BE THE BLUES
Nothin’ beats the blues like being a part of them. Downtown Springfield, Inc. is looking for volunteers to help with its 2011 Old Capitol Blues and BBQs event, a street celebration scheduled for Friday and Saturday, Aug. 26 and 27.
The event, which features a BBQ competition and various styles of live blues music, starts at 5 p.m. on Friday and noon on Saturday, lasting until midnight each day. This is the first year in its eight-year history that the event has included Friday night activities.
Organizers need volunteers for shifts lasting at least two hours before and during the event. Volunteers can help set up, tear down, check visitor identification or sell food tickets, among other jobs.
The event requires about 200 volunteers total, and organizers are still looking for about 20 volunteers on both Friday and Saturday, says Diane Covington, DSI’s volunteer coordinator. Volunteers can range in age, and DSI can sign-off on service hours for students.
For more information about volunteer opportunities, contact Covington at 217- 622-3009. For more information about Old Capitol Blues and BBQs, visit www.downtownspringfield.org.
READING CAUSES MURDER
With the advent of digital book downloads, it seems unlikely that a company specializing in electronic books would encourage people to visit traditional brick-and-mortar libraries. But the Chatham Area Public Library is proof of the power of reading, no matter what the medium. The Chatham library recently won a $1,000 grant from OverDrive, Inc., a Clevelandbased company that sells downloadable books, in the company’s 2011 outreach contest to encourage reading both inside and outside the library. Chatham’s winning entry was its “Death by Download” murder mystery theater performance in March of this year. The play depicted a fictional murder during the library’s announcement of its “Library on the Go” digital book download service. It was the 11th year the library has put on a murder mystery play, which often features people from the village board, library board and other public figures. “It’s a hit,” says Amy Ihnen, director of the Chatham library. “I think people enjoy the fun of seeing people from their community in a different light.” The $1,000 contest grant will go toward purchasing more digital books for library patrons to check out free of charge. For more information, visit www.chatham.lib.il.us or call 483-2713.
