HR0023 96TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR0023 LRB096 04728 KXB 14791 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of Representatives are pleased to congratulate Elizabeth Arts on being named the Western Springs 2008 Woman of the Year; and

WHEREAS, After her two daughters and son were married within a three-year period, Elizabeth was ready for a new project, the Ekdahl House; she led a team of Historical Society trustees in the development of a plan to save, move, and restore the 1887 Ekdahl building as an outdoor community museum; and

WHEREAS, With her talent for organizing, she was able to convince not only the Historical Society trustees that the building should be saved but also the Village Board to locate the building on Village-owned property; Elizabeth has been a member of the Historical Society for ten years and chaired the Preservation Awards Committee; she redesigned the program and evaluation process, secured the sponsorship of the Doings newspaper, and planned the awards receptions; and

WHEREAS, Elizabeth is on the Women's Board of the Mercy Home for Girls and Boys, which promotes education and scholarships for young people; with Easter Seals of Metro Chicago, she has helped coordinate a program between autistic children at the Therapeutic School for Autism Research and a Chicago charter school stressing career opportunities; another project was a socialization program between higher functioning autistic boys and 7th and 8th grade boys; and

WHEREAS, During the 35 years that she and her husband, Dave, have lived in Western Springs, she has been a Girl Scout leader, a Little League team mother, a CCD teacher at St. John of the Cross, co-chair of the St. John's Health Committee, and a volunteer in their program to visit the elderly; she serves as a reading mother to the Cayman International School, where her daughter and family reside, via Skype; and

WHEREAS, She was raised in New York and met her husband while she attended St. Francis University in Joliet; she is a registered nurse and earned her master's and Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the Illinois School of Professional Psychology in Chicago; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NINETY-SIXTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we congratulate Elizabeth Arts and wish her the best in her future endeavors; and be it further

RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be presented to Elizabeth Arts as a symbol of our respect.