BEST ANIMAL RESCUE ORGANIZATION

Animal Protective League 1001 Taintor Road, 544-7387 Springfield has at least five places where you can adopt an unwanted dog or cat, but Animal Protective League is, by far, the favorite with readers, who gave the APL more than twice as many tail-wags as all other contenders combined. Maybe it’s the dog washes, with all proceeds going to help animals. Maybe it’s the five-year-old spay/neuter clinic that some say has helped fuel a steep decline in euthanizations at Sangamon County Animal Control. Maybe it’s a track record dating back more than 50 years. Likely, it is all this and more. The Animal Protective League really is man’s best friend’s best friend. Runner-up: Forever Home Feline Ranch

BEST SCHOOLTEACHER

Mark Butcher Rochester High School Mark Butcher has the looks of Albert Einstein and a sense of humor akin to that of his teenage students. The 59-year-old physics teacher at Rochester High School is this year’s best schoolteacher. Now in his 20th year of teaching, Butcher came to the career late in life, after 14 years in a hospital laboratory, where he says the people were great but the job a little too routine. What’s his trick? “Any subject has an inherent difficulty you just can’t get away from,” Butcher says. “So you don’t have to make it harder than it is. Eliminate the distractions.” He says school is a fun place: “They [students] make me laugh, and I wake up every morning glad to go to work.”

Runner-up: Steve Welch, Glenwood High School