VanMetre Field Lights See Afterlife
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[The lights on VanMetre Field that shone on nearly four decades of championship Indian football have found an after-life thanks to the Du Quoin Board of Education and the Du Quoin Jaycees' Jim Dimitroff.
The lights have been installed on the new west field at Jaycees Park along Rt. 152 west of Du Quoin.
You'd expect nothing less from Dimitroff, 59, who co-founded the Jaycees in 1976 with the late Jim Booker. Booker was the organization's first president and Dimitroff the second.
"The Herrin Jaycees started," Dimitroff said. " We were an extension of the Herrin Jaycees."
Jim is the son of a miner and nurse, Andy and Madlene Dimitroff. "Dad was in mining and later at Turco and later sold furniture," he said. "He was always caring and mom did a lot for seniors," he said.
Jim worked for Freeman United at Waltonville, later the Du Quoin Iron Supply and Maytag in Herrin.
"I was always involved in Boys Club, the Lions Club and Du Quoin Khoury League," he said. "The Jaycees had their meetings in the upstairs of the old city hall on Division Street. The Jaycees were responsible for getting the bell out of city hall and moving it to the new city hall," he said. "People like Rex Duncan and John Hopkins and Mark Halstead, Cha Hill and Greg Showalter and John Smith at Gold Plate and a lot of others helped with that," he remembers.
The love of his life was wife Jane, a Sesser school teacher who lost her life in an unspeakable van accident near their home in April 2003.
"Our first biggest project was the Jaycees Toys for Kids project.
"Since then we're taken over the Easter egg hunt, have a fishing tournament for the kids and we have had magic shows and the skate project and sponsor the ladies' tipoff basketball tournament and we help with the Lions on their food baskets. This year we are going to distribute the toys on December 18, then help the Lions on December 19."
In recent months the Jaycees have made donations to the Weekend Warrior project, a backpack food project that makes sure school-age kids have food to eat on weekends.
That brings us to the current project to light the second field at the Jaycees Park. That facility has been a gift from Dimitroff and his three daughters. The family purchased seven acres from Mark Maclin years ago and since then has leased the park to the Jaycees for $1 a year and he believes that program will continue through his girls. "We have already talked about that," he said.
Earlier this year the Du Quoin Board of Education gifted the old VanMetre football field lights to the Jaycees. Mathis & Sons Crane Service donated the work to drill the field and raise the lights into place. McIntire Electric will offset the costs of getting the lights wired. The poles still have their signature black and red stripes. One pole is nine feet shorter than the others because it stood in the middle of the stadium seating and had to be cut off at the base. Sponsor signs help pay for the upkeep of the park. Sand and clay from Rend Lake projects have been used to level the main field.
The park is dotted with storage buildings and a concession stand donated by mark Maclin. But, moreover, it is dotted with years of caring to improve the quality of life of Du Quoin's young people.