CHARLESTON – The Southeastern Illinois Community Foundation is pleased to announce the award of $ 26,980.78 to the Charleston Carnegie Public Library as part of the Southeastern Illinois COVID-19 Relief Fund’s latest round of funding.
The Charleston Carnegie Public Library received funds for the “Coles County COVID-19 Assistance Program” effective January 2022. The goal of the new program will be to connect county residents with the resources available to them, while creating an impactful internship position for EIU students.
The program will also serve as a link between the various service and resource organizations throughout Coles County, in the hopes of helping everyone better reach and serve the residents of Coles County.
The program will be overseen by Library Director Chris Houchens and will be led by students from Eastern Illinois University, as this program will create a paid internship or paid independent study with departments at EIU, including the College of Health and Human Services and the Department of Public Health. Houchens will work with these colleges and departments to select graduate or undergraduate students for a degree that will be a version of the work that this program encompasses.
Houchens says, “With the physical location of the library in Charleston, we are ready to immediately start helping people in the county. We will build new relationships and consolidate existing ones with county social service organizations to ensure we are able to provide the most accurate information and referrals possible. As a public library, we have pre-existing relationships with a variety of service organizations in our area, and we will be able to use these relationships to help initiate and establish this program.
The Southeastern Illinois Community Foundation, in partnership with the Lumpkin Family Foundation, created the Southeastern Illinois COVID-19 Relief Fund to support organizations directly serving residents and families most affected by the pandemic. A fund advisory committee manages the Southeastern Illinois COVID-19 Relief Fund.
The Southeastern Illinois Community Foundation operates more than 180 affiliate funds for the immediate and long-term benefit of communities in Southeastern Illinois.
Charleston locations in 12 historical photos
Wilb Walker supermarket
1988: Dyalene Haworth demonstrates the ease of use of the EZ Shopper Grocery Cart at Wilb Walker Supermarket.
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Square
1980: Place Charleston.
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North Park house before renovation
1986: Jean Carpenter of Charleston received a grant to repair his house. A grant of $ 350,000 from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Community Affairs will be used to renovate approximately 40 homes in the North Park neighborhood.
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North Park house after renovation
1986: Jean Carpenter on the porch of the house after renovations.
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Mother
1988: At Mother’s in Charleston, grandmother winks at customers who come to wet their whistles. Mothers is a tavern known to almost every student at Eastern Illinois University.
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Hotel fire
1931: The Jefferies building is destroyed by fire on Tuesday evening. On the left is the Winters clothing store with the Charleston hotel office next door to the north, then a vacant room recently vacated by the Huckleberry jewelry store, with the Rogers Pharmacy on the corner.
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Golf field
1986: Pat Kaiser plans to open his nine-hole golf course by Memorial Day weekend if Mother Nature would cooperate.
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Eastern Illinois Artists Guild
1941: A permanent exhibition of the work of Paul Turner Sargent was opened by the Eastern Illinois Artists’ Guild at 809 Jack St. built in 1831 by Dr. Aaron Ferguson. It is said to be the oldest house in Charleston.
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Downtown
1986: Downtown Charleston was designated as part of the funding district for that city’s tax increases in so-called dilapidated areas of their cities.
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Coles County National Bank
1992: Coles County National Bank is declared insolvent and sold to Eagle Bank and Trust Co. The Missouri-based trust company owns banks in three other Illinois cities, Sparta, Nashville and Highland.
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Charleston Square
1978: Osco Drug and Eisner grocery store soon opens in Charleston Plaza shopping center. The two stores will occupy 40,000 square feet in the center. A 2,000 square foot Radio Shack store is already open. Another 2,000 square foot store will be occupied by the Book Emporium and will open later this year. A total of 9,000 square feet remains for rent in the center.
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Celotex Corp.
1971: The estimated annual production for the new Celotex Corp. plant. north of Charleston is approximately 130 million square feet of insulation board.
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