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Serving Bureau County Since 1847
Saturday, June 29, 2013
DeRyckes looking for another miracle By Donna Barker dbarker@bcrnews.com
ANNAWAN — Like many other girls, 5-year-old Katelyn DeRycke loves to play outside, to swing on her swingset, to go fishing and swim. She loves playing with her Barbie dolls and with her 8-year-old sister Kyla and the family puppy. She likes playing with the IPAD. But unlike most other little girls, Katelyn has some special medical challenges. As a newborn, Katelyn was diagnosed with Autosomal Recessive Polycystic Kidney Disease, a disease which claimed the life of her brother Noah in September 2003 when Noah was just 5 hours old. Autosomal Recessive Polycystic Kidney Disease (ARPKD) is a genetic disease, in which both parents are the carrier of the ARPKD gene. However, only 25 percent of children born to parents who are carriers will have the disease. For Adam and Hope DeRycke, they knew at 25 weeks into their pregnancy that their baby daughter had the disease. On Tuesday, Hope DeRycke talked about her daughter’s journey and challenges, and the goals she has set for her daughter. From the very start, her daughter has been a fighter, DeRycke said. When Katelyn was born, the doctors gave her a 20 percent chance of survival and asked the parents if they wanted to pursue treatment for her. But when DeRycke reached out to touch her baby, Katelyn grabbed her mother’s hand and squeezed her fingers. “I knew that was a sign that she was a fighter and that also was the sign that made our decision for us,” DeRycke said. “We knew it would be an uphill battle, and it definitely has been, but it’s a battle we were going to take.”
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Bridge projects coming to county By Donna Barker dbarker@bcrnews.com
PRINCETON — Nearly $700,000 has been awarded by the state of Illinois for bridge cleaning and painting jobs in Bureau County. On Thursday, Gov. Pat Quinn announced more than $1 million in capital investments
for bridge painting projects will be done in Bureau and Putnam counties as part of the Illinois Jobs Now! plan, with three projects slated for Bureau County and one project for Putnam County. In Bureau County, the first project will be the cleaning and painting of structural steel on the bridge carrying Township Road 364 over Interstate 80, located about three
By Donna Barker dbarker@bcrnews.com
BCR photo/Becky Kramer
Beating the heat
One Section - 24 Pages
Jasmine, 6, and Giovanni Morales, 7 months, of DePue enjoy an ice cream treat Thursday while playing by Lake DePue. They are the children of Sonia Rios and Armando Morales. The siblings should have some more good summer days and ice cream treats ahead of them as temperatures are forecast to remain in the high 70s through next week.
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Walnut Food Pantry increases summer giving
See Katelyn Page 4 Year 167 No. 78
and one-third miles south of the Route 89 interchange. In Thursday’s announcement, the governor stated two bids were submitted for the Township Road 364 bridge project, with the contract awarded to Three Star Painting Inc. of Merrillville, Ind., at a bid of $283,062.
WALNUT — The Walnut Food Pantry has increased the amount of food distributed to families this summer to help handle increased food needs since children are home for the summer. On Wednesday, Director Deanna Wilt said the numbers of families and individuals served through the Walnut Food Pantry has remained fairly steady this summer, in spite of children being out of school and not having schools breakfast and lunch programs. But, because children are not in school and therefore not having breakfast and lunch options through school, the food pantry has increased some of the items distributed during the summers, like cereal and lunch meat, Wilt said. Also, to help supplement the Walnut Food Pantry during the busy summer months, the women’s group at Walnut’s First United Methodist Church has begun a support program which provides food bags for children. Each bag contains a breakfast item, lunch item, fruit, snack and juice for five days a week. Families register for the summer food bags through the Walnut Food Pantry. The food bags are picked up from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. Mondays at the church, Wilt said. Looking at the need in the Walnut Township area, Wilt said the food pantry served 53 families last year, which represented 195 individuals. Of those individuals, 86 were children and four were elderly, she said. Some of those people are unemployed while others are underemployed, Wilt said. Others are working full-time but their income just isn’t making ends meet and those families need a little assistance, she said. Fortunately, the shelves at the Walnut Food Pantry are currently pretty well-stocked, Wilt said, thanks to the generosity of the supporting churches, individuals, groups and organizations. The recent Mail Carrier food collection drive in Walnut brought in a lot of items, she said. As local summer gardens grow, it would be great to get some fresh garden produce to distribute at the food pantry, Wilt added.
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