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The 13th round of grants were presented last week during a virtual reception.
The recipients are Wooden It Be Lovely, a not-for-profit founded at Douglas Avenue United Methodist Church, $20,000; Downtown Springfield Heritage Foundation, which facilitates renovation and re-adaptation of downtown buildings, while helping to promote the area, $5,000 and the Enos Park Neighborhood Improvement Association, dedicated to the preservation and revitalization of the Near North neighborhood, $30,000.
Women for Women is a special initiative at the Community Foundation for the Land of Lincoln. It has awarded near half a million since its founding in 2008.
The grant will help Wooden It Be Lovely launch its House of Hope program, a residential healing program to help women recovering from poverty, addiction and homelessness.
Alexis Meints was enrolled in the School of the Art Institute of Chicago after graduating from Pekin High School. She wanted to be a fashion designer.
A pregnancy thwarted those plans. Back in Pekin, alcohol and drugs eventually took over Meints life. Her parents moved out of state, meaning an important safety net was gone.
Meints said she got clean for a number of years. To make ends meet, she started giving people rides. The payment was often in meth instead of gas money. It was like a really bad cycle, admitted Meints, 26. I wanted to die every day.
Meints came to Springfield to address her drug addiction at Gateway Foundation. That s where she heard about Wooden It Be Lovely (WIBL), a program started at Douglas Avenue United Methodist Church that provides women who are struggling with addictions or other serious issues with jobs refurbishing furniture and sewing.
Staff Report
SIU Medicine has new COVID-19 testing sites on Fridays during March.
It is keeping its testing site at Abundant Faith Christian Center, 2525 Taylor Ave. The testing is from 9 to 11 a.m. and 1 to 4 p.m. on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.
On Fridays, the sites will rotate between four churches: Second Timothy Baptist Church, 1122 E. Pine St., on March 5; Westminster Presbyterian Church, 533 S. Walnut St., March 12; Douglas Avenue United Methodist Church, 501 S. Douglas Ave., March 19 and Mount Zion Apostolic Church, 2637 S. 10th St., March 26.
All Friday sites operate from 9 a.m. to noon.
Before getting tested, patients should wait at least four days from a possible exposure to get the most accurate test result and quarantine at home until a result has been given.