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Story Subject Category: Parks/Outdoor Recreation
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The Exotic Feline Rescue Center is one of the largest rescue centers in the country for abused, abandoned, and neglected exotic felines. The EFRC was founded by Joe Taft in 1991 and has grown over the years to spread more than 100 acres in Center Point, Indiana. Cared for by a small group of devoted professionals, the cats go through an astonishing 3,000 pounds of meat a day, live in custom-made enclosures, and even get dental work done by the vets at the U of I. Steve Drake visited the EFRC and went on an amazing, guided tour provided by the director himself.
Segment duration: 09:54
Story links:
Producer: Steve Drake
Editor: Jared Collins and Steve Drake
This segment is filed in these categories: Livestock/Animals/Zoology • Parks/Outdoor Recreation • Science/Nature • University of Illinois
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Starved Rock State Park is located just south of Utica, Ill. Its 18 canyons were formed by melting waters from glaciers. The erosion created spectacular rock formations in the surrounding sandstone bluffs. Producer Brian Paris and videographer Virginia Steffen visited the park to see for themselves what makes Starved Rock so special.
Segment duration: 8:00
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Producer: Steve Drake and Brian Paris
Editor: Steve Drake and Tristan Riddell
This segment is filed in these categories: Environment • Historical Landmarks • Illinois Culture/History • Native Americana • Parks/Outdoor Recreation • Travel • Utica
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By producer Virginia Steffen
I first visited the Butterfly House at the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis in June of ’06. I fell in love. It is such an entrancing feeling to have all these beautiful winged creatures flying all around and occasionally land on you. What a special treat to see the nearly famous Blue Morpho (a giant blue butterfly) fly by!
The best part of our shoot was watching curator of butterflies Mark Deering open up the emergence case, and see brand-new butterflies fly for the first time. It was such a beautiful experience; I was in awe.
The Butterfly House is a special treat for adults and kids alike. I loved watching the faces of little kids seeing so many butterflies up close for the first time, and I also found out that many adults also come here on their own and sometimes sit for hours just watching these beautiful, miraculous creatures. As Deering says, “To many people, butterflies represent spirit,” and what better way to have your spirit lifted than to visit a place where you can see so many butterflies at once?
Segment duration: 07:51
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Producer: Virginia Steffen
Chief Camera - Segment: Julius Bolton
This segment is filed in these categories: Parks/Outdoor Recreation
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Segment duration: 06:12
Producer: Eleanore Stasheff
This segment is filed in these categories: Historical Landmarks • Parks/Outdoor Recreation
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Allerton Park is truly an oasis on the prairie. When you walk through the shaded canopy on a hot summer day, it is incredible to think that Robert Allerton built the entire park out of nothing. The place was the vision of one man and we are lucky that he chose to let us all enjoy it. Eleanore Stasheff’s story does a wonderful job of explaining the history of the park and lets people in on the behind the scenes stories of its creation. My favorite is that the Sun Singer Statue was to originally sit on the patio. But when it arrived from the sculptor, it was quite a bit larger than expected. If placed on the patio, guests would gaze out the parlor windows to be greeted by the Sun Singer’s private parts! I hope this story looking back at the history of the park helps people appreciate this wonderful gift to central Illinois and that all will help to keep the park around for future generation.
Segment duration: 05:41
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Producer: Alison Davis Wood
This segment is filed in these categories: Arts/Culture • Historical Landmarks • Horticulture • Illinois Culture/History • Parks/Outdoor Recreation • University of Illinois • Champaign County • University of Illinois
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The Cahokia Mounds story grabbed my interest immediately because I had never heard that there was once a prosperous Native American city in the Americas. Growing up, the TV shows and movies I had seen always portrayed Native Americans as loose collections of people who were constantly on the move. I had never considered that the ancient residents of America had built long-standing, sedentary communities with complex social structures, sprawling community squares, and ceremonial earthen mounds.
Once we arrived in Cahokia for the video shoot, I was shocked to see that the highway ran right through the middle of this historic site. I was also saddened to learn that many of the mounds in the area have been leveled because of farming, construction, or landscaping efforts over the decades. I’m glad that the site is now recognized for its cultural importance and hope that continued research at the site helps increase the general public’s understanding and appreciation for this unique bit of America’s past. The Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site has a great Web site (http://www.cahokiamounds.com) detailing the history of this ancient city in the middle of Illinois.
Segment duration: 02:56
Story links:
Producer: Alison Davis Wood
This segment is filed in these categories: Ethnicity/Culture • Historical Landmarks • History • Landscape • Illinois Culture/History • Libraries/Museums/Cultural Centers • Native Americana • Parks/Outdoor Recreation
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In the summer of 2006 I got a call from Will Stone. He was asking when we could come down to do a story on his museum in Taylorville. I was a bit confused since I had just returned from maternity leave and could not remember talking to him. But over the conversation I learned that he was a former miner that was dedicated to preserving the history of mining in Illinois. He told me he used to work in the Peabody number 10 mine. My father had friends that worked in that mine and he even had the chance to go visit them underground. My Dad had said it was an incredible experience since the place was so huge, It was an underground city. Then that same week I was in the car with my family and my husband turned on a CD. The first same was “Dark as a Dungeon” by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. The powerful words reminded me of Will and I knew I had to do the story on the Christian County Coal Mining Museum. When Julius, Virginia and I showed up to tape the story, Will had invited some of his friends to the museum. The stories they shared with us about working in the mines were incredible. Will was a very gracious host. I brought with me some mining artifacts that belonged to my husband’s grandfather who had worked in the mines in southern Illinois. Will explained what they were small lanterns that used to hang on the miners hats. He even gave me an extra “soft hat” that he had at the museum so that I could display them properly at home. I encourage anyone who is interested in Illinois history to visit this unique museum in Taylorville. And tell Will that I said hello.
Segment duration: 07:58
Producer: Alison Davis Wood
This segment is filed in these categories: Historical Landmarks • History • Illinois Culture/History • Parks/Outdoor Recreation • Taylorville
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I am interested in rescue groups for animals. I have been to a few humane societies, so I wanted to do a story on a rescue group that did not have anything to do with dogs or cats. I saw Crosswinds on the Internet and realized that it was not far and thought the organization sounded interesting.
Crosswinds Equine Rescue is a nonprofit organization that takes in abused unwanted horses and buys those that are for sale at slaughter houses. The group takes them in and rehabilitates the horses so they can be adopted out to new homes.
If you’d like to help out the organization, you can visit their Web site or call them at 217-832-2010, 8 am-9 pm Central Time. They also accept donations which help pay for the horses’ food and other things that the horses would need. If there is a certain horse that you like, you can sponsor that horse.
Segment duration: 03:40
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Producer: Katie Woodson
This segment is filed in these categories: Livestock/Animals/Zoology • Parks/Outdoor Recreation
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The shoot took two days and was actually a double feature. Douglas County, my home county, offers more than just corn. It also has two agriculture-based amusement parks. The Great Pumpkin Patch and Rockome Gardens are just two miles apart, as the horse pulls.
A fellow producer, Virginia Steffen and I started at Rockome. With movie magic, we hoped to make the gardens look warm, springy and comfortable. In reality, it was cold, windy and miserable weather. Luckily Sasan Shabrou, a Rockome worker and friend, was able to take us around the grounds in a complimentary golf cart. With our transportation problem solved, the equipment moved quickly and so did we.
Day two was colder and possibly windier. Virginia, new recruit Dave Noreen and I worked well into the night, which was actually pleasant. It was just before Halloween and the weather changed for the best, just after the worst part of the shooting schedule.
Despite poor conditions, the Rockome staff was sunny and eager to answer questions. The evening crowd for their treasure hunt was large and in good spirits. The country charm of the gardens warmed everyone. One lucky treasure team left Rockome with $2,500. We left with a delicious meal and two wrapped segments. The second segment will have to wait for another blog and another episode. Stay tuned for part two of our shoot: The Great Pumpkin Patch.
Segment duration: 08:02
Story links:
Producer: Shane Pangburn
This segment is filed in these categories: Historical Landmarks • Horticulture • Illinois Culture/History • Livestock/Animals/Zoology • Parks/Outdoor Recreation • Science/Nature
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When the alarm went off at 3:30 the morning of September 9, 2006, I was already awake. I was excited and nervous about the big day ahead covering the Great Illini Challenge at Lake Mattoon. Normally there are just two or three of us covering a story, but today there would be six: Julius Bolton, Tim Hartin and I on camera, plus assistants John Marlin, Sean Hartin and Rick Langlois. Also a photographer from the State Journal Register in Springfield was going to be following the crew around for the day. She was to shoot photos for an article on prairie Fire for Heartland Magazine. If you want to read the finished article and see Shannon Kirshner’s awesome photos visit http://www.sj-r.com/extras/pdfs/110306prairiefire.pdf.
As I left the house, I packed bagels, coffee and other snacks in hopes that some food would ease the pain of the 5 a.m. crew call. I knew I had to try some new things in order to cover the entire event. When Tim Hartin and I shot the footage for our documentary “Against the Wind” on wheelchair athlete Jean Driscoll, we used a motorcycle side car to get shots of her training on the road. So we thought to get a motorcycle again. Luckily Rick Langlois and his Harley were happy to help. At first, cameraman Julius Bolton was going to ride in the side car, but we thought he’d have more mobility if he sat facing backwards on the bike. Tim’s son Sean rode in the side car to act as a ballast.
The idea to cover the sport of triathlon came from WILL meteorologist Jay Searles. He mentioned to me at a staff meeting that triathlon was a growing sport in Illinois with several downstate races. He said he was entering The Great Illini challenge and invited us to tape the event. With the race starting at 8, the athletes start to arrive around 6:30. We decided to get there by 6 in order to catch the pre-race activities. It turned out to be a great time to talk to many of the athletes … plus we got that beautiful early morning light! Jay had said triathletes were a friendly bunch and he was right. They shared a lot of laughs and smiles with us they dealt with pre-race jitters.
Right before the race started, we launched Tim and a camera on a pontoon boat to capture the swimming portion. As the boat was leaving, I called out to him the race numbers of the athletes that we were following. The pontoon boat driver told me that there was no way to recognize the different athletes in the water. So much for planning!
As the leader Jennifer Harrison came out of the water, Tim was back on shore stationed at the transition area. And Julius and Rick were on the bridge over the lake waiting to catch the biking portions. Using our cell phones and some dumb luck we caught all the athletes that we were following at every stage of the race.
As the day wore on and the temperatures climbed, we started to feel exhausted. We were amazed at the athletes continuing on this rigorous challenge. In my last interview, an emotional Jay Searles thanked his friends who had supported his training and cheered him as he crossed the finish line. The power of the race to test you physically and mentally was evident on his face. The best shot of the day was watching Jay’s girlfriend run alongside him as he approached the finish line. She shouted to him that is was the only time she would beat him in a race!
Like Jay, I was so appreciative of my crew who spent the long day with me, without their help this story really wouldn’t have been possible.
Segment duration: 12:28
Story links:
- Matoon Beach Multisport Web site
- Fighting Illini Triathalon Club Web site
- Tri-Shark Triathlon Club Web site
- Shannon Kirshner’s photos
Producer: Alison Davis Wood
Chief Camera - Segment: Julius Bolton, Tim Hartin
This segment is filed in these categories: Parks/Outdoor Recreation • Sports
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