Dancing Raison and Dead Possoms
The Source
By Ken Bradbury Raisons are dancing in Arenzville this summer. “You just drop it in the pop…it’s gotta be clear like Sierra Mist, and it starts to dance,” said Zach Burton. “It’s the sugar on the outside and it mixes with the carbon dioxide. It’s cool.” Hannah Workman likes the Fizzonator. “You take baking soda and a balloon and a bottle and some vinegar and it fizzes.” Abby Glover thinks that the combination of Diet Pepsi and Mentos makes for a pretty amazing reaction as well. Ed Anderson’s collection of skulls was a favorite of Justace Brenize. “He had all kinds of dead things and kept their skulls.” Ed Anderson was one of a half dozen guest speakers in the Arenzville Library and Tutoring program’s summer camp program. “Mr. Anderson said that he saw a dead porcupine on the road,” said Burton, “and he wanted to get it’s skull so he started to put in in the trunk of his car but his daughters didn’t want him to do that. So he put it under the hood. When the motor got hot they remembered where they put the possum.” “The summer program is a way to ‘ramp them up’ for the start of school,” said Leslie Forsman, one of the program’s coordinators and the director of Triopia’s library system. “Actually, Amanda Lynn is the one who got all this going.” Amanda will be a senior education major at Illinois College this fall and grew up in Arenzville. Combining her dreams with a $3000 grant from the Prairieland Unite Way, she designed a program of summer learning and enrichment that’s open to all area children. The result is a series of three, two-week camps giving students hands-on instruction in the areas of science, math, and language arts, culminating in a family wiener roast on August 19th. “I’d done some observing in classrooms,” said Amanda, “and saw that there was a real need to help kids catch up.” The Arenzville summer program keeps students in a learning mode while school is out of session. The program serves kids in grades 3-8, not only providing instruction but offering a series of guest speakers from the area. Anderson brought his collection of skulls and talked about how various animals’ bodies are designed for their specific needs, Jim Lynn explained the mysteries of electricity, Vera Talkemeyer taught the group how to make homemade butter (“It was sort of strange,” said Miss Brenize, “but it was nice.”), Carol Link talked about learning, and Barb Lawson lit up the little Arenzville eyes by showing them how to make their own ice cream. Each of the children receives pre and post testing and the tests are tied to the Illinois state standards. The program can serve up to twenty children and although the numbers are reaching their limit, Amanda said that they still have room for a few more applicants. The newly renovated Arenzville library has five Internet-ready computers for homework, research, and other educational purposes, along with more than 5,000 books. The facility also offers tutoring during the school year. Details of the library’s hours and services can be accessed on Facebook via “Arenzville Library and Tutoring Center.” A group of Arenzville area kids will be ready and “ramped up” as they return to school in August, but their teachers might be forewarned about the Fizzonator and the possum sculls.