It was 2:15 a.m. Jan. 23, 1983. Mike Morrow manned a firehose at an intense fire in the 700 block of North Main.
Morrow’s partner on that line was Capt. Vernon “Butch” Gudat.
Well above the two men on the ground was a firefighter manning a line in an aerial truck.
Without warning, the wall Morrow and Gudat were hosing down collapsed. Both men were buried under burning debris.

Christine and Jim Coventry are about to adopt two orphaned sisters from the Philippines and due to rocketing costs are hosting an adoption fundraiser to help defray airfare and other expenses getting our girls home.
The noon-8 p.m. fundraiser Friday and Saturday includes a Beijo bag showcase with select Bags 20-50 percent off.
The event is at Jim Coventry Photography, Lake Of The Woods Plaza.
For more info, call 678-4929
 

The 13th annual Bark In The Park, held Sunday, was a dog-gone chilly affair. Here are just a couple of the photos snapped. There are more photos inside this week's issue of the Peoria Times-Observer.

Sarah Storey Smiles writes copy in the public relations department of Methodist Medical Center. Writing, however, is not the only form of communication she is enthused about.
Public speaking is Smiles’ other communication love, which places her in the minority of Peorians.   
But, Smile is in the majority when she steps into a Peoria Riverfront Toastmaster’s Club meeting.

For Peorian Eugene Bowker Jr., the memories of the Korean War are as fresh as the scars still visible on his arm and other parts of his body caused by an exploding artillery shell.
Bowker sustained his injuries as a Second Lt. with the 44th Infantry Division of the Illinois National Guard, while on patrol in the volatile Punch Bowl region of Korea in early 1953.

Byron Yang tried to put his key in the locker room door. It would not go in. Yang looked closer and found a key broken off in the lock.
Yang was aggravated. But, not for long.
Today, 15 years later, that broken-off key is at the heart of an unresolved question for Yang about a young man’s close call with death.

“Pride plays in Peoria,” Dave Barker, head of the Peoria Pride Festival, said after the event passed.
More than 1,700 people passed through the gates at the CEFCU Center Stage on Peoria’s Riverfront Sept. 13 to celebrate alternative sexual lifestyles.
“It shows (gay) pride plays in Peoria. It shows Peoria has a strong and supportive gay, lesbian, transsexual and trans gender population,” Barker said.
“It was a group of people who came together with a common purpose. Maybe we are all learning to get along.”

With more people having to settle for stay-cations this year, instead of dream vacations to Europe, people are increasingly on the look-out for exciting and unique things to do close to home.
Fairchild’s and Her Majesty’s Tearoom in Dunlap provide not only a one-of-a-kind experience, it also, quite literally, brings all things British to you.

Jack Hanna, host of “Jack Hanna’s Into the Wild,” TV show is coming to Peoria Sept. 21 with some animal friends to help raise money for the Peoria Zoo.
Hanna said he is excited about making a return visit to the zoo. Hanna was here before the new Africa Exhibit opened, hosting a fund-raiser for the zoo.
“I’m anxious to see it,” Hanna said.

On Oct. 18, Peoria icon Jim Maloof turns 90.
Zan Ransburg, a friend of Maloof’s for more than 20 years, wants to make sure his birthday is an unforgettable event. She is the event chair for Maloof’s birthday party, which will benefit the Peoria Ballet.
She said it will be quite an event, Oct.  19, at the Scottish Rite Cathedral, with a capacity of 800 people, and a half-hour performance by the Peoria Ballet.
“Of course, Jim is going to sing,” she said, laughing. “He will obviously take the microphone.”

The Central Illinois Alliance for Diversity & Equality presents the inaugural first gay pride event in downstate Illinois entitled, Peoria Pride Festival on Sunday, September 13, 2009 at the Peoria riverfront, CEFCU Stage from noon – 6 p.m.  The family-friendly event this year is entitled “A bridge to diversity”.

Retirement is a word Dan Dermody uses and hears with disdain.
“People ask me how I like retirement. I tell them I’m not retired,” Dermody said.
Dermody, 65, was let go from WIRL in May when the station went into cost-cutting mode. He was a dominant radio personality there for five years. It was the end of a career in broadcasting that spanned almost five decades.
Or is it the end?

Brittany Nichting and David Beck were not scheduled to start classes at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville for a week. It was Aug. 17.
Yet, just after that day began, Nichting and Beck, her boyfriend, said they received  lessons in the value of life and faith.

When Illinois Gov. Patrick Quinn signed legislation into law recently that bans cell phone “texting” while driving beginning Jan. 1, 2010, the news left Peorian Kristina Hestrom jumping for joy.  
In the past six years, Hestrom has tutored thousands of Peoria’s high school children on the rules of the road. Hestrom, co-owner of Peoria’s Balda Driving School and a certified driving instructor who teaches many of the school’s classes, said it was “about time” the state stepped up to try and protect its children — and thousands of innocent drivers on the state’s roads — by establishing penalties for texting while driving.

Peoria-to-Manhattan transplant Zach Berkman, a multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, songwriter and audio engineer, will showcase his talents this Sunday during the world premier of “P. Diddy’s Starmaker” on MTV.
Along with the legendary P. Diddy (aka Sean Combs) the show, which makes its debut on Aug. 16 following “America’s Best Dance Crew,” also features the talents of famed executive producer Mark Burnett and a host of music industry veterans.