HR0471 95TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR0471 LRB095 12329 KXB 36995 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of Representatives are pleased to recognize a brave young man, Reid Colliander, and to share his amazing story; and

WHEREAS, This is the story of a very fortunate family, their experience with nearly losing a child, and what has grown out of that experience; Ken Colliander and his wife, Kathy Foote-Colliander, are the proud parents of three children, Grant, Dain, and Reid; and

WHEREAS, From a very young age, Reid has always been a caring and compassionate child; in preschool and Kindergarten, the teachers fell in love with Reid because he was funny, bright, sociable, and a hard worker; there was little concern for the fact that he could not write and never showed any interest in coloring or drawing; he went through all the preschool screenings and parent conferences available; Reid developed all milestones well within the normal ranges, though a little clumsily; at 6 years old, Reid entered 1st grade in Mrs. Cassidy's class at Churchill Elementary School in Glen Ellyn; and

WHEREAS, During the second week of 1st grade, when Mrs. Cassidy contacted Reid's parents, Reid's mother Kathy jokingly asked Mrs. Cassidy, "Are you calling to tell me that Reid is the smartest 1st grader you have ever had?"; Mrs. Cassidy calmly replied, "Not this call, maybe the next call;" Mrs. Cassidy is a 20-year veteran teacher and very astute, even with an overcrowded class and saw a tremor in Reid's hand, never observed by anyone else; she urged Reid's family to have him evaluated and after appropriate paperwork was completed, she had a conference with Reid's pediatrician, Dr. David Dungan; Dr. Dungan ordered an MRI, with no one expecting the test to reveal anything of concern; after running a series of scans, the radiologist told Reid's parents additional testing was needed and for the first time they were very concerned; Reid's parents knew that life would change as soon as they spoke to Dr. Dungan; they took Reid out to lunch and the toy store, and after arriving home listened to a message from Dr. Dungan urging them to call as soon as possible; and

WHEREAS, Dr. Dungan gave Reid's parents the news that Reid had a brain tumor the size of a golf ball in his cerebellum; Reid's parents called family and friends and within minutes they were all at the Colliander home; endless hours were spent on the Internet researching brain tumors, surgeries, and doctors; a neighbor, Mark Malec, contacted his old roommate from Notre Dame, Dr. John Costello, who was a cardiologist at Children's Memorial Hospital; Dr. Costello called his colleague Dr. Stew Goldman, an oncologist in the Falk Brain Tumor Clinic at Children's Memorial Hospital; Dr. Goldman spent the Sunday between Christmas and New Year's Day on the phone with Reid's parents answering endless questions and then arranged an appointment with neurosurgeon Dr. Tadanori Tomita; and

WHEREAS, Reid's parents researched Children's Memorial Hospital, Dr. Tomita, Dr. Goldman and the Falk Brain Tumor Clinic and discovered that these two doctors were the best in the country; Reid and his parents went to Chicago for a long day of doctors' appointments; the brain tumor clinic was very crowded and there was a very long wait; the hospital had many volunteers to play with the waiting children and Reid had a great time; after the tests were completed, the doctors met with Reid's parents; Dr. Tomita explained what he thought the problem was and presented evidence to support his theory; it was a benign astrosytoma in the cerebellum, and it needed to be removed; the family went home, did more research, and talked with more friends and family; telephone calls of support and medical contacts were endless; Jennifer Larabee and Pat Bates both had friends who were radiologists and were available to read the scans; toys for Reid began to arrive, as well as meals for the family and endless offers to watch Reid's two younger brothers; the outpouring of support was amazing and uplifting; and

WHEREAS, After getting another opinion, the Collianders decided that Children's Memorial Hospital was the best place to care for their son; Reid had the surgery on January 8, 2003 and after a 7-hour operation, Reid was in recovery and then the Intensive Care Unit; Reid woke in a lot of pain and seemingly a different person; this lasted for three days; each night Reid would wake and try to escape the hospital, and he would try to pull out all his tubes; his parents stayed at the hospital to help calm him; on the 4th day, Reid awoke and was completely himself again; Reid went home from the hospital on the 5th day, arriving home to balloons, flowers, cookies, gifts, and a huge "Welcome Home" sign; the amazing thing that the Collianders experienced was the unrelenting support from friends, family, and neighbors; people that didn't even know the Collianders would leave gifts for Reid, and meals came for months; and

WHEREAS, When Reid returned to school Mrs. Cassidy, his classroom teacher, and Mrs. Linkman, his special education teacher, needed to re-teach him his letters, sounds, reading, writing, and numbers; his teachers have worked tirelessly to help Reid in every way possible; Reid will move on to 6th grade at Hadley Junior High School in September and has caught up to his grade level; Reid also required physical therapy, occupational therapy, and vision therapy; he was fortunate to have amazing medical care from Dr. Gesina Keating, his neurologist at Children's Memorial Hospital, Jen Stone at Easter Seals and many others; and

WHEREAS, Six months after his surgery, Reid had his first grand mal seizure while on a family camping trip; as a result, there were more doctors' appointments and testing to determine why he was having seizures; Dr. Gesina Keating from Children's Memorial Hospital has worked with Reid and his family to understand seizures and how to rise above the challenges; and

WHEREAS, It was difficult for Reid to play baseball and basketball; Reid had a hard time and almost never hit the baseball and could not dribble a basketball; the kids and families cheered for Reid, "good try", "nice cut", "it's okay", "shake it off"; in the summer of 2006, Reid's cousin, Kevin Jakabouskas, had just graduated from Lewis University with a degree in sports management and worked at the Chicago Bulls and White Sox Training Academy teaching baseball; Kevin worked endlessly with Reid three days a week in the summer, then all winter one day a week; Reid recently hit his first triple and will soon try out for the Glen Ellyn baseball travel team; and

WHEREAS, The family learned quickly that many rehabilitation therapies are not covered by health insurance; after months of these therapies and thousands of dollars, the family was running out of money; Reid's Uncle Mark and Aunt Judy, and their friends at the Odd Fellows, organized a fundraiser to help with the cost of additional testing and therapies; together they raised $6,000 for the family and Reid was able to receive very expensive neurophysiology and educational development testing; and

WHEREAS, In the summer of 2005, Reid turned a corner, no longer needing to be served, his parents encouraged him to begin serving others; he still faced physical challenges and seizures, but needed to deal with them, and to think of himself as cured; his parents knew how blessed he was to be as high functioning as he was; Reid's parents talked to all three of their boys about giving back and talked to them about hosting a lemonade stand at the town's highly attended July 4th parade; and

WHEREAS, The family's dental hygienist, Kathy Kus, lost her daughter Heather to a brain tumor 22 years ago; Reid's doctor, Dr. Tomita, had treated Heather at Children's Memorial Hospital; the Kus family lived on the parade route on Main Street and agreed to let the kids host the first annual Reid's Lemon-AID stand there; the proceeds would go to Children's Memorial Hospital, Brain Tumor Research; the concept of Lemon-AID came from Megan Stockman, a mother of one of Reid's friends, Nolan; Megan Stockman hand painted a banner, Julie Mudge created a logo, and US Bank paid for t-shirts for the kids; Reid asked some guys on the baseball team and some other friends if they would help with the stand and they agreed; the concept was simple: free lemonade and all donations were accepted graciously; The Glen Ellyn News ran a story about the upcoming event and about the kids; and

WHEREAS, On the morning of July 4th, the Collianders received a call from Jon Duncanson of CBS 2 News requesting to come to the parade and report on what the kids were doing; CBS News ran the story for days, coining Reid's Lemon-AID and Glen Ellyn "a Norman Rockwell painting coming to life;" at the end of the day they had raised $1,200; after the July 4th parade, Busy Bee Barber offered to sponsor the group at the Glen Ellyn Holiday Walk, another well-attended local event in November; the men at Busy Bee purchased all the needed supplies and let the children set up Reid's Lemon-AID in the shop for their annual customer appreciation party; and

WHEREAS, The boys from Reid's Indian Guide tribe decided they wanted to help; Glen Ellyn hosts an annual cardboard boat regatta as part of their July 4th celebration; they decided to build a Reid's Lemon-AID cardboard boat to race; the children had to race the boat twice and won the team spirit award, and they decided to give the trophy to the Brain Tumor Clinic at Children's Memorial Hospital; Reid's Lemon-AID hosted their second annual stand at the 2006 July 4th parade, this time with two stands and more children helping; Busy Bee Barber Shop again invited Reid's Lemon-AID to participate in the annual Holiday Walk; the children had raised $9,000 total after the last event; and

WHEREAS, On Thanksgiving Day last year, the Colliander Family and their friends, the Hendersons, participated in Elmhurst's Dan Gibbons' Turkey Trot for the food depository; in over 20 years, the event has raised over $1 million; Reid heard this and decided Reid's Lemon-AID could raise $1 million as well; during Reid's recovery, bike riding was really difficult with stopping, starting, turning, uneven sidewalks, and cars all as obstacles to Reid; Reid's Ride for Research, and a family fun bike ride was born as a result; and

WHEREAS, Good friends of the Collianders, Penny Linneweh, Lieutenant of Kiwanis of Glen Ellyn, and Rich Ducar, owner of the Bike Shop of Glen Ellyn, got on board; Penny arranged for Kiwanis to insure the event and provide volunteers for the course, without which the ride could not have taken place; Rich and his bike shop buddies helped lay out the course and later performed bike safety checks; the Glen Ellyn Park District also really stepped up to the plate, arranging the schedule so that there were no baseball or softball games until late that morning, enabling the 2,000 plus children and their families to participate in the ride; the Glen Ellyn Police and the Village of Glen Ellyn were instrumental in getting the event off the ground, clearing the way through permits, street closures, and public parking lot closures; the children made a formal presentation to the village board requesting approval; Beth Fawcett, a former marketing executive handled marketing, and Katie Vogg, a former operations executive, handled all of the endless logistics and volunteers; and

WHEREAS, Doreen Domask, an executive at an Internet marketing company did an amazing job promoting the event; Elizabeth Bischoff, a former teacher helped coordinate and organize the 40 children for their work details; Betty Crane, an inactive attorney, handled many legal issues and security detail; Christina Anderson, a former city planner, handled the many village issues; Rose Kallas, a former food service owner, handled all the food and board of health; Beth Maroney, Heidi McTaggart managed the successful silent auction; Reid and his friends were heavily involved in the planning; this group of mostly fifth-graders went to dozens of local businesses requesting support in the form of cash donations, silent auction items, signs in windows, and other methods were quite successful; along the way, the children delivered formal presentations to numerous organizations to garner support for the event, participated in letter-writing campaigns, distributed flyers, helped assemble silent auction baskets, and even baked for the bake sale; they came up with very creative ideas, such as juggling lemons for entertainment at the Ride, and painting windows in town to advertise the event; and they performed as a group at the Churchill Talent Show; and

WHEREAS, On April 21st, 2007, over four hundred people participated and just under $30,000 was raised for Children's Memorial Hospital through registrations, the silent auction, the bake sale, and cash donations; there were clowns, face painting, a DJ, Reid's Lemon-AID, and Dairy Queen ice cream; Reid's cousin and baseball extraordinaire, Kevin Jakabouskas, is also a rocker and wrote and recorded a song about the struggles and triumphs that created Reid's Lemon-AID, performing the song and many others live at the ride; Reid was nervous before the ride started, because he is still not perfectly comfortable on a bike and was afraid he would fall; he got through it with his friends by his side and raised his fist in triumph when he reached the bike corral, a personal triumph; and

WHEREAS, Reid Colliander is someone that the people of the State of Illinois can hold up, treasure, and admire; through this young man's determination money has been raised to help others, and he continues to see his eventual goal of $1,000,000 raised; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NINETY-FIFTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we recognize the hard work and dedication of Reid Colliander and his family, friends, neighbors, and total strangers who have stepped up to help with a great cause and to see the dreams of this young man realized; and be it further

RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be presented to Reid Colliander as a symbol of our respect, admiration, and esteem.