Beardstown

Help me out a little bit.

How did the Beardstown football team qualify for the postseason?

They did.

They're in 2A, which I was surprised.

They do.

So they play Lanark-Eastland.

They're coming almost 200 miles on a Saturday at 2 o'clock to come down and play at Beardstown.

Almost 200 miles.

All season long.

They're officially the number one seed in 2A, and they await the winner of Beardstown, Eastland, Pearl City.

A 16-seed Beardstown along U.S. Route 67 will host Eastland, Pearl City next weekend.

And again, the winner gets the Riverdale Rams.

Illini West, how crazy is this? They get in the playoffs.

Well, the interesting thing about the new playoff system, of course, is that the top eight seeds in the north and the south of the small school brackets, they get the buy.

So that is something that is a little bit unique to high school football.

So when you look at getting that buy, what do you think you want to try to accomplish over the next week when you're going to be practicing? You're not going to be knowing – exactly who you're playing yet it'll be either Beardstown or Eastland Pearl City so how do you think you're going to attack this bye week because it's really the first time that anybody's had to do something like this

For my practicum, I was placed in classrooms where there would be one or two Spanish-speaking students because of my Spanish abilities, which in hindsight were better than a monolingual English speaker, but not at a very high level.

These classroom experiences, along with a Spanish professor, Dr. Susan Holm, were instrumental in what would lead to my career in bilingual education in Beardstown.

During the second semester of my junior year, I was the only student in the Spanish literature class, and Dr. Holm nurtured me and encouraged me as my conversational and my writing skills were rapidly progressing towards a high level of proficiency.

She encouraged me to pursue some authentic practice of Spanish, and that summer I experienced as close as I would get to a semester abroad as I spent the summer in Tyler, Texas.

I learned a lot about pregnancy that summer, as well as improving my verbal Spanish.

I continued my studies in elementary education in Spanish my senior year, and because of my summer experiences in Texas and in student teaching in Galesburg, I could see how bilingual education could be something that would be my career.

However, I decided to go a different route, graduating at a time when it was difficult to obtain a teaching job, and I took a teaching position at a private school in Beardstown.

It would take 10 years before I made the decision to move to teaching at Gard Elementary in Beardstown, where I would be hired as a transitional bilingual education teacher.

During this same winter, near its close, young Lincoln, in company with his stepmother's son, John D. Johnson, and John Hanks, proposed another flatboat trip to the Crescent City.

They therefore hired themselves to a person named Dennis Ofolt to take a boat to that metropolis from Beardstown, Illinois, they agreeing to meet their employer at Springfield, Illinois, when the snow should have melted off, and complete their arrangements for the trip.

But when the snow melted, in the early part of March, 1831, traveling by land became impractical, as the county was entirely flooded so they purchased a large canoe and came down the sangamon river therein by this mode mr lincoln made his first entrance into the county of sangamon offolt however had failed to procure the boat So they hired themselves to him at twelve dollars per month each, and were employed in getting the timber out of the forest, and in building a boat, at Old Sangamon Town, seven miles northwest of Springfield, on the Sangamon River.

In this craft they eventually proceeded to New Orleans.

And this same friend, long afterward, writes, That was the only drink of intoxicating liquor I ever knew him to take, and that he spurted out on the floor.

Whether true or not, this little anecdote, so far as it concerns the whiskey, is in keeping with the temperate habits which have since distinguished him.

Young Lincoln's company, shortly afterward, proceeded to Beardstown, whence in a few days it was summoned to the expected scene of conflict.

But when the term of enlistment, thirty days, had expired, the men were disbanded at Ottawa, with most of their fellow volunteers, and returned to their homes without having seen the enemy.

It's a slow process, but every conversation, every bit of education moves us forward.

Switching gears, we're heading to Beardstown.

You might not have heard of it, but this is a story about civic engagement and how representation can shift even in small communities.

There's a civic group that has been credited with really rebuilding and revitalizing Beardstown.

They've done a lot of good work, bringing people together and making positive changes.

However, the situation has evolved and now this very group that helped shape the town finds itself in a position where it can no longer represent it in the way it once did.

It's a sign that the league understands the power and passion our community brings to the game, and they're ready to embrace it.

Switching gears, let's talk about a town in Illinois called Beardstown where demographics are shifting and that's changing the community's fabric.

For years, Beardstown has seen a significant influx of Latino families, particularly from Mexico, who have found work and built lives there.

This growth brings with it new perspectives, new traditions, and a growing demand for services that cater to this expanding population.

It's a story that's playing out in many towns across the country, where the arrival of new residents revitalizes local economies and enriches the cultural landscape.

It's about adaptation, integration, and building a stronger community for everyone as these new families put down roots and become an integral part of Beardstown's identity.

In Nevada, a beautiful example of community coming together for our young people is unfolding.

The PEF, which stands for the Public Education Foundation, recently held its Hispanic and Latina Legacy Dinner.