Peru's Pouncing Panthers 4-H Club got the city to "go green" for National 4-H Week. Club president Landon Uzumecki and vice president Abby Redmon asked the Peru City Council at its Sept. 21 meeting for permission to decorate two city landmarks, and the council approved displays at Maud Powell Plaza and the Peoria Street roundabout. Club members and younger Cloverbuds helped put the displays together, the Schneider family donated pumpkins and broom corn from their pumpkin stand, and Cloverbud Evan Parsons and his parents handed out 4-H suckers and pencils at the Illinois Valley YMCA's Trunk or Treat on Oct. 10. The club, active since the mid-1990s, is open to kids 8 to 18, with Cloverbuds for ages 5 to 7. It meets at 6:30 p.m. on the third Tuesday of each month at the First Congregational Church in Peru, and its next meeting will be a 4-H open house for the community.
Christmas at Canal Market is coming back to Utica on Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 28 and 29. Shoppers can stop by the Canal Market from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days to browse antiques, holiday decorations, custom T-shirts and more.
Peru's Halloween celebration drew a good crowd to Washington Park on Saturday, with mild weather helping turnout. Rides in an aerial truck were one of the biggest hits of the day, and families also found a ghost rider, an inflatable alien and plenty of treats to go around.
OSF HealthCare Saint Elizabeth Medical Center in Peru has expanded its automated breast ultrasound screening, known as ABUS, to five days a week, up from two days when the service started. The exam is meant for patients with dense breast tissue, which can hide cancer on a mammogram because dense tissue and tumors both show up white on the images. ABUS uses sound waves instead of radiation to build three-dimensional images, takes about 15 minutes and is done alongside a regular screening mammogram, not instead of one. OSF says that in the two years the Peru hospital has offered it, providers have found several breast cancers smaller than one centimeter that mammograms alone missed. Patients who have been told they have dense breasts are encouraged to ask their primary care provider whether ABUS is right for them. More information is at osfhealthcare.org/breast-health.
Streator was chartered in 1868 on a bluff above the Vermilion River. Coal brought the railroads, and glass made the name: for decades the town turned out more glass bottles than almost anywhere on earth. Walk the brick blocks downtown and the story is still there in the cornices.
