HR1313 100TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR1313 LRB100 24071 MST 43176 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of Representatives wish to congratulate Rep. John D. Cavaletto on his retirement and recognize his distinguished career of public service to the people of Illinois; and

WHEREAS, Rep. Cavaletto was born in Centenary, Indiana on June 8, 1940 and grew up in a coal mining family in Sesser; he graduated from Sesser High School and earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in education at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale; he received his administrative endorsement from Eastern Illinois University; and

WHEREAS, At 14 years old, Rep. Cavaletto and his future wife, Connie, obtained their social security cards together so they could work at the summer camp for disabled children at Giant City State Park in Carbondale; after many years of developing programs for persons with special needs, his summer programs became the model for the Kennedy Foundation and its program that would ultimately become the Special Olympics movement; and

WHEREAS, Rep. Cavaletto became a teacher and basketball coach, taking the Breese Mater Dei High School boys basketball team to the Illinois State Championships and leading that team to 4th Place in the very competitive big schools division of Illinois in 1974; still referred to as "Coach" by many colleagues, friends, and former students, he later became the principal of Salem Community High School, retiring in 2001; and

WHEREAS, Rep. Cavaletto is the grandson of immigrant coal miners in the Sesser area and is a southern Illinois boy through-and-through; he and Connie have three sons and three grandchildren, and he is an avid quail hunter, fisherman, and golfer; and

WHEREAS, Rep. Cavaletto has sponsored over 100 pieces of legislation throughout his 10 years of service, focusing on grandparents' rights, government reform, fiscal accountability, and economic development for his district and the entire State of Illinois; and

WHEREAS, During the 100th General Assembly, Rep. Cavaletto served on the Appropriations-Elementary & Secondary Education Committee, the Cost Benefit Analysis Committee, the Elementary & Secondary Education: Licensing, Administration & Oversight Committee (Republican Spokesperson), the Energy Committee, the Environment Committee (Republican Spokesperson), the Fire & Emergency Services Committee (Republican Spokesperson), the Government Transparency Committee, and the Special Issues Subcommittee (Co-Chairperson); he served as the Co-Chair of the bi-partisan, bicameral Fire Caucus; and

WHEREAS, Rep. Cavaletto has been the recipient of the Legislator of the Year Award from the Illinois Association of Fire Protection Districts; he has also been awarded the Illinois Farm Bureau's ACTIVATOR Award as a Friend of Agriculture each legislative session of his service; he has also been recognized by Kaskaskia Community College for his support of higher education and received the Champion of Free Enterprise Award from the Illinois Chamber of Commerce; he was honored with the Distinguished Alumni Award from Goode-Barren Township High School, now known as Sesser-Valier High; and

WHEREAS, Rep. Cavaletto has had a long-standing relationship with the Special Olympics movement which began at Southern Illinois University's Little Giant Camp where he and Connie worked for $10 a week with children and young adults with Down syndrome and physical and mental challenges; at these summer camps, under the guidance of Dr. William Freeberg who was head of the Recreation Department, they planned and conducted many activities for the campers, including running, throwing balls, shooting bows and arrows, and even target shooting; they would take the campers by bus over to Little Grassy to go swimming; they came up with the idea of handing out blue ribbons to the participants like the traditional competitions for high school and college athletes; this was to help build pride and self confidence in the children and young adults; and

WHEREAS, In 1963, Rep. Cavaletto was one of the Southern Illinois University graduate students asked by Dr. Freeberg to travel to various places in Illinois to help train high school students to be counselors at the camps; these four camps, sponsored by the Kennedy Foundation, were located in Marion, Waterloo, East St. Louis, and Decatur, and he and the others were paid by the Kennedy Foundation to conduct this training; and

WHEREAS, In 1965 and 1966, Rep. Cavaletto was the director of the camps and lived year-round at Little Grassy Campground; in those years, there would be eight weeks of camp for the kids with Down syndrome and mental/physical challenges and then two weeks of camp for kids with cerebral palsy; after graduate school, he taught at Mater Dei High School in Clinton County, where he ran a day camp for children with special needs for 13 years; and

WHEREAS, Rep. Cavaletto has many fond memories of his work with campers and counselors over the years and special memories of the time when people from the Kennedy Foundation and the Chicago Park District came to southern Illinois to observe the SIU programs for the campers; he is proud to have been a part of the development of what became the Special Olympics; and

WHEREAS, On October 12, 2018, Southern Illinois University's Touch of Nature Environmental Center honored Rep. Cavaletto by re-naming one of its buildings for him; the Cavaletto House renaming was in recognition for his support of Touch of Nature, Camp Little Giant, and the Special Olympics; and

WHEREAS, Rep. Cavaletto has been affectionately known as "Coach" in the General Assembly in reference to his years as a basketball coach and youth mentor; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE HUNDREDTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we congratulate Rep. John D. Cavaletto on his retirement and recognize his distinguished career of public service to the people of Illinois; and be it further

RESOLVED, That a copy of this resolution be presented to the Honorable John D. Cavaletto and his wife, Connie, as a symbol of our esteem and respect.