Knox in the News

From WGIL radio:

The Knox College women’s and men’s indoor track and field teams had a strong finish to close out the Midwest Conference championship meet, as both teams moved up after the dust settled and the day was over, with the Men’s team finishing in seventh place and the women’s team finishing in sixth place. The seventh place finish by the men’s team is their highest finish since 2000, when Knox tied for sixth place. The sixth place finish by the women’s team is their highest finish since 2004, when the women’s team also finished in sixth.

In all, many Prairie Fire track and field athletes finished their indoor season on high notes, with 24 season best times or throws in various events.

From WGIL radio:

The sun was out, but if you’ll forgive the expression, in a respect, Sunday was no day at the beach.

The annual Law Enforcement Torch Run’s Polar Plunge benefiting Special Olympics at Lake Storey Sunday. Organizers say it was the largest plunge for them yet — one of several that happened statewide — with nearly nearly 250 people willing to shed some of their pride and take a dip into Lake Storey as a result of their raising funds…..

MOST MONEY RAISED BY A TEAM: The Corner Connection, $5,750
2nd PLACE: Beta Theta Pi Xi, $4,779
3rd PLACE: IL Beta Delta Chapter of Pi Beta Pi, $2,515

From the Register-Mail:

While Hawaii appears to have dodged a bullet from a tsunami spurred by Saturday’s magnitude 8.8 earthquake that rocked Chile, a Galesburg native who now lives in Hawaii says she was never in harm’s way.

Joy Ripperger, who graduated from Galesburg High School in 1986 and from Knox College in 1991, said she lives on Oahu in the city of Honolulu, far enough off the coast that she never feared for her safety. Her parents, William and Anne Ripperger, live in Wailuku on Maui.

From the Register-Mail:

Dawn Harrison was busy at 4:30 p.m. Thursday. She had just finished cutting celery. A couple of cucumbers and yellow peppers awaited slicing.

Harrison was joined by seven others in the kitchen of the League of United Latin American Citizens on Second Street. They — and the volunteers setting up tables, arranging trays of cookies, cornbread and fruit — were preparing for The People in Galesburg’s second free community dinner. The dinner was from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. and attracted around 100 people.

The first was Dec. 22, 2009, inside the Community Center on Simmons Street. That event attracted close to 200 diners and collected 320 cans of food for local pantries….

Organizers said they want to plan another event in May.

“How often do we want to this? As often as we can pull it off,” said Peter Schwartzman, a Knox College professor, community activist and one of the driving forces behind The People in Galesburg. “We decided we wanted to take this effort to the neighborhoods and we want to convince as many groups as possible to join in.”

Schwartzman said the goal of the community dinners is simple.

“Feed people. Really, in a town our size, there should be dinners like this all the time,” Schwartzman said. “This is a great way for people to maybe step out of their comfort zone and meet some new people in their community.

From the Register-Mail:

Maurice McDavid stood out from the rest of those who lined up for free chilli, cornbread and countless other foodstuffs during Thursday’s free community dinner inside the LULAC building on Second Street. He didn’t stand out because he is Division III football big. Or because he was the only black man — other than Lomac Payton — in a crowd of almost 100.

The 22-year-old Knox College senior projected ease. Confidence. He smiled and extended a hand to strangers. He sat and spoke with a few high school students. He conversed with a woman in Spanish.

One couldn’t help but want to meet the magnet. And after that meeting, one can’t help but pray he stays in this community.

From the Daily Review Atlas:

The State Farm Youth Advisory Board (YAB) announced Knox College will receive a $35,000 service-learning grant for their Galesburg Enrichment Mentoring program.

The Knox College project will provide mentoring and enrichment to Galesburg-area high school and elementary students through a Junior Great Books program.

Knox College is one of 82 community organizations or schools to receive a service-learning, youth-led grant across the United States and Canada. More than 1,100 grant requests were received by the Board.

“The students at Knox College are working to address the serious achievement gap in their area,” said YAB board member Armand Ontiveros. “This mentoring program will be a great start to closing that gap.”

Said Stephen Schroth of Knox’s educational studies department, “The State Farm Youth Advisory Board grant symbolizes so much that is great about Knox. Danny Gonshorek and the students who worked on this proposal created an exciting new project that brings together what is best about the college, the community and the sense of cohesion and cooperation between the two.”

See also WGIL radio.

See also the Galesburg Register-Mail.