Perry County Corrections Officer Needs Our Help

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[ The past few weeks for Jarrett Kitchen, a 32 year old five-year correctional officer at the Perry County Jail, have been a busy and stressful time.

Since Kitchen has been diagnosed with colon and liver cancer his chemical treatments have taken a hard toll on his health and caused him to miss a lot of work, making bills harder to pay.

However, Kitchen's co-workers at the jail have been donating their work time so that he may still receive a paycheck to help off set the cost of the bills.

Kitchen was born and raised in Pinckneyville, moving north to Swanwick for a short time before returning to Pinckneyville and graduation from Pinckneyville High School.

Kitchen worked at the TUMS plant as a DVD printer operator for 10 years, during which time he married Crystal Kitchen of Du Quoin. He was laid off from the TUMS plant and began work at the Perry County Jail where he works as a correctional officer, transporting inmates to and from court, church, hospitals, etc. He also has a step son, Austin Hagston.

The Jarrett Kitchen Benefit, to be held Saturday, March 28, at the Knights of Columbus Hall, will feature a spaghetti dinner with a silent auction at 4 to 7 p.m. and a dance with music from Priebe Bros. at 8 p.m. to midnight.

The cost of attendance is $12 for adults and $7 for children and includes the dinner, dance and auction. Children under 4 eat for free.

All money raised goes toward Jarrett Kitchen's medical bills.