Full Text of HR1313 100th General Assembly
HR1313 100TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY |
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| 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 |
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| 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 |
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| 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 |
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| 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 |
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| 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.
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