Celebrate National Walking Day in Illinois

• National Walking Day

April 3 is National Walking Day! Physical activity is one of the best ways to live a healthier lifestyle and manage daily stressors one step at a time. Most of our days consist of sitting at work or school for eight hours, which can have negative consequences on our physical and mental health over time.

National Walking Day was established in 2007 by the American Heart Association and is celebrated annually on the first Wednesday in April to encourage people to add more movement in their daily routines. All communities are invited to take a walk on this day – whether it be to work or at a local park – to experience the impact of this lifesaving activity. See below for how you can participate in Illinois.

Plainfield Park District Free Track Day: Plainfield

In honor of National Walking Day, the Prairie Fit Fitness Center is offering free use of their indoor walking track all day on April 3. Additionally, members have an opportunity to get one month of free track use when they purchase a track membership on this day.

Read more …

Celebrate International Children's Book Day

April 2 is International Children’s Book Day! Since 1967, Children’s Book Day has been celebrated as a day to inspire a passion of reading and to call attention to children’s books. Schools, libraries and community organizations across the globe participate by bringing families together to read, promoting reading at an early age and raising awareness about the importance of literacy in molding the young minds of the future.

For centuries, the importance of reading has been taught in schools. Reading provides kids with a therapeutic effect and a sense of escapism and allows them to discover stories on their own terms in language they understand. Reading encourages kids to use their imagination, enhances language development, builds their vocabulary and reasoning skills, and can foster bilingualism when families read stories in their heritage language.

Kids can take today as an opportunity to learn about and read books by Illinois-based children’s book authors such as:

Mistie Psaledas. “The Truth About the Tooth” is a story about diversity, creativity and imagination of different tooth fairy legends.

Shel Silverstein. “Where the Sidewalk Ends” is a collection of poems and illustrations that explores themes of imagination, humans’ relationship with nature, and the divide between adulthood and childhood.

Gwendolyn Brooks. “Bronzeville Boys and Girls” is a collection of 34 poems that celebrate the joy of childhood in Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood and beyond.

Kim Moldofsky. In “Amelia Earhart: A Graphic Novel,” readers discover some of Earhart’s incredible achievements before she disappeared on her attempted flight around the world.

These are just a few of the many great children’s books to be celebrated today. Join the festivities by picking up a new book or revisiting an old favorite!

Celebrate Take a Walk in the Park Day

March 30 is Take a Walk in the Park Day! With spring weather greeting the state, it is a chance to get outside and enjoy what local parks have to share. To celebrate, here are some parks across the state with walking trails to take a stroll with family, friends or your dog!

Ferne Clyffe State Park: Goreville, IL
With many unique geological features to see at Ferne Clyffe Park, there are plenty of opportunities to walk one of their eighteen trails! Along these different walking trails – ranging from a quarter-mile to eight miles long – there are chances to see the lake, waterfalls and rock formations.

Read more …

Artist of the Month: Todd Snyder

• Arts & Culture
• Artist of the month

Todd Snyder is our March Artist of the Month. He is a nationally recognized fine artist from East Peoria and has worked as a professional oil painter since 1986. Snyder earned an associate degree in commercial art from the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design in Denver, Colorado and has since lived in central Illinois.

The multitude of paintings Snyder produced throughout his career depict local urban landscapes and architecture in magical realist style reminiscent of the German New Objectivity painters of the early 20^th century. He combines elements of surrealism with his subject matter to fashion his own style of “industrial surrealism” in all of his work.

According to Snyder, his paintings are synthesized productions of his imagination, which include a combination of heavy industrial machinery, cityscapes and images of his immediate surroundings. He aims to create ambiguity and tension in his illustrations in order to reflect the surreal nature of our world and leave the viewer with a fragmented, unresolved story about what they are seeing.

Read more …