Name Dropping | Spread the word: Parkland's do-it-all Reed headed to retirement
Apr. 29—She's good with numbers, does a more-than-adequate job as a secretary, is good with people and does well in stressful situations.
Dianne Reed, though, is ready to leave the world of the employed and do more traveling.
The 65-year-old, a fixture as telecommunications officer for the Parkland Police Department for the last 30 years, will put in her last day on the job July 31.
Parkland Police Chief Troy Daniels said he's tried to talk Reed out of retiring, but no dice.
"She's been here for so many decades and has so much institutional knowledge that it's going to be very difficult without her," Daniels said. "She is loved and is a very important part of our team, and we're going to miss her very much."
Daniels is the fifth Parkland police chief under whom Reed has served — the others being Doug Davis, Paul Sarantakos, Von Young and Bill Colbrook.
Reed has one worry, though: that she'll be bored.
She plans to counteract that possibility by volunteering and traveling.
She's already quite active at her church, Tolono United Methodist, where she is involved with pastor-parish relations, serves as the church's financial secretary and is in charge of the missions committee that supplies needed clothing to Unity East and West elementary schools and helps to supply food and clothing to The Giving Place in Tolono.
Reed said she plans to travel as much as possible. She's already got her first trip planned for October when she heads to Switzerland, Austria and Bavaria.
Reed books her trips with Travel by Beth of St. Joseph. Her favorite destinations have been Scotland and Ireland.
"I did try haggis in Scotland. You know what? I thought it was OK. I think they might have Americanized it for us," she said.
She also especially enjoyed visiting Italy.
"When you get the opportunity for these group trips overseas, it's well worth it. It's been a blessing to be able to go," Reed said, adding she enjoys traveling in the states as well and has made life-long friends from her travels.
Reed, who works second shift, lives in Urbana with her sister, Jo Ellen, who owns her own accounting/bookkeeping office called "The Accounting Office."
She said one of the driving factors in her decision to retire was the loss of her brother, Tom, in October.
"He had retired in January of that year," Reed said. "I really wish he had gotten more time in retirement. He was the oldest of the three of us."
The Unity High graduate has come full circle in her post-high school days — attending Parkland for a year in secretarial studies and serving as a student worker in Paul Curtis' office.
She worked from 1977-81 as a legal secretary with Lawrence E. Johnson and Associates law firm before a 12-year stint with Southland Distribution in Champaign, first in outside sales and then in the accounting department until Southland closed in 1993.
A group of Southland employees still get together for lunch periodically.
Reed returned to Parkland, where she earned her two-year degree in accounting, intending to go into that work full time but found something different that she liked.
"While I was going to school I started part time in the Department of Public Safety," Reed said. "For the first year I was part time and was basically the switchboard operator for the college."
When the position of second-shift dispatcher for the police and security patrol was added, she became a dispatcher in 1995.
The Parkland police department employs 14 officers and three full-time dispatchers.
"We've had some interesting, some scary, some heart breaking" things happen in her 30 years on the job.
The worst one, she said, was when Parkland police officer Pete McLaughlin was murdered by his stepson in 2005 at the McLaughlin home.
As a dispatcher, she is trained to get all of the information she can get quickly, get an officer to respond to the call and keep the caller on the line to get any more information she can.
Parkland police officers are also able to provide mutual aid to other neighboring departments.
The 2023 Miss Ford County Fair Queen, Maci Kingren, is pictured. A Miss Ford County Fair queen informational meeting for the 2024 pageant is scheduled Saturday, May 11. The 9 a.m. meeting will be at Wall Township Building, 899 N. Il-115, Loda.
The Clinton High School team of Eric Sutton, Izzy Stephenson, Noah Bass and Aiden Toohill took top honors in regional 4-H food challenge competition April 12 in Bevier Hall on the University of Illinois campus.
They will advance to state competition.
Other area teams competing were Iroquois West, Milford, Paxton-Buckley-Loda and Rantoul high schools. They won the chance to compete by winning the competition at their high school.
The food challenge is a competition that promotes teamwork, gives youth experience in public speaking and promotes proper food safety techniques and handling in a competitive manner.
The program partners with the local Education for Employment System No. 330 and area school districts and is funded by a grant from the Illinois Soybean Association.
DC Canady, a member of the Danville Area Community College team, has advanced to the final four of the Mario Kart Premier Division in the esports national competition.
A culinary major, Canady is competing for his second national championship.
He was awarded his 2023 national championship ring during halftime of the DACC men's basketball game Feb. 14.
Others competing for DACC:
— Jake Dupree, a general studies major, who ranks 10th in the Mario Kart College Series (CS) division. His consistent performance has significantly contributed to the team's success this season.
— Sebastian Burton, holding the 13th rank in the Mario Kart CS Division, is not only a Presidential Scholar but also a talented guitar player in the college's pep band.
— Justin Wilken, an Applied Computer Science major, excels as the captain of the Smash Bros Crew, securing the second rank nationally in the Smash Brothers Crew Open Series (OS) Division. Wilken's leadership and skill have been pivotal in propelling his team towards national recognition.
Andrew Weintraub, from left, Cindy Somers and Eric Robeson represented Champaign West Rotary to volunteer at the Coaches vs. Cancer fundraiser at Gordyville USA in Gifford. The event raised more than half a million dollars.
The club has an active community service committee and assists many not-for-profit organizations. Rotarians are provided the opportunity to sign up to help with a number of volunteer projects and events throughout the year. Website:
Allerton Park and Retreat Center will host its first-ever Bluebell Festival: A Folk School Fundraiser May 3-5, and park officials admit the long-term goals for it are lofty: to become a spring version of the highly popular Holiday Showcase that draws thousands to the Monticello-area park each December; and also to raise money to support The Farms, the ambitious folk school that launched last fall.
The showcase revolves around holiday spirit, but its spring spinoff takes advantage of spring color, notably the colorful bluebells and other blooms seen throughout the park this time of year.
"We've gotten feedback over the years about how well the Holiday Showcase is attended," park Associate Director of Retreat Center and Programming Jordan Zech said. "So this is a similar concept, with vendors on site, and there is an indoor-outdoor component as well; and we've always had people suggest we replicate that format."
Featured outdoors all three days will be the 11th annual plant sale, which will allow visitors to shop for flowers and plants in the main parking lot. There will be food trucks and a cash bar available.
The main indoor component will be The Market from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, May 4, inside the 1900-era mansion, featuring art sales and demonstrations from The Farms instructors.
Interspersed throughout the weekend will be live music (outside on Friday evening and inside the mansion Saturday), as well as other workshops and activities that include Yoga and Cookie Decorating Saturday and a Community Hike and Wet Felted Peony activity on Sunday.
The Bluebell Festival will run from 5 to 9 p.m. Friday, May 3 and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, May 4-5.
