Hello St. Peter/St.
Francis School
in Torrington Connecticut.
We are looking forward to our friendly Boxtops competition!!
These are the students and staff of Willow
Grove School 2006~2007 school year, We don’t have one for this
year yet but almost all the kids are the same.
Willow Grove Elementary School was established on June 30, 1866 in Brookside Township,
Clinton County
in Centralia, Illinois.
We are the Willow Grove Wildcats
. We
are very proud of our school and our students.
Willow Grove is one of 3 area schools
that are not considered part of the city school system. So our school is Pre-k through 8th
grade. Our children do not attend the
city’s Junior High School. Our students
remain family through out their elementary and middle school years. We attend Centralia High School
after our 8th grade graduation.
Centralia, Illinois
Centralia,
Illinois was established in 1854
as a crossroads for 2 Illinois Central Railroads. The town is actually named after the Illinois
Central Railroad. Our population is
14,200 residents.
We have 2 beautiful
city parks, Foundation
Park a 235 acre park full
of walking trails Girl and Boy Scout camps, Catfish pond, an ice skating pond
and home of the Centralia Hot Air Balloon Fest held the 3rd weekend of August
every year. Our Balloon fest draws
upwards of 40,000 people to our sleepy little community. The other is Fairview Park
which has a large swimming pool and picnic area along with a state of the art
playground for children and adults of all ages.
The park has 2 large baseball fields that are always busy.
Centralia is approximately 60
miles east of St. Louis Missouri.
Centralia is one of 3 Illinois
cities with portions of its town in four different counties: Marion County,
Clinton County,
Jefferson County
and Washington County.
On March
25th 1947 The Centralia #5 coalmine explosion near the
town killed 111 men. At the time of the
explosion 142 men were in the mine.
Centralia
is Home to Kaskaskia College Blue Devils and Centralia High School Orphans and
Orphan Annies. The Centralia High School
Basketball team became known as the Orphans in 1936 because upstate (Chicago area) sports
reporters thought we were shabby upstarts to be competing at the state level.
(The snobs) However, the name Orphans became
prophetic after the # 5 mine disaster, at one time, all the players had lost a
father in the mines. There are however
some alternate theories as to why the teams of Centralia High School
are called “Orphans” (boys teams)
and “Orphan Annies” (girl teams). One maintains that it was due to a large
orphanage that at one time was present in the town. Another widely accepted theory is that the
players wore a bunch of unmatched jerseys when they went to stare. The state reporter said that our boys looked like
a bunch of Orphans out there.
Centralia
boasts of many notable residents:
·
James Brady ~ Press Secretary to Ronald
Reagan. Mr. Brady was nearly killed and was
permanently disabled from a gunshot to the head on the day when President
Reagan was shot at during an assassination attempt in 1981.
·
Dike Eddleman ~ Olympic Athlete and considered
the best athlete of all time in the state of Illinois.
·
Gary Gaetti ~ Former Major League Baseball
Player
·
Kirk Rueter ~ Former Major League Baseball
Player
·
Tom Wargo ~ Former Professional PGA Golfer and
owner of a very nice restaurant and golf course here in Centralia,
·
Nancy Scranton ~ LPGA Professional Golfer
This is just a brief
description of Centralia, Illinois.
If you would like more history of Centralia
you can log on to the internet and just type in Centralia, Illinois.
Good Luck with your Boxtops Collections. If you would like to download any Boxtops
collection sheets please log onto http://www.orgsites.com/il/wildcatcorner/