Scott County Times
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WEDNESDAY, APRIL 29, 2020
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Outreach Community Center ramps up operations to meet growing need By DAVID CAMPHOUSE Scott County Times With the economic downturn tied to COVID-19 stay at home orders, Winchester’s Outreach Community Center has had to serve a dramatically growing number of residents with it’s Bags of Blessings food giveaways. The center is not only providing food to more residents, it is serving residents more often, too. Prior to the COVID-19 crisis, the Bags of Blessings were provided the last Saturday of each month. Since March, however, Outreach Community Center volunteers have been handing out food each Saturday, as food supplies allow. “The need is so much greater now,” Outreach Community Center’s Marsha Mayner said. “Before this, on a normal Saturday, we would see 60 to 65 families. Now we’re seeing 200 families.” The state’s social distancing guidelines — which outlaw gatherings of ten or more individuals — have added additional hurdles for the center to provide food to the community. “We normally have about
30 volunteers to help on our Saturdays,” Mayner said. “A lot of our volunteers are elderly, so they are staying home.” On Saturday, April 25 Mayner and her husband, Kenny Mayner — along with
“Before this, on a normal Saturday, we would see 60 to 65 families. Now we’re seeing 200 families.”
Marsha Mayner Outreach Community Center co-founder volunteers Andie Fundel, Mysti Dahman, and Tanya Sanders — packed and delivered groceries to a growing line of cars that extended down the alley and into a parking lot at the end of the block. Recipients of the food are asked to stay in their cars while waiting in line and to make sure their trunks or back seats are clear, so the food — which is pre-bagged and boxed —
can quickly be delivered to each vehicle. “I’m thinking it’ll be quite a while before we can have faceto-face contact with that many people,” Mayner said. Mayner said that financial contributions and food donations of Jacksonville’s Prairieland United Way as well as Mt. Sterling’s DOT Foods/ Tracy Family Foundation have allowed the Outreach Community Center to keep up with the growing demand from residents. “We put in more freezers and refrigerators with a United Way grant we received earlier in April,” Mayner. “We were able to purchase a refrigerated truck in February with a grant from the Tracy Foundation. That was just in time.” DOT Foods, Mayner added, has been donating semi trailers full of food to all area food pantries throughout the COVID-19 crisis. The center also purchases food from Springfield’s Food Bank of Central Illinois at a highly subsidized rate, which the center picks up with its newly purchased refrigerated truck. Since the end of March, the Bags of Blessings food giveaways, have been occur-
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David Camphouse/Pike Press
Left to right, Marsha Mayner, Andie Fundel, and Mysti Dahman hand out groceries to about 200 residents on Saturday, April 25 at Winchester’s Outreach Community Center.
ring each Saturday starting at 10 a.m. Residents in need of food should check
the center’s Facebook page (See, GROWING NEED, A2)
Story time is a big hit at Winchester Elementary
FRIDAY, MAY 1
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VOLUME NO. 153 NUMBER 18
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BEING
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CAUTIOUS
Even Stephen A. Douglas is doing his part to stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus. The statue, which sits in the center of the Winchester Square was fitted with a mask to abide by the Governor’s orders which requires everyone to wear a mask when they are out in public.
By CARMEN ENSINGER Scott County Times In an effort to keep some sort of normalcy to this unusual situation for schools due the COVID-19 pandemic, Winchester Elementary Principal Andy Stumpf is trying to keep some sort of normalcy for their students. This is being accomplished by reading a nightly “bedtime” story for students to listen to on Facebook. Stumpf said that the situation occurred at just the right time. “The announcement came about the school shutdown right when we were in the middle of parent teacher conferences so we really had an advantage,” Stumpf said. “Therefore, our teachers were given time to get packets ready and my nurse, Nurse Coon, mentioned to me that we should try to do some kind of bedtime story for the kids in an effort to bring them some sort of normalcy at home. I thought it was a great idea.” So, the first Monday night that the school closure was in effect, Stump recorded his first bedtime story. “I had a couple people at the school record me on their Iphones and it turned out to be a huge hit with the kids,” Stumpf said. “There were lots of positives we received from parents and the kids so I decided to continue
with it.” Stumpf was able to use his webcam on the school computer to record the sessions when he is at the office but after the first week he thought the kids might like to hear from someone else. “I thought – why not start using some guest readers instead of just me reading the stories,” Stumpf said. “I mentioned it to some staff members and numerous people have been volunteering to read since that first week.” So, in addition to Stump reading a story, a teacher or paraprofessional also reads a story. “Some of our teachers come into the school and record their stories and some do it from their home,” Stump said. “We use a program that allows us a smooth transition from my story to theirs so it makes it easier to edit to our Facebook page.” In essence, the students get to hear two stories each night instead of just one. Last Friday night, they had a very special guest reader – San Francisco Giant pitcher and Carrollton High School graduate Sam Coonrod. “I reached out to his dad, Tim, and asked if he might be interested in ready to the kids and he was super excited to do it,” Stumpf said. “He did a video from his house in California and sent it (See, STORY TIME, A2)
T-shirts to help local businesses By CARMEN ENSINGER Scott County Times The latest trend sweeping the area, and the nation for that matter, is producing t-shirts with businesses’ logos and giving at least half of the profit to the business for which the t-shirt was bought. In Winchester, Kayla Latham is putting her talents to good use and doing them for Winchester and other local Scott County businesses. “I found myself sitting here and doing nothing since I can’t work at any of my three jobs right now so I figured I might as well do something to try to help out during the pandemic,” she said. “I am manager at the Doghouse here in Winchester plus I do hair at nursing homes in Jacksonville and Pittsfield and since I can’t perform any of those, I have all this free time. I made all the shirts for the Doghouse anyway so why not expand it.” Last Monday, Latham said she went around to all of the local businesses and asked them if they wanted to take part and if they did to get me a logo they wanted printed on
their shirt,” she said. “Any shirt sold with their logo – they will receive half the money from – either $8 or $10, depending on the cost of the shirt.” She is also making a “Scott County Strong” shirt and the profits from the sale of that shirt will go to all of the participating businesses. “As of right now, it has only been offered to businesses that aren’t considered ‘essential’ and can’t legally open for businesses,” Latham said. “However, I have offered it to a couple of other businesses, however and am waiting to hear back from them.” Participating businesses include: Donohoo’s Barber Shop, Doghouse, Russet Cup, Fabulous Flowers and Decorating, Studio 29 Salon and Spa, Willow Branch Boutique and Tanning, Square Trade, Pittstop, Massage on the Square, Winchester Bowl, Allison’s Attic, Tipsord’s Landscape and Turf and in Glasgow – Jack’s and Lone Starr. As of Sunday, almost 70 shirts have been sold. “So far, the Scott County Strong and Willow Branch
shirts are the most popular,” Latham said. “I think the Scott County Strong is a big seller because people want to help all the businesses and Willow Branch because they were only open like two weeks before they had to close down and people want to help them stay open during this time.” To order a shirt, contact Latham on Facebook and Any businesses in Scott County who would like to be included in this fundraising effort should contact Latham on Facebook as well. Submitted photo
Winchester resident Kayla Latham wanted to try to help local businesses who have been shuttered during the pandemic and came up with the idea of selling t-shirts. Half of the proceeds from the sale of this shirts go to the participating businesses. Participating businesses have their own logo printed on the shirts and sale of those shirts goes to that businesses. The Scott County Strong shirt, which is being modeled by Latham’s daughter, Hayden Yearian and her friend, Bayleigh Holmes.