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Jan. 25, 2008 New Season of
“Prairie Fire”: Butterflies, Love and War, Edible Books
At left, host
Alison Davis Wood at Lincoln's house in Springfield.
(Click on
photo to download print version of photo.)
As the new season of WILL-TV’s Prairie Fire begins at
7:30 p.m. Thursdays in February, viewers can soar with
butterflies at the Missouri Botanical Garden’s Butterfly
House, look back at two true love stories from the Second
World War, and follow producer Eleanore Stasheff as she
competes in the Edible Books Festival.
The season will include seven new local Central Illinois
World War II Stories, as well as an hour-long special March
27 combining all of WILL-TV’s local World War II stories
that aired in conjunction with the Ken Burns’ documentary
The War last fall.
The new war stories include a Feb. 7 segment about
Champaign’s Iris Nig Lundin, who left her teaching job in a
small Minnesota town to join the newly formed Marine Corps
Women’s Reserve. She became one of the first four female
navigation instructors. In a story on love and war on
Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14, producer Denise La Grassa visits
with two couples whose relationship bloomed during the war,
Bob and Hattie Marion of Urbana, and Wilma and Gerald
Ashenbremer of Oakwood. Then on Feb. 21, Prairie Fire
profiles Elmer Jones, one of the first aviation cadets at
Chanute Field in Rantoul.
In other stories on Feb. 7, Prairie Fire host Alison
Davis Wood finds out that many of the world’s
radio-controlled model aircraft and boats are made in
Champaign-Urbana. She visits with members of the Champaign
County Radio Control Club who meet to share their love of
model aviation. “They have buddy boxes so that an
experienced member can have one box and a newcomer another,
both controlling the same plane. It’s kind of like those
driver’s ed cars with two sets of pedals. They can help
someone learn to fly without crashing an expensive model
plane,” Wood said. The program also takes a fun look at the
Urbana Farmer’s Market.
On Feb. 14, the show travels to St. Louis to look at the
beauty of the Butterfly House inside the Missouri Botanical
Gardens, and looks at the workshop of Charlie and John
Sweitzer, a father and son team who make shaker-style
furniture. Then it goes along as WILL producer Eleanore
Stasheff competes with her Rosetta Scone in the University
of Illinois Edible Books Festival, where people make and
submit food inspired by literature.
On Feb. 21, Wood visits with members of the Moore family in
Watseka, who are farming without pesticides and herbicides,
providing produce to people who are interested in buying
locally produced food. She also takes a look at how to farm
the old-fashioned way at the Illinois and Indiana Antique
Tractor Show in Penfield.
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Contact:
Mary Barrineau
WILL AM-FM-TV
(217) 333-1070
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