| |||||||
| |||||||
| |||||||
1 | HOUSE RESOLUTION
| ||||||
2 | WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of | ||||||
3 | Representatives wish to congratulate Rep. John D. Cavaletto on | ||||||
4 | his retirement and recognize his distinguished career of public | ||||||
5 | service to the people of Illinois; and | ||||||
6 | WHEREAS, Rep. Cavaletto was born in Centenary,
Indiana on | ||||||
7 | June 8, 1940 and grew up in a coal mining family in Sesser; he | ||||||
8 | graduated from
Sesser High School and earned his bachelor's and | ||||||
9 | master's degrees in education at
Southern Illinois University | ||||||
10 | at Carbondale; he received his administrative endorsement
from | ||||||
11 | Eastern Illinois University; and
| ||||||
12 | WHEREAS, At 14 years old, Rep. Cavaletto and his future | ||||||
13 | wife, Connie, obtained their
social security cards together so | ||||||
14 | they could work at the summer camp for disabled
children at | ||||||
15 | Giant City State Park in Carbondale; after many years of | ||||||
16 | developing
programs for persons with special needs, his summer | ||||||
17 | programs became the model
for the Kennedy Foundation and its | ||||||
18 | program that would ultimately become the Special
Olympics | ||||||
19 | movement; and
| ||||||
20 | WHEREAS, Rep. Cavaletto became a teacher and basketball | ||||||
21 | coach, taking the
Breese Mater Dei High School boys basketball | ||||||
22 | team to the Illinois State Championships
and leading that team |
| |||||||
| |||||||
1 | to 4th Place in the very competitive big schools division of | ||||||
2 | Illinois
in 1974; still referred to as "Coach" by many | ||||||
3 | colleagues, friends, and former students,
he later became the | ||||||
4 | principal of Salem Community High School, retiring in 2001; and
| ||||||
5 | WHEREAS, Rep. Cavaletto is the grandson of immigrant coal | ||||||
6 | miners in the Sesser
area and is a southern Illinois boy | ||||||
7 | through-and-through; he and Connie have
three sons and three | ||||||
8 | grandchildren, and he is an avid quail hunter, fisherman, and
| ||||||
9 | golfer; and | ||||||
10 | WHEREAS, Rep. Cavaletto has sponsored over 100 pieces of
| ||||||
11 | legislation throughout his 10 years of service, focusing on | ||||||
12 | grandparents' rights, government
reform, fiscal | ||||||
13 | accountability, and economic development for his district and | ||||||
14 | the entire
State of Illinois; and | ||||||
15 | WHEREAS, During the 100th General Assembly, Rep. Cavaletto | ||||||
16 | served on
the Appropriations-Elementary & Secondary Education | ||||||
17 | Committee, the Cost Benefit
Analysis Committee, the Elementary & | ||||||
18 | Secondary Education: Licensing, Administration
& Oversight | ||||||
19 | Committee (Republican Spokesperson), the Energy
Committee, the | ||||||
20 | Environment Committee (Republican Spokesperson), the Fire &
| ||||||
21 | Emergency Services Committee (Republican Spokesperson), the | ||||||
22 | Government
Transparency Committee, and the Special Issues | ||||||
23 | Subcommittee (Co-Chairperson); he
served as the Co-Chair of the |
| |||||||
| |||||||
1 | bi-partisan, bicameral Fire Caucus; and | ||||||
2 | WHEREAS, Rep. Cavaletto has been the recipient of the | ||||||
3 | Legislator of
the Year Award from the Illinois Association of | ||||||
4 | Fire Protection Districts; he has
also been awarded the | ||||||
5 | Illinois Farm Bureau's ACTIVATOR Award as a Friend of
| ||||||
6 | Agriculture each legislative session of his service; he has | ||||||
7 | also been recognized by
Kaskaskia Community College for his | ||||||
8 | support of higher education and received the
Champion of Free | ||||||
9 | Enterprise Award from the Illinois Chamber of Commerce; he was | ||||||
10 | honored with the Distinguished Alumni Award from Goode-Barren | ||||||
11 | Township High
School, now known as Sesser-Valier High; and | ||||||
12 | WHEREAS, Rep. Cavaletto has had a long-standing | ||||||
13 | relationship with the Special
Olympics movement which began at | ||||||
14 | Southern Illinois University's Little Giant Camp
where he and | ||||||
15 | Connie worked for $10 a week with children and young adults | ||||||
16 | with
Down syndrome and physical and mental challenges; at these | ||||||
17 | summer camps, under
the guidance of Dr. William Freeberg who | ||||||
18 | was head of the Recreation Department, they
planned and | ||||||
19 | conducted many activities for the campers, including running, | ||||||
20 | throwing
balls, shooting bows and arrows, and even target | ||||||
21 | shooting; they would take the campers
by bus over to Little | ||||||
22 | Grassy to go swimming; they came up with the idea of handing | ||||||
23 | out
blue ribbons to the participants like the
traditional | ||||||
24 | competitions for high school and college athletes; this was to |
| |||||||
| |||||||
1 | help build pride and self
confidence in the children and young | ||||||
2 | adults; and | ||||||
3 | WHEREAS, In 1963, Rep. Cavaletto was one of the Southern | ||||||
4 | Illinois University graduate students
asked by Dr. Freeberg to | ||||||
5 | travel to various places in Illinois to help train high school | ||||||
6 | students
to be counselors at the camps; these four camps, | ||||||
7 | sponsored by the Kennedy
Foundation, were located in Marion, | ||||||
8 | Waterloo, East St. Louis, and Decatur, and he
and the others | ||||||
9 | were paid by the Kennedy Foundation to conduct this training; | ||||||
10 | and | ||||||
11 | WHEREAS, In 1965 and 1966, Rep. Cavaletto was the director | ||||||
12 | of the camps and lived
year-round at Little Grassy Campground; | ||||||
13 | in those years, there would be eight weeks of
camp for the kids | ||||||
14 | with Down syndrome and mental/physical challenges and then two
| ||||||
15 | weeks of camp for kids with cerebral palsy; after graduate | ||||||
16 | school, he taught
at Mater Dei High School in Clinton County, | ||||||
17 | where he ran a day camp for children with
special needs for 13 | ||||||
18 | years; and | ||||||
19 | WHEREAS, Rep. Cavaletto has many fond memories of his work | ||||||
20 | with campers and
counselors over the years and special memories | ||||||
21 | of the time when people from the
Kennedy Foundation and the | ||||||
22 | Chicago Park District came to southern Illinois to
observe the | ||||||
23 | SIU programs for the campers; he is proud to have been a part |
| |||||||
| |||||||
1 | of the
development of what became the Special Olympics; and
| ||||||
2 | WHEREAS, On October 12, 2018, Southern Illinois | ||||||
3 | University's Touch of Nature
Environmental Center honored Rep. | ||||||
4 | Cavaletto by re-naming one of its buildings
for him; the | ||||||
5 | Cavaletto House renaming was in recognition for his support of | ||||||
6 | Touch of
Nature, Camp Little Giant, and the Special Olympics; | ||||||
7 | and
| ||||||
8 | WHEREAS, Rep. Cavaletto has been affectionately known as | ||||||
9 | "Coach" in the General
Assembly in reference to his years as a | ||||||
10 | basketball coach and youth mentor; therefore, be it
| ||||||
11 | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE | ||||||
12 | HUNDREDTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we | ||||||
13 | congratulate Rep. John D. Cavaletto on his retirement and | ||||||
14 | recognize his distinguished career of public service to the | ||||||
15 | people of Illinois; and be it further
| ||||||
16 | RESOLVED, That a copy of this resolution be presented to | ||||||
17 | the Honorable John D. Cavaletto and his wife, Connie, as a | ||||||
18 | symbol of our esteem and respect.
|