Page 6 2025 Hometown HEROES Magazine LINCOLN DAILY NEWS June/July 2025 In order to receive money, Gass had to write up a story about the Whistle Stop and send photos to the head of the Danner Trust. She was told there were several applicants and the $5000 in available funds might have to be divided between the applicants. Then Gass got a call from someone on the board for the Danner Trust and found out they had decided to give her all $5000. She was told to pay the contractor using the money she already had, and they would cover the rest. The contractor lifted the building and put in a new foundation, but after paying him, the funds for the library were depleted. Back in 2008, Gass met a woman from Pekin who asked her husband Earl to transfer her family’s home movies to DVD. After months of work, the Gasses took the DVDs to her. The woman paid him $60 for the work. In 2014, Gass received a letter from an attorney in Pekin that someone had left a donation for the library in her will. All Gass needed to do was fill out some paperwork. Soon another envelope from the attorney’s arrived with a check for $10,000. Gass found out the woman her husband had made the DVDs for had gone to the attorney soon after she got the DVDs and changed her will to leave money for the library. A program about the library on Illinois Stories was another way people found out about the work Gass did at the library. The story helped bring in some funding. Continue --
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