Community Fair

Area agencies educate and recruit

Tools

Lisa Buettner from Experience Works speaks with a visitor to her booth at the Community Fair, held Thursday at the Adult Education and Literacy Center in Peoria.

By Marc Strauss

Lisa Buettner is staying very busy at today's Community Fair. Lisa represents Experience Works, an organization founded in the 1960's by former First Lady, Lady Bird Johnson.

"Our mission is to help people 55–plus get back into the work force," Buettner told News 25. "We provide training through not–for–profits and government agencies and it is paid training by us."

There were many other agencies represented at the Adult Education and Literacy Center. And then, there's Roger Larson from the U of I Extension. He likes to give away free stuff.

"Door prizes always go over extremely well," Larson joked. "Whatever it takes to bring people to get them the message. That's why we brought the door prizes today."

There were 17 distinctly different booths at the Community Fair, featuring everything from education, to health and nutrition, to finance. There was even someone recruiting employees for a major hotel chain.

"I brought about 50 applications out," said Hampton Inn representative Jason Tauscher. "We're only about 70–minutes into the two–hour program here today and I'm already out of applications."

Victoria Bottger found a booth at the Community Fair with helpful information for a family friend.

"My mother is disabled and I saw a care–giver's stress device. I can give that to her care–taker and let him look at it and use it to relieve his stress."

After all, relieving stress is what this event was all about.

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