‘Once a Saluki, always a Saluki’: SIU holds vigil for 19 students who died over three years
Mylee Walker MWalker@dailyegyptian
EDITOR’S NOTE — Mental health support is available to SIU students through Counseling and Psychological Services at 618-453-5371. An after-hours support line is available at 1-833434-1217.
The Carbondale community came together on Sept. 30, 2024 to remember the 19 student deaths in the last three years during the “Once a Saluki, always a Saluki” event. Students, faculty, staff and community members gathered at Becker Pavillion by Campus Lake to honor the deceased students.
As electric candles flickered during the dim evening, they stood and listened to stories about those lost.
Henry “Hank” Souders was
the most recent of three students who died this school year.
“He was just a very cool guy,” Alili said. “He was in our drivetrain class and he carried us… He was a very helpful guy.”
Johnston was roommates with one of Souders’ close friends. He remembered coming home from class and watching Souders and his roommate play Magic the Gathering. He also had multiple classes with him.
“He would ace through pretty much every auto class we had,” Johnston said. “He just knew all of the material.”
Joseph Cervantez, the Jackson County State’s Attorney, spoke to the crowd. He reassured the crowd that he was working closely with the SIU Safety Department behind the scenes to assure the safety of the SIU Community.
“It’s very, very important to me to be involved and to try and find out what happened,” Cervantez said. “And it’s most important for me to make sure that the community, the SIU community and the local community knows that there are a lot of people here that support you.”
Penny Bordewick, the SIU Undergraduate Student Government President, also spoke at the gathering.
“We wanted to make sure that we memorialize all of our students that have passed over the last couple of years,” Bordewick said. “It’s for people to share their stories and honor and respect those lost.”
Staff reporter Mylee Walker can be reached at mwalker@dailyegyptian.com
Interfraternity Council hosts third annual high heel charity run
Morrigan carey Mcarey@dailyegyptian coM
Fraternity members lined up in Faner Plaza late in the evening on Thursday, Oct. 4 to run from the Student Center, around Altgeld Hall and back again — in high heels.
Participants had varying degrees of success, with some running to
finish the half-mile track in under five minutes, and others hobbling along the track and returning 10 minutes or later after the start time. Many runners duct-taped their feet into the much smaller shoes.
The Carbondale Survivor Empowerment Center partnered with the Interfraternity Council for the
third annual “Walk a Mile in Their Shoes” charity event.
Jack Aldihaimawi, the Interfraternity Council president, was one of the primary organizers of the event along with the organization’s Vice President of Programs and Events Parker Scott. Aldihaimawi planned the first charity walk in 2021.
“It’s going good. Every year, it seems to get bigger and bigger,” Aldihaimawi said. “A lot of guys in the [Interfraternity Council] community take a lot of passion in this. That’s why they come here, strap some high heels on and walk a half mile.”
This year’s event raised over $600 for the Carbondale Survivor Empowerment Center, an organization in Carbondale committed to the wellbeing and quality of life of domestic violence victims through their shelter and the use of crisis hotlines and community outreach.
Callie Metzger, the development
specialist at the center, attended the event as a representative of the organization.
“The event is silly, so it brings kind of a joy and a laughter to the situation,” Metzger said. “When you ‘walk a mile in someone’s shoes,’ you’re putting yourself in their situation and trying to understand. When they walk in the heels, they’re standing with us as we stand against domestic violence.”
Also present at the event was the new, yet-to-be-certified RSO the Saluki Alliance Against Sexual Assault.
Riley McCabe is the president and founder of the group.
“I see a big need in the community for education,” McCabe said. “A lot of things stem from miseducation on rape and sexual assault and what it actually is, so I think it’s really important to just educate people on what boundaries are and what words are actually consent.”
The Survivor Empowerment Center has multiple on-campus events scheduled this October for Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Chief among them is the “Little Black Dress” event at the Carbondale Civic Center on October eighteenth at 7 p.m.. Tickets are $50 for a “classy evening of fun” according to a flier put out by the Survivor Empowerment Center, including appetizers, live music, and local vendors. Semi-formal dress is encouraged but not mandated. Sarah Settles is the domestic violence and rape crisis program coordinator and has been working at the center for 15 years.
“We’re trying to raise awareness and funds towards benefitting survivors of domestic violence,” Settles said. “And so we encourage everyone to come to Little Black Dress.”
Staff reporter Morrigan Carey can be reached at mcarey@dailyegyptian.com
one of the students honored. His friends, Edin Alili and Miller Johnston, both spoke at this vigil.
Alili described Souders as a hardworking student who was always ready to help others. Hank was
USG president Penny Bordewick greets all the attendants of the “Once a Saluki, Always a Saluki” remembrance event as she holds an electric vigil candle in her hands Sept. 30, 2024 at Becker Pavilion on Campus Lake in Carbondale, Illinois. Dominique Martinez-Powell | @dmartinezpowell.photography
Cascio-Hale challenges Cervantez in state’s attorney race
Carly Gist CGist@dailyeGyptian Com
Election season is underway, and Jackson County is looking for its next state’s attorney. The county, which houses Carbondale, has narrowed the race down to two candidates: Joseph Cervantez and Marsha Cascio-Hale.
A state’s attorney is an elected official who serves as chief prosecuting officer of a specific county. Cervantez, who is a member of the Republican Party, currently holds the position, having been elected in 2020. He said he believes that in order to prevent crime and build a stronger community, a state’s attorney must be “preventative” and “reactive.”
“Your role is to make sure the cases are ready for trial from the very beginning,” he said. “The preventative side is a big deal… You got to be in the community to prevent crime. You want to work yourself out of a job.”
Democratic candidate CascioHale said the role a state’s attorney plays in the community is working with members on initiatives.
“There’s just so much good in our community,” she said. “I think we just need to bring that to the forefront and continue bolstering it.”
Cascio-Hale was appointed Williamson County State’s Attorney in July 2022 after her predecessor, Brandon Zanotti, resigned. She ran for the general election that November but lost to Republican challenger Theodore Hampson.
In a new year and a new place, she is challenging Cervantez with a platform that she describes as “justice.”
“Justice is my platform,” she said. “My heart goes toward domestic violence victims, and I believe a lot of times, victims don’t have the opportunity to get back into their life right away, because of the length of time it currently takes to get through cases…And so my whole thing is, let’s get them through the system so
that the victim – the survivor – can get back to feeling like themselves.”
She said that, if elected, she wants to seek grant funding. The main two she has in mind are for self-defense classes and anti-bullying initiatives. She said the self-defense classes will be provided for survivors of domestic violence.
“I believe…statistics show that once you’re a victim, you have a higher likelihood of being a victim again,” she said. “And so if we can stop the revictimization by helping people…redevelop that selfconfidence, that self-awareness, to where they’re not afraid as much, that’s where my heart lies.”
The anti-bullying initiative will be put in place to prevent gun violence, she said.
“We want to try and encourage individuals not to pick up a gun to solve their problems,” she said. “And so for me, I have another initiative that I want to get into the schools, which is an anti-bullying collaborative, where we get a group of people together, like the superintendents, teachers, counselors, parents, local community leaders, to where we can help potentially redirect a person – a young person – before they get to a point of picking up a weapon.”
She said the program would aim to both help victims of bullying and prevent bullying from happening.
“Sometimes kids are really good at not showing adults necessarily what’s going on…And so I think if we can get the victim to say ‘this is what’s going on,’ we can get the individuals at school to say, ‘let’s keep an eye on it’ and then potentially work with that student, the perpetrator and the victim. Maybe not together, but yeah, working so that we can help take some of the anger away.”
Cascio-Hale mentioned that she believes the job is “not just about prosecution.”
“It’s about training your attorneys,” she said. “It’s about nurturing the attorneys so that they have the right tools to learn the proper way
to have a trial…The further you go in the legal system in terms of being an attorney, the more you’re going to learn, the more experience you’re going to have. I believe that there’s a way to nurture that and to encourage that, and to mentor that and to provide guidance.”
She spoke briefly about her role as a mentor in different career fields.
“I supervised I think nine attorneys and 13 support staff over in Williamson County,” she said. “I’m an older person, I was a nontraditional student when I went to law school…and I had a whole other life before this. I supervised a word-processing pool…and I had nine transcriptionists who I trained, I assigned workflows, everything it takes nurturing, mentoring to grow the…team.”
She said she believes she brings a “different set of experiences” to the position.
“I will be the first female state’s attorney in Jackson County,” she said. “Jackson County hasn’t seen anyone like me.”
Cervantez said he also brought a new perspective to the office, as his victory in 2020 marked the first time a Republican had been elected as Jackson County state’s attorney in 70 years, as well as the first time a person of color was elected to the position.
“Still, in the First Circuit and I believe in the Second Circuit, there is no judge that looks like me, and so it was important to a lot of members of the community to shake things up a little bit and get the same old people that have been in the office out,” he said.
He said the office needs to be organized and run “in an efficient way with the staff that Jackson County deserves.”
“We’re diverse, our staff has to be diverse,” he said. “You know, we’re a compassionate community, we’ve got to be compassionate here in the office. So our office has to reflect that. It didn’t before, it does now.”
He said he branded himself as “the party of change” during both his previous campaign and this year’s campaign.
“I was the one telling the community groups…‘Look it can be better,’” he said. “In Jackson County, there’s no drug court, there’s a need of juvenile diversion programs. There’s not one community program that I could name when I came to the office, not one. Not one.”
He mentioned family remediation as a current initiative that he finds imperative.
“Sometimes getting the family involved through my office is a very important thing…I think it helps everybody get on board and buy in that the kid needs help before it’s me against the parents and that whole family,” he said. “Now it’s going to be, if I can help it, me and the family trying to convince the kid to change his or her life. And I think that’s the way that I’m going to move forward on a lot of cases with the juvenile docket.”
Cervantez said he believes the office does not belong to a specific political party, but rather “belongs to the people.”
“People can call me, they have my cellphone number, and I work with every group, no matter who they are, because I represent all the people in the county, not just my political party,” he said.
Cervantez said one of the most prevalent crimes he comes across in Jackson County is theft.
“People steal, they get arrested, they’re let out the next day,” he said.
“They steal again, they get arrested, they’re let out the next day. We can sanction them, but by the time we sanction them, sometimes they build up two or three more felonies, and we’re unable to get resources to them as quickly as we need to.”
He said this crime is impacting landlords, business owners and property managers.
“Some things are going to have to give, as far as changing legislation
so that I can do more against these thefts…the state legislature has got to take some handcuffs off of me and let me go to work and make people accountable for what they steal from our business owners.”
He said he plans to continue being involved with the community and to remain “tough on violent crime.”
As the race unfolds, several concerns regarding both parties have been raised by the community. Several members have pointed out that while Cervantez resides in Carbondale, his address falls in Williamson County, rather than Jackson County.
“The thing about Williamson County is absolutely true,” he said. “People act like I hide that. The address that I live is on my election ballot. I have lived in Carbondale for as long as I can remember – ‘96 – it’s always been my home.”
He said hundreds of residences are located in Carbondale but fall under a different school district or county.
“Everybody on the east side of Reed Station Road, everybody over by Crab Orchard, those are all Carbondale neighborhoods that are Williamson County,” he said. “… And to think that law enforcement stops at Reed Station Road, and then everybody from Reed Station Road has to shop at Target in Marion; you know all of our neighbors who are affected by crime in Carbondale, we go to University Place, we eat at Mary Lou’s, we shop at Walmart and Krogers. I enlisted in the Marine Corps in Carbondale, I’ve lived all around Carbondale…This is a nonfactor.”
Cascio-Hale said she has lived in Jackson County for 18 years now, including during her period as Williamson County State’s Attorney, in which she was unable to move due to personal reasons.
“I got a ton of grief from the Republican Party for not residing in Wzilliamson County,” she said. “And I do think it’s important. I think you
States attorney candidate Marsha Cascio-Hale sits at her desk Oct. 4, 2024 in Carbondale, Illinois. Emily Brinkman | @erb_photo_
Provided by Jackson County State’s Attorney office.
PfaNNkuche
Battered Salukis bested by rival Illinois State
Already down three scores early in the second half, disaster struck for the Salukis.
SIU lost its second quarterback of the season when Hunter Simmons left the game with an injury in the third quarter, giving Jake Curry, a true freshman, his first snaps in college. With Curry under center, the Salukis only managed to score a single field goal while Illinois State got into the end zone three more times.
“That was tough (to see),” SIU cornerback Jamir Conn said.
The No. 19 SIU Salukis hosted its annual Salukis Blackout Cancer game Saturday, Oct. 5 as they took on the No. 18 Illinois State (ISU) Redbirds in a Missouri Valley Football Conference showdown that ended with a final score of 45-10.
The annual blackout game offers Saluki fans a chance to bid on special jerseys. Winning bids choose what name is on the back and all the proceeds go to the Coach Kill Cancer Fund through the Southern Illinois Hospital Foundation before being used to assist cancer patients in southern Illinois. The game raised a total of $28,545 for this year. Coach Jerry Kill, former head coach, and his wife Rebecca Kill went to SIH to establish a fund after his personal experience with cancer according to SIH.
SIU got the ball first and a penalty on the first play from scrimmage that put them behind the sticks. The Salukis were not able to make up the lost ground and punted.
Penalties, and costly ones at that, would be a problem the entire night for the Salukis. SIU
committed 12 penalties for 109 yards against a lone 8-yard penalty committed by ISU.
“They’re frustrating,” Saluki head coach Nick Hill said.
On their first series of the night, the Redbirds picked up a couple first downs to get into SIU territory. From there, ISU quarterback Tommy Rittenhouse scrambled for a 36-yard touchdown, getting the Birds on the board first.
The Salukis moved the ball with a balance of rushes and passes to get to the Redbird 20. A stuffed run up the middle on fourth and one gave the ball back to ISU with no damage done.
The tantalizing potential of the Saluki defense was on display early in the game, with a pass breakup on third and long, but an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty extended the ISU possession. The Redbirds wound up punting on the drive.
Keontez Lewis was a big target on the next SIU drive, catching two passes for 57 yards, setting up a 10-yard rush by Simmons to even the score.
On the ensuing Redbird possession, Jeremiah McClendon got in front of a pass from Rittenhouse for a Saluki interception. The takeaway gave the ball to SIU around midfield, but a trio of incompletions led to another punt.
“Great teams find a way to take points off turnovers,” Hill said.
“We’re just not doing it.”
After sticking with the run to get into SIU territory, Rittenhouse connected on a deep ball to Daniel Sobkowicz to give ISU the lead for the second time.
SIU picked up a first down on their next possession, but a big
sack would force a punt. The Saluki defense stood strong on their next outing, forcing ISU to punt the ball back to the Dawgs.
A quick decision on a readoption play gave Simmons a hole to rumble 33 yards to the Redbird 27. SIU wouldn’t be able to capitalize as a pair of incompletions forced a field goal attempt that missed to the right.
Rittenhouse got ISU to the Saluki 34 with a deep connection up the middle to Wenkers Wright, setting up a 47-yard field goal to extend the Redbird lead.
Looking to answer back with a minute and change before half, the Salukis got nothing going and punted again. ISU would knee the ball to send the teams to the locker rooms.
Out of the break, the inconsistency of the SIU’s defense appeared. ISU moved the ball without trouble on a drive capped off by a 29-yard touchdown run by Matt Lawson, giving the Redbirds a three-possession lead.
Following a first down, Simmons felt the pocket collapsing and took off for a gain of 29 into Illinois State territory. In the red zone, Simmons scrambled again and went down with what was later revealed to be a broken leg.
Curry played quarterback for the remainder of the game and finished the drive with a field goal.
Seemingly energized by the loss of yet another team leader, SIU’s defense would surrender a single yard and force a punt on the ensuing ISU possession.
On the second passing attempt of his collegiate career, Curry found Lewis for a 60-yard completion to get the Salukis to the Illinois State 13. The drive stalled and SIU attempted a field goal that missed to the left. The miss marked kicker Paul Geelen’s second miss of the game and left him sitting three-for-five on the season.
Hill said, “It’s kind of deflating, missing an easy field goal.”
Building on the momentum they gained during the previous ISU drive, the Saluki defense again held its ground and forced another Redbird punt.
On the first play from scrimmage, Vinson Davis broke off a 39-yard run to get into ISU territory. A miscommunication on third down resulted in a Curry interception.
SIU’s defense continued to do its job and forced a punt to get the
ball back to their offense.
A 24-yard connection up the middle to Allen Middleton put the Dawgs in ISU territory yet again. After converting on fourth down, a missed read put the ball right back into the hands of the Redbirds with Curry’s second interception of the night.
Speaking after the game, Hill wasn’t overly worried about Curry’s turnovers.
“He’ll learn from those quickly,” Hill said. “A lot of learning opportunities coming up.”
On the drive that followed, a pair of penalties gave Illinois State 30 yards, setting up a 28-yard touchdown pass from Xavier Loyd to Sobkowicz.
Down 21, SIU had to go for it on fourth and medium from their own half of the field and could not convert.
With the short field, backup quarterback Jake Rubley found Braden Contreras in the endzone, putting the game well out of reach.
With 11 minutes left, the teams put their backups in and ran down the rest of the clock, with ISU tallying a touchdown from Seth Glatz along the way. Saturday’s loss was the third in a row for SIU.
“We’ll keep fighting and try to get this thing turned around,” Hill said.
The Salukis will be at home again next weekend for a makeor-break Homecoming game on Oct. 12 against North Dakota State University with a 2 p.m. start time.
Staff reporter Nick Pfannkuche can be reached at npfannkuche@ dailyegyptian.com.
‘Salukis on the Frontier’: SIU’s
Western homecoming week
It’s a busy week for Southern Illinois University and the student body as Homecoming Week lassos students in for a week of Western themed activities.
Southern Illinois University alumni association is working with the city of Carbondale and River Radio LLC to Shut Down the Strip of Downtown Carbondale to celebrate SIU’s Homecoming Week to bring music and festive country fun to the student body and community.
“I feel having Main Street shut off for concerts is exciting,” Sophomore Ny’asia Collins said. “I feel like that’s a great opportunity for the community to get together and have fun. It also may bring more people in if they see it going on. I think it’s a good idea.”
Sean Cooney, the assistant director of the Student Engagement and Programming Office and adviser for Student Programming Council and the Dawg Pound, said “Homecoming is a celebration of SIU and its alma mater and really having an opportunity to come celebrate and to provide a distraction for students since we are in the middle of the semester.”
Alongside shutting down
The Strip, there are many other homecoming festivities for students to partake in.
Hunter Hayes with his opener Tiera Kennedy will be performing at the Shryock Auditorium on Wednesday, Oct. 9. Doors open at 6 p.m. and the show will begin at 7 p.m., each student ID gets three tickets. Student tickets are on sale now in person at Banterra’s box office and online through SIU Special Events.
The Saluki Block Party is set for Thursday, Oct. 10. The event is free to attend with music, games and rides. The block party will be on Lincoln Drive, in front of Pulliam Hall. As per SIU’s safety guidelines and rules to ensure everyone’s safety, no glass bottles, no underage drinking, no solicitation, no pets and no smoking.
Beta Eta Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. presents the
2024 Homecoming Step Show, which will be Friday Oct. 11, at Shyrock Auditorium at 7 p.m. where the Greek community will showcase their organizations through step routines. Oct. 11 is also when “shut down
The Strip” will take place S. Illinois Ave. from College to Elm St. and Cherry St. from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. and music will run from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. long time local legends
“I’m extremely excited for shut down The Strip, it’s a good way for students to get away from the midsemester stress,” Freshman Alexa Hogate said. The homecoming parade will take place Oct. 12 at 10 a.m. in downtown Carbondale. The parade starts at East Mill Street going north on Illinois Avenue, turning left on West Cherry Street, then left on University Avenue and merges onto South Illinois Avenue, goes right on Lincoln Drive and ends in front of the Student Center. The parade is followed by the tailgate and homecoming game. The Saluki tailgate will take place on Saluki Row outside
Jungle Dogs will be performing for their farewell show, alongside Modern Day Saints.
Quarterback Hunter Simmons (18) is driven off the field after an injury that later was revealed to be a broken leg as the Salukis faced the Redbirds of Illinois State at home Oct. 5, 2024 at Saluki Stadium in Carbondale, Illinois. Lylee Gibbs @lyleegibbsphoto
Second-year wide receiver Allen Middleton (15) attempts to navigate around a swarm of Illinois State defense during the annual Blackout Cancer game Oct. 5, 2024 at Saluki Stadium in Carbondale, Illinois.
Jason Isele @iselephotography
‘President’s Own’ Marine Band returns to SIU after 74 years
AnnAlise schmidt Aschimdt@dAilyegyptiAn com
The U.S. Marine Band, also known as “The President’s Own,” returned to SIU for the first time in 74 years to perform a sold-out concert at Shryock Auditorium on Oct. 8.
Established in 1798, the Marine Band is one of the oldest professional musical organizations in the United States. It gained national prominence under the leadership of John Philip Sousa, who served as its conductor from 1880 to 1892. Sousa, often referred to as the “March King,” composed well-known pieces such as “Stars and Stripes Forever” and “The Liberty Bell,” solidifying the band’s reputation for excellence in military and concert music.
Today, the Marine Band continues Sousa’s legacy of musical artistry and public service, performing for U.S. presidents and in communities across the country. The ensemble is renowned for its exceptional musicianship and has played at every presidential inauguration since Thomas Jefferson, making this concert a significant event for the local community.
The band’s concert was a rare opportunity for those in the area to experience their performance live. The band’s tour spans the country.
Christopher Morehouse, director of bands and professor of conducting at SIU, said, “The band is on their annual tour. They break the country up…into five different groupings. This tour starts in Washington, D.C., comes all the way through the Midwest, down to southern Illinois, and then ends up in Washington in the Seattle area.”
The Marine Band is playing 28 concerts in the month of Oct. “It’s been a long time since they’ve played on our campus, so we’re really excited that they’re coming through,” Morehouse said.
He mentioned that bringing the band to Shryock has always seemed like a challenging proposition due to its size.
“I never really went after the Marine Band because I thought Shryock actually was a little bit too small,” Morehouse said. “They usually cut off at about 1,200 seats. That’s right where Shryock was. They obviously want as many people to perform as possible, but I always thought we were a little under that number.”
However, this year, things fell into place when Morehouse was contacted by the band’s tour manager.
He said, “A tour manager contacted me, and they had kind of figured out where they were going. They were probably going up through Urbana, coming down through Paducah, and they’re like ‘send me an email.’ And of course, we’re not going to say ‘no.’”
The concert incurred no cost to the university, as the Marine Band covers
all expenses associated with their performances.
“The remarkable thing is that it’s free for us. So, I mean, that is pretty remarkable, that we didn’t have to spend lots of money,” Morehouse said.
The preparation for the event involved several pre-visits by the band before the concert could take place.
Morehouse said, “About two months ago, I want to say they sent out a team to do a pre-visit tour. They look, take measurements of everything, figure out where they’re going to be and see if the stage size works. About a month ago, they sent security to come through, just making sure we’re okay that way.”
The band brought an ensemble of about 60 players for this tour.
The concert program included a wide variety of musical selections. Morehouse said he hopes this repertoire ensured an exciting performance for all attendees.
“They’re doing a couple marches at the beginning. They usually have soloists. So I think the tenor saxophone soloist is performing at our concert, a soprano soloist, a singer with the band on our concert, and then some kind of bigger pieces as well. And then they’ll, of course, end with ‘Stars and Stripes’ and ‘Armed Forces Salute’ or something along those lines,” Morehouse said.
Given the number of performances, the band rotates its repertoire.
“They rotate three concert programs I’ve heard. So out of the 28 concerts they play in Oct., they’re rotating the three all the way through. So they play a lot,” Morehouse said.
For this tour, the ensemble is accompanied by two buses of personnel and a semitrailer carrying all necessary equipment.
“They just bring everything they need to travel with,” Morehouse said.
“They just come in and will be here all day setting up and then they’ll give the concert. They’ll immediately move on to the next spot on Wednesday morning.”
In addition to the performance, members of the Marine Band offered clinics to students at the SIU School of Music for educational outreach.
Morehouse said, “The Marines, they’re paid to do the concerts and to go on tour, and then they’re asked, and people are nice enough to volunteer their time to come to a lot of the schools that are along the way.”
Morehouse explained that students could expect clinics featuring a flute player, a clarinet player, a brass quintet and a percussion trio, conducting an hour-long session.
The clinics will give students a unique opportunity to interact with the musicians in a smaller setting.
“They are really a tight-knit group of musicians,” Morehouse said.
Morehouse praised the musicianship
of the Marine Band.
“The U.S. Marine Band is one of the finest bands in the country, if not the world. To have players, musicians at their caliber, coming onto campus is incredible,” Morehouse said. “We have the School of Music, so we have students that are preparing to be in those positions. They might not audition for Marine Band, but they might be auditioning for orchestras. They’ll be musicians in their professional life too.”
Morehouse emphasized the significance of this performance for other local students and schools as well.
He said, “Area schools are coming, which is great, because these are young public school students. They’re not hearing the Marine Band regularly. They’ll hear recordings, they’ll hear them on YouTube, but they’re never going to hear them in person. To have a free concert is a great opportunity.”
He said he believes that the involvement of school bands is part of what led to the rapid sell-out.
“I think that’s what initially sold so many tickets,” Morehouse said. “A lot of the school kids are coming, and a lot of the high school bands from around the area are going to the concert.”
The event also drew strong support from veterans and military personnel.
Morehouse said, “We get a lot of military people in the area, a lot of veterans come, you know, if they know the Marine Band’s coming through, they’re going to come and support that and their fellow service members.”
Morehouse expressed his excitement about the concert’s reception.
“It’s kind of remarkable that they’re going to be here, and obviously we’re thrilled that the concert has been so positive,” he said. “I mean, it was sold out within two weeks, which was pretty remarkable.”
Having never seen Shryock Auditorium sold out before, Morehouse said he was particularly eager for this experience.
“I haven’t even been here to see Shryock sold out, so I’m just excited to see that many people in there,” he said. While sold-out performances are a regular occurrence for the Marine Band, the event holds special significance for SIU and the surrounding community.
Morehouse said, “It’s normal for the U.S. Marine Band members. They perform to sold-out venues all the time, I mean, they’re professional musicians, but for us just to see that, for our kids to see that, we have lots of schools, lots of different people coming to the concert, so they won’t have heard a band play like this.”
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Jamilah lewis Jlewis@dailyegyptian com
Rainbow Cafe celebrates 24 years of community
Rainbow Cafe held its 24th anniversary gala on Oct. 5 at 6:00 p.m. at the Carbondale Civic Center. Members and community came together for a night of fun educational information and rekindling with old members and friends.
The night included a drag show from two queens, Ceduixion Carrington and Jayden Licious, and live music from Curt Wilson. Speakers of the night included the cafe’s Executive Director Carrie Vine, Rainbow Cafe staff Alex Waller, and keynote speaker of the night Planned Parenthood of Illinois CEO Jennifer Welch.
According to the brochure for the event, the Rainbow Cafe was fully established on Sept. 15, 2000 after organizing since the spring.
Former member Tim Rice had the idea to start the group as a safe space and collaborated with the Carbondale Unitarian Fellowship and the Church of Good Shepherd to get the organization off the ground.
“It’s a good way for us to talk about what goals we have achieved this year, what we’re looking forward to in the future,” said Rainbow Cafe employee Cy Chamberlain. “People mingle and get connected and, you know, just try to come together and work on the same mission.”
This is Chamberlain’s third gala and second one as an employee. She works as a community health worker(CHW) at the cafe and is taking SIU School of Medicine’s certified recovery support specialist.
“So Rainbow Cafe also has something called RCHW, which is Rainbow Cafe Health and Wellness and we are very close to getting certified to be able to bill people’s Medicaid,” Chamberlain said.
As a CHW Chamberlain said they help people navigate resources, working with unhoused people to get government benefits like Link and health insurance.
“What our objective is is to help people get the resources they need, to help pull them from a lifestyle that may be really destructive and self-harming and show them that there’s a better way,” said Chamberlain.
Founding member Mary Campbell was in attendance and said the biggest challenge for establishing the organization was finding the locations and finding adults to get involved.
“We couldn’t have the teens there by themselves, they had to have supervision, you know, but it was just a matter of the word getting out and finding people to be able to do that supervision,” Campbell said. “Part of it because we really didn’t need a lot of money at first, because we were using spaces that were nonprofits.”
Campbell said one of the spaces they used to use was the Church of the Good Sheperd, but felt it was an awkward environment and fidning their own space was important.
“I don’t even remember where we where they finally ended up, because they went through so many different places to meet,” Campbell said. “I went to Minnesota for a while, and when I came back, they were meeting out on giant city road in the area.”
Campbell said one of the main things was to keep their faith up and it was slowly built to what it is today. She never expected it to get as big as it is today.
“Finally coming up with a permanent place, people believing in the Rainbow Cafe enough to financially support that,” Campbell said. “Our reputation has grown outside of Carbondale so that we get support from other people.”
One thing to know about the cafe is the outreach outside of Carbondale, Campbell said. The Rainbow Cafe is in contact with other southern Illinois towns working with mental health departments offering high school students sometimes coming to the cafe for support and services.
The Rainbow Cafe has grown into so much more than just a safe space. It’s become a community
Ceduxion Carrington performs for the crowd at the 24th anniversary of the Rainbow Cafe Oct. 5, 2024 in Carbondale, Illinois. Emily Brinkman | @erb_photos_
resource not just for health services, but various group bonding and community events.
“The best thing is we have this wonderful building right down on the strip, and it’s permanent,” Campbell said. “People can find us, and we have wonderful employees. I love our employees.”
Vine invited Welch, the Planned Parenthood of Illinois CEO, to be the keynote speaker for the event because of the current state of reproductive choice and gender affirming care, she said.
“Supporting bodily autonomy and making sure that that is something that we’re working towards as a community. I was just like, ‘Hey, Jennifer, could you speak?’” Vine said.
One of the cafe’s newest services is its Behavioral Health Center and the health center being able to write letters for patients who are seeking gender-affirming care, Vine said.
“A lot of insurance providers require that, and so we’ve been working with Planned Parenthood as far as, like, making sure that our letters are sufficient for them to receive care,” Vine said. “I’m also a big believer in reproductive justice as well. You know, reproductive justice is LGBTQ justice. It’s all the same.”
Welch said when Planned Parenthood of Illinois heard the cafe was building the health center she reached out to Vine to connect with people in Carbondale that focus on sexual and reproductive health.
“What we know right now is that the issues that are most important to us, bodily autonomy, access to care, gender identity and just the ability to be who you really are,” Welch said. “That has become so polarized in our country, and it’s important that people recognize that.”
It’s important to be in rooms speaking about the reality of the state of our world and how everything doesn’t need to be political and polarized, Welch said.
Welch said a typical day at the health center will see patients from seven different states looking for services not available in their states.
“80% of the abortion patients at that health center come from another state,” Welch said. “80% there are like health care refugees, who are forced to travel for the most simple care that they need and deserve, and their states have made it impossible to get.”
The main reason people travel to Illinois is abortion services with the second being gender-affirming care, Welch said.
“Which is what makes our partnership with Rainbow Cafe so important, because people are being forced to travel for their care,” Welch said. “We refer patients and clients to Rainbow Cafe, probably every day.”
During her speech Welch opened up by thanking all the supporters of Rainbow Cafe and supporters of their collaboration because nonprofits can’t thrive without their supporters, donors, volunteers and others who give their time.
“We’re serving patients all the way from Waukegan, which is right near the Wisconsin border, to places like Flossmoor and Champaign near the Indiana border,” Welch said. “Most importantly, here in Carbondale.”
The focus of Illinois’ borders and bordering states is because of the limited care that is still provided in Illinois, Welch said.
“We are surrounded by states that are hostile to bodily autonomy that do not believe, like we all do, that people have the right to make their choices about when and whether to have a family,” Welch said.
Since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Welch said they have seen patients travel from 40 different states come to Illinois
“We are amazingly fortunate that when they get here, if they get here, we are able to provide comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care every day at all of our health centers and via telehealth,” Welch said “We provide a full spectrum of care.”
Welch said along with having gender-affirming care in Carbondale it’s provided in 16 other health centers around the state.
“We’re also really proud of our pre and post exposure, HIV work and all of our prevention education that we
are offering lightly,” Welch said. “We received a fiveyear grant from the federal government to investigate HIV prevention amongst black women, who are the single largest group that is gaining most likely to have a new HIV diagnosis. So we are really focused on that community right now.”
Welch touched on the Peoria Health Center that reopened in the summer after being firebombed last year by Tyler Massengill, who’s serving 10 years in federal prison for his crimes. It took over a year and more than $1 million dollars to even get it back open, she said.
“For that year, people in the central Illinois community of Peoria didn’t have the STI testing and treatment that they were used to getting at Planned Parenthood,” Welch said. “They didn’t have the HIV prevention and the gender affirming care and access to family planning and well patient checks.”
The opposition claims to help patients, but the experience Planned Parenthood has seen is they’re actually harming people, Welch said.
“They’re scaring patients, they’re misinforming patients, and that’s just people trying to get the health care that they need and deserve,” Welch said. “They have to come through a bunch of protesters who are threatening them and challenging them about the health care choices that patients are making that day.”
Welch said now is the time more than ever for women to keep in mind the politicians in the U.S. that demonstrate their disdain for the LGBTQ+ community and other marginalized groups.
“And if you care about a person’s right to decide when they start a family, if you care about the LGBTQ+ community, if you care about health equity, if you care about reproductive justice, if you care about bodily autonomy, that you care about this election,” Welch said. “I want you to vote about those concerns.”
Staff reporter Jamilah Lewis can be reached at jlewis@dailyegyptian.com
want to support the community that you’re serving…that keeps money inside Jackson County, and it also helps you keep your fingers on the pulse…It helps you feel invested in your community.”
She said the scrutiny was “pretty hurtful” but thinks it was just “the
nature of the beast.”
“I’m proud of living in Jackson County,” she added. “I moved down here in 2006. I fell in love with the area then I fell in love with my husband and bought a house. Jackson County educated my son, SIU educated me…I am invested in the community.”
Christian Hale, Cascio-Hale’s
husband, is running for Jackson County Circuit Clerk. A circuit clerk is an administrative officer responsible for managing court records.
Cervantez expressed concerns about bias, stating, “I think it’s a huge impropriety and conflict for a husband and wife to have two offices elected in the same county.”
Cascio-Hale said she does not think there would be a conflict of interest.
“The state’s attorney is the attorney for the office-holders,” she said. “So if something happened to our treasurer, our county clerk, our sheriff, circuit clerk, coroner, the state’s attorney represents them. So they’re on the same side…When
you’re on the same side, there’s no conflict.”
She said if a conflict ever were to arise, a state appellate prosecutor would handle the case.
As for why citizens should vote for them, each candidate mentioned different traits.
Cascio-Hale said she values integrity and honesty.
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“I will do things that aren’t being done,” she said. “Getting the cases through the court system, helping the victims, making sure that they have the ability to boost themselves back up.”
She added that Jackson County is a great place, and that in order to improve its faults, the community must work together.
Cervantez, on the other hand, said he values transparency.
“I want to keep my office open to the community, and I want to continue working with community groups, and I think that I’ve done my job,” he said.
He added, “I have the experience to be tough on violent crime [and] we need that right now…Ultimately this is not a political office, this is a public safety office.”
Election day will occur on Nov. 5, 2024. Early voting is currently available. For information regarding in-person voting opportunities or absentee ballot applications, visit jacksoncounty-il.gov.
News editor Carly Gist can be reached at cgist@dailyegyptian.com
Swamped with trash: Volunteers help clean up the community
Enan ChEdiak EChEdiak@dailyEgyptian Com
Volunteers picked up a total of 349 pounds of trash from Grantsburg Swamp on Oct. 4 during the Trash Blast at Shawnee National Forest in Grantsburg, Illinois according to volunteer Ben Allen. A team of 10 people collected the trash in two hours from one swamp. According to some involved, getting this much trash was not unusual.
“It’s what our trash pick-ups usually collect,” Ben Allen said.
Grantsburg Swamp is a cypress swamp near Grantsburg, Illinois and is part of Shawnee National Forest. “The thing about Shawnee National Forest is that it’s scattered all over the place,” Pat Jones said. “It’s not one big continuous area of land.” The Shawnee National
Forest spans from the Mississippi to the Ohio River, covering 289,000 acres.
Although Grantsburg is a small town of 2,700, there was still a lot of trash found in the swamp. Jonathan Voelz, who volunteered in three previous trash pickups at Grantsburg Swamp said that they’ve found about 800 pounds of trash before. Jones said, “In the past we’ve picked up everything from tires to couches, furniture, car parts.”
Jones said. “I think this is about the third or fourth time I’ve been out at Grantsburg, and I can honestly say that progress has been made here.”
According to Voelz, much of this is due to the work of the Friends of Shawnee National Forest and the Master Naturalists over the past few years.
This isn’t the only place in Shawnee National Forest at which trash has been
collected. Jones said that he thinks that Shawnee National Forest has an issue with pollution. “People know where to go and not get caught,” Jones stated.
“One of the big issues that we have is tire-dumping,” Jones said. One year at Ripple Hollow in Alexander County, Jones said that over a ton of trash was recovered, the majority being tires. In places like Grantsburg Swamp where three tires were found on Friday, the tires can be particularly hard to get out because they can become buried in the mud. “Some of the tires had been in there for years,” Jones said. “Sometimes we have to do some real digging to get them out.”
“With our natural area we try to manage them to look natural,” Allen said of Shawnee National Forest. “When people are driving by and see
a bunch of litter, it makes it easier for them to want to throw litter out, and it just looks bad for visitors to the forest.”
But according to Allen, trash is more than just unsightly; it can have a negative effect on the wildlife in the forest. “We’ve found a lot of bones, snakes and lizards and stuff, while we were picking up trash. All that’s impacted by this pollution.” Not only this, but the impact of the pollution can also last longer than we even realize according to Allen. “Essentially, things like Styrofoam and glass will be around forever,” Allen said.
But the responsibility of keeping our forests clean does not only lie on volunteers. The average hiker can do a lot to prevent pollution in areas like Shawnee National Forest.
“Most of our trailheads will have trash cans there,” Allen said. “If you see something, feel free to pick it up,” Jones said.
In addition to being responsible, people in the community can get involved at the next trash blast which takes place on Nov. 1, 2024 in Hardin County and is open to the public.
“It’s a known dump site,” Allen said. “We’ve gotten reports of large furniture.” Through the work of volunteers like those from the Friends of Shawnee National Forest and the Master Nationalists, change could be made elsewhere like what was made at Grantsburg Swamp.
An old tire is lifted into a truck bed to be taken from the Grantsburg Swamp Oct. 4, 2024 in Grantsburg, Illinois. This was one of three tires that was found at the swamp on Friday.
Photo editor Enan Chediak can be reached at echediak@dailyegyptian.com
Pat Jones (left) and Shelley Deals (right) put trash into a trash bag along the road near Grantsburg Swamp Oct. 4, 2024 in Grantsburg, Illinois. Enan Chediak