self-portraits inspired by IVCC students displayed at the college and his studio.

Heredia’s latest project is a series of plein air, or outdoor, paintings of some pretty notable Spring Valley establishments. Through his YouTube channel, Heredia is airing time-lapse videos, set to music, of his painting projects so viewers can see a complete piece come together in under 10 minutes.

Passersby may have seen Heredia perched at his easel kitty-corner from Verucchi’s restaurant, bringing the building to life via his brushes, or maybe you drove by while he was putting a rendering of the area famous Tastee Freeze on canvas.

The project isn’t a vanity one, though, it’s part of a larger plan to fundraise for scholarships for his art stu-

Spring Valley artist Hugo Heredia is at work on his latest project, a series of plein air, or outdoor paintings of local buildings and businesses.

Heredia and his wife Jen own Imagine U Studio in the Valley, and like many other business owners, have had to shift their business plans due to coronavirus. Heredia is posting time-lapse videos of his paintings on social media platforms and is offering paintings and prints to support scholarships for his students.

SUBMITTED PHOTO COURTESY OF JENNIFER HEREDIA

dents whose lessons have been moved online during COVID-19 shutdowns.

Heredia said the idea was the result of conversations with his youngest daughter Lily, his ‘artistic one’.

He says they started talking about videos before the studio was deemed one of the ‘nonessential’ businesses that the state said had to shut down during the coronavirus pandemic, but their timeline got a pretty big bump when all the craziness started.

“It originally started as my trying to entertain my students, and the masses, because people have always told me they enjoy watching the painting process,”

Heredia said. “Once the studio was shut down, our students switched to online lessons, and we started mapping out ideas for how we wanted to operate going forward.”

The success of earlier videos showing painting of the Hall Red Devil and of a pirate-scape for a local business, convinced Heredia there was a market for videos and live stream, so the natural next step was to come up with subjects for new projects.

“It was Lily who suggested I start with Verucchi’s (the 100+ year old Spring Valley restaurant institution) and that turned out more successful than I had hoped be-

cause a lot of the Verucchi’s family purchased prints as keepsakes,” he said.

The Tastee Freeze, his next project, was a natural inspiration he said because the owner is a family friend of the Heredias and “we really love their ice cream.”

Heredia said appearances are deceiving to those watching the time-lapse videos because often a five-minute video encapsulates an hourslong process.

“Each painting is different of course,” he said, “but the 16x20 canvases (twice the size of the typical plein air paintings) I’ve been using represent about 2 hours See Art page 22

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Art

FROM PAGE 21

work, which is then distilled down to a 5 or 6 minute video.”

Heredia said the family together is working on sending live streams throughout various platforms such as Facebook and Instagram and hopes to be able to add some of their patrons and sponsors to the streams in addition to live scoring by their son Victor, a pianist.

He’s quick to point out that none of the ongoing projects could have come to fruition without Jen, who has been the technical mastermind, chief marketer, statistician and more.

“I love what we’ve been able to do,” an emotional Heredia said. “We’re blessed by our donors, our supporters and our students, and we’re going to just keep doing whatever we can to keep going with it.”

Want to know more?

Or, interested in a print or custom commission?

Visit Imagine U Studio on Facebook or contact the Studio at (815) 664-4060.

Out and about in the Spring Valley area? Keep an eye out for this guy. Hugo Heredia works on a painting of the Tastee Freeze, a local summer hotspot.

Proceeds from the sale of prints and original paintings will help fund scholarships for art students.

SUBMITTED PHOTO COURTESY OF JENNIFER HEREDIA

22 May 2020 | Illinois Valley Boomers | A NewsTribune Publication

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You probably already know that IVCH orthopedic surgeons Dr. Robert Mitchell and Dr. Connor Kasik are both skilled in using Mako robotic arm-assisted technology when performing joint replacement surgery.

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                    

                                                           

                                                                          

                     

      

    24 May 2020 | Illinois Valley Boomers | A NewsTribune Publication

NTNN-0530.indd 24

5/13/20 7:35 AM