Valentine's Day at Pease's and Bunn Gourmet
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In celebration of Valentine's Day we caught up with Pease's and toured Peases at Bunn Gourmet to see how they prepare for one of the sweetest days of the year.
16 facts about our 16th president
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In honor of President Lincoln’s birthday, here are 16 facts that you probably didn’t know about our 16th president: 
1. Hours before he was assassinated, Lincoln signed legislation creating the U.S. Secret Service.
2. Lincoln was a wrestler, and a talented one at that. He lost only one match, out of an estimated 300, and he is enshrined in the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.
3. Lincoln read the Bible every day, but he never belonged to an organized church.
4. He supported women’s suffrage in 1836 – more than 80 years before the passage of the 19th Amendment.
5. When Lincoln was nine years old, his mother died after drinking tainted milk from southern Indiana that contained poisonous white snakeroot.
6. Lincoln was scheduled to take part in a duel, but it was called off at the last second.
7. He was the first president to use a telegraph, have a beard, and to be born outside of the 13 original colonies.
8. John Wilkes Booth and Abraham Lincoln were photographed together at Lincoln’s second inauguration.
9. In 1864, someone shot at Lincoln and pierced his hat.
10. John Wilkes Booth’s brother, Edwin Booth, saved the life of Lincoln’s son Robert. The young Lincoln fell off a train platform in New Jersey and Booth’s brother pulled him from the tracks.
11. In his US Senate race against Douglas, Lincoln won the popular vote but lost the election.
12. Ulysses S. Grant was supposed to accompany Lincoln to the show at Ford’s Theater, but he cancelled at the last minute.
13. Lincoln served as a judge on the Illinois Circuit Court.
14. A year after Lincoln died, a drunken assailant killed Lincoln’s dog, Fido.
15. Lincoln loved cats. He even let his cat eat at the White House dinner table.
16. He hated to be called Abe. Instead he preferred people call him Lincoln.
Springfield students win local entrepreneurship competition
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A group of three budding entrepreneurs from Springfield High School won Sangamon County’s version of the hit ABC reality show “Shark Tank” with a business to connect nonprofits with potential donors. Abby Tellez, Joseph Abe-Bell and Julia Gorden created Tomatoes and Blankets, what they described in The State Journal-Register as a cross between Kickstarter and Match.com for local nonprofits.
The idea for Tomatoes and Blankets came from concerns about food waste. The teens initially wanted to connect restaurants with local nonprofits in need of food donations. From there, the idea grew to creating a way for nonprofits and charities to communicate what donations they needed.
The creators of Tomatoes and Blankets participate in Sangamon CEO, a program that teaches high school seniors about business and entrepreneurship. Students learn about the challenges of creating a business, meet with local business owners and are paired with a mentor from the business community.
As part of Sangamon CEO, the program participants proposed different ideas for businesses. The top six proposals were selected to compete in an event like “Shark Tank,” where they pitched their business ideas to five business owners and answered questions about their proposal. Although no cash prizes were awarded, Tomatoes and Blankets was deemed “worth funding” following their presentation.
Sangamon CEO is facilitated by Nabih Elhajj and Richard Johnson. Elhajj is a local entrepreneur who operated The Market on Koke Mill and cofounded Shoutbuddy, a podcast that highlights entrepreneurs, while Johnson was a dean at several universities and previously worked for the U.S. Department of Justice.
Throwback Thursday: The incorporation of the Boy Scouts of America by an Illinois resident
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On Feb. 8, 1910, Chicago publishing tycoon William D. Boyce incorporated the Boy Scouts of America. Boyce had earned his fortune at the Chicago Ledger, where he employed the first newspaper boys.
Boyce came across scouting while in London in 1909. After getting lost in the London fog, Boyce was aided by a young British Boy Scout. Once the boy had led him to his destination, Boyce offered to tip the boy but the boy refused. The boy stated that he was a Scout and could not accept a tip for Good Turns. Boyce was impressed and set out to learn more about scouting.
Boyce gathered scouting literature from the founder of the British Boy Scouts, Lord Robert Baden-Powell. Baden-Powell decided to develop the British Boy Scouts after being stationed in India with the Army, where he discovered that his troops did not possess basic means of survival outdoors or first aid skills.
Once Boyce returned from London, he set about founding the Boy Scouts of America. 
There were two other groups in the United States that had sought to train boys in scouting. After the Boy Scouts were incorporated, the leaders of those groups joined the leadership of the Boy Scouts of America.
Boyce donated $4,000 to the Boy Scouts of America and partnered with groups like the YMCA to recruit members. The purpose of the Boy Scouts was “to promote, through organization, and cooperation with other agencies, the ability of boys to do things for themselves and others, to train them in Scoutcraft, and to teach them patriotism, courage, self-reliance, and kindred virtues, using the methods which are in common use by Boy Scouts.”
The Boy Scouts of America grew quickly. In 1910 there were 2,000 Boy Scouts and today there are millions.
In 1930, the Boy Scouts of America formally launched Cub Scouting. Over 5,000 boys registered within the first year. Cub Scouts would meet weekly to play games and make crafts in a member’s home. This differed from programs in other countries because of the American focus on activities in the home and neighborhood.
Today there are more than 2.4 million participants in the Boy Scouts of America making it the largest scouting organization in the United States.
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