Full Text of HR0471 95th General Assembly
HR0471 95TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
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| HOUSE RESOLUTION
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| WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of | 3 |
| Representatives are pleased to recognize a brave young man, | 4 |
| Reid Colliander, and to share his amazing story; and
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| WHEREAS, This is the story of a very fortunate family, | 6 |
| their experience with nearly losing a child, and what has grown | 7 |
| out of that experience; Ken Colliander and his wife, Kathy | 8 |
| Foote-Colliander, are the proud parents of three children, | 9 |
| Grant, Dain, and Reid; and | 10 |
| WHEREAS, From a very young age, Reid has always been a | 11 |
| caring and compassionate child; in preschool and Kindergarten, | 12 |
| the teachers fell in love with Reid because he was funny, | 13 |
| bright, sociable, and a hard worker; there was little concern | 14 |
| for the fact that he could not write and never showed any | 15 |
| interest in coloring or drawing; he went through all the | 16 |
| preschool screenings and parent conferences available;
Reid | 17 |
| developed all milestones well within the normal ranges, though | 18 |
| a little clumsily; at 6 years old, Reid entered 1st grade in | 19 |
| Mrs. Cassidy's class at Churchill Elementary School in Glen | 20 |
| Ellyn; and | 21 |
| WHEREAS, During the second week of 1st grade, when Mrs. | 22 |
| Cassidy contacted Reid's parents, Reid's mother Kathy jokingly
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| asked Mrs. Cassidy, "Are you calling to tell me that Reid is | 2 |
| the smartest 1st grader you have ever had?"; Mrs. Cassidy | 3 |
| calmly replied, "Not this call, maybe the next call;"
Mrs. | 4 |
| Cassidy is a 20-year veteran teacher and very astute, even with | 5 |
| an overcrowded class and saw a tremor in Reid's hand, never | 6 |
| observed by anyone else; she urged Reid's family to have him | 7 |
| evaluated and after appropriate paperwork was completed, she | 8 |
| had a conference with Reid's pediatrician, Dr. David Dungan;
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| Dr. Dungan ordered an MRI, with no one expecting the test to | 10 |
| reveal anything of concern; after running a series of scans, | 11 |
| the radiologist told Reid's parents additional testing was | 12 |
| needed and for the first time they were very concerned;
Reid's | 13 |
| parents knew that life would change as soon as they spoke to | 14 |
| Dr. Dungan; they took Reid out to lunch and the toy store, and | 15 |
| after arriving home listened to a message from Dr. Dungan | 16 |
| urging them to call as soon as possible; and | 17 |
| WHEREAS, Dr. Dungan gave Reid's parents the news that Reid | 18 |
| had a brain tumor the size of a golf ball in his cerebellum; | 19 |
| Reid's parents called family and friends and within minutes | 20 |
| they were all at the Colliander home; endless hours were spent | 21 |
| on the Internet researching brain tumors, surgeries, and | 22 |
| doctors; a neighbor, Mark Malec, contacted his old roommate | 23 |
| from Notre Dame, Dr. John Costello, who was a cardiologist at | 24 |
| Children's Memorial Hospital; Dr. Costello called his | 25 |
| colleague Dr. Stew Goldman, an oncologist in the Falk Brain |
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| Tumor Clinic at Children's Memorial Hospital; Dr. Goldman spent | 2 |
| the Sunday between Christmas and New Year's Day on the phone | 3 |
| with Reid's parents answering endless questions and then | 4 |
| arranged an appointment with neurosurgeon Dr. Tadanori Tomita; | 5 |
| and
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| WHEREAS, Reid's parents researched Children's Memorial | 7 |
| Hospital, Dr. Tomita, Dr. Goldman and the Falk Brain Tumor | 8 |
| Clinic and discovered that these two doctors were the best in | 9 |
| the country; Reid and his parents went to Chicago for a long | 10 |
| day of doctors' appointments; the brain tumor clinic was very | 11 |
| crowded and there was a very long wait; the hospital had many | 12 |
| volunteers to play with the waiting children and Reid had a | 13 |
| great time; after the tests were completed, the doctors met | 14 |
| with Reid's parents; Dr. Tomita explained what he thought the | 15 |
| problem was and presented evidence to support his theory; it | 16 |
| was a benign astrosytoma in the cerebellum, and it needed to be | 17 |
| removed; the family went home, did more research, and talked | 18 |
| with more friends and family; telephone calls of support and | 19 |
| medical contacts were endless; Jennifer Larabee and Pat Bates | 20 |
| both had friends who were radiologists and were available to | 21 |
| read the scans; toys for Reid began to arrive, as well as meals | 22 |
| for the family and endless offers to watch Reid's two younger | 23 |
| brothers; the outpouring of support was amazing and uplifting; | 24 |
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| WHEREAS,
After getting another opinion, the Collianders | 2 |
| decided that Children's Memorial Hospital was the best place to | 3 |
| care for their son;
Reid had the surgery on January 8, 2003 and | 4 |
| after a 7-hour operation, Reid was in recovery and then the | 5 |
| Intensive Care Unit; Reid woke in a lot of pain and seemingly a | 6 |
| different person; this lasted for three days; each night Reid | 7 |
| would wake and try to escape the hospital, and he would try to | 8 |
| pull out all his
tubes; his parents stayed at the hospital to | 9 |
| help calm him; on the 4th day, Reid awoke and was completely | 10 |
| himself again;
Reid went home from the hospital on the 5th day, | 11 |
| arriving home to balloons, flowers, cookies, gifts, and a huge | 12 |
| "Welcome Home" sign; the amazing thing that the Collianders | 13 |
| experienced was the unrelenting support from friends, family, | 14 |
| and neighbors; people that didn't even know the Collianders | 15 |
| would leave gifts for Reid, and meals came for months; and | 16 |
| WHEREAS,
When Reid returned to school Mrs. Cassidy, his | 17 |
| classroom teacher, and Mrs. Linkman, his special education | 18 |
| teacher, needed to re-teach him his letters, sounds, reading, | 19 |
| writing, and numbers; his teachers have worked tirelessly to | 20 |
| help Reid in every way possible;
Reid will move on to 6th grade | 21 |
| at Hadley Junior High School in September and has caught up to | 22 |
| his grade level;
Reid also required physical therapy, | 23 |
| occupational therapy, and vision therapy; he was fortunate to | 24 |
| have amazing medical care from Dr. Gesina Keating, his | 25 |
| neurologist at Children's Memorial Hospital, Jen Stone at |
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| Easter Seals and many others; and
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| WHEREAS, Six months after his surgery, Reid had his first | 3 |
| grand mal seizure while on a family camping trip; as a result, | 4 |
| there were more doctors' appointments and testing to determine | 5 |
| why he was having seizures; Dr. Gesina Keating from Children's | 6 |
| Memorial Hospital has worked with Reid and his family to | 7 |
| understand seizures and how to rise above the challenges; and | 8 |
| WHEREAS, It was difficult for Reid to play baseball and | 9 |
| basketball; Reid had a hard time and almost never hit the | 10 |
| baseball and could not dribble a basketball; the kids and | 11 |
| families cheered for Reid, "good try", "nice cut", "it's okay", | 12 |
| "shake it off"; in the summer of 2006, Reid's cousin, Kevin | 13 |
| Jakabouskas, had just graduated from Lewis University with a | 14 |
| degree in sports management and worked at the Chicago Bulls and | 15 |
| White Sox Training Academy teaching baseball; Kevin worked | 16 |
| endlessly with Reid three days a week in the summer, then all | 17 |
| winter one day a week; Reid recently hit his first triple and | 18 |
| will soon try out for the Glen Ellyn baseball travel team; and | 19 |
| WHEREAS, The family learned quickly that many | 20 |
| rehabilitation therapies are not covered by health insurance; | 21 |
| after months of these therapies and thousands of dollars, the | 22 |
| family was running out of money; Reid's Uncle Mark and Aunt | 23 |
| Judy, and their friends at the Odd Fellows, organized a |
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| fundraiser to help with the cost of additional testing and | 2 |
| therapies; together they raised $6,000 for the family and Reid | 3 |
| was able to receive very expensive neurophysiology and | 4 |
| educational development testing; and | 5 |
| WHEREAS, In the summer of 2005, Reid turned a corner, no | 6 |
| longer needing to be served, his parents encouraged him to | 7 |
| begin serving others; he still faced physical challenges and | 8 |
| seizures, but needed to deal with them, and to think of himself | 9 |
| as cured; his parents knew how blessed he was to be as high | 10 |
| functioning as he was;
Reid's parents talked to all three of | 11 |
| their boys about giving back and talked to them about hosting a | 12 |
| lemonade
stand at the town's highly attended July 4th parade; | 13 |
| and | 14 |
| WHEREAS, The family's dental hygienist, Kathy Kus, lost her | 15 |
| daughter Heather to a brain tumor 22 years ago; Reid's doctor, | 16 |
| Dr. Tomita, had treated Heather at Children's Memorial | 17 |
| Hospital; the Kus family lived on the parade route on Main | 18 |
| Street and agreed to let the kids host the first annual Reid's | 19 |
| Lemon-AID stand there; the proceeds would go to Children's | 20 |
| Memorial Hospital, Brain Tumor Research; the concept of | 21 |
| Lemon-AID came from Megan Stockman, a mother of one of Reid's | 22 |
| friends, Nolan;
Megan Stockman hand painted a banner, Julie | 23 |
| Mudge created a logo, and US Bank paid for t-shirts for the | 24 |
| kids; Reid asked some guys on the baseball team and some other |
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| friends if they would help with the stand and they agreed; the | 2 |
| concept was simple: free lemonade and all donations were | 3 |
| accepted graciously; The Glen Ellyn News ran a story about the | 4 |
| upcoming event and about the kids; and
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| WHEREAS, On the morning of July 4th, the Collianders | 6 |
| received a call from Jon Duncanson of CBS 2 News
requesting to | 7 |
| come to the parade and report on what the kids were doing; CBS | 8 |
| News ran the story for days, coining Reid's Lemon-AID and Glen | 9 |
| Ellyn "a Norman Rockwell painting coming to life;"
at the end | 10 |
| of the day they had raised $1,200; after the July 4th parade, | 11 |
| Busy Bee Barber offered to sponsor the group at the Glen Ellyn | 12 |
| Holiday Walk, another well-attended local event in November; | 13 |
| the men at Busy Bee purchased all the needed supplies and let | 14 |
| the children set up Reid's Lemon-AID in the shop for their | 15 |
| annual customer appreciation party; and | 16 |
| WHEREAS, The boys from Reid's Indian Guide tribe decided | 17 |
| they wanted to help; Glen Ellyn hosts an annual cardboard boat | 18 |
| regatta as part of their July 4th celebration; they decided to | 19 |
| build a Reid's Lemon-AID cardboard boat to race; the children | 20 |
| had to race the boat twice and won the team spirit award, and | 21 |
| they decided to give the trophy to the Brain Tumor Clinic at | 22 |
| Children's Memorial Hospital;
Reid's Lemon-AID hosted their | 23 |
| second annual stand at the 2006 July 4th parade, this time with | 24 |
| two stands and more children helping; Busy Bee Barber Shop |
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| again invited Reid's Lemon-AID to
participate in the annual | 2 |
| Holiday Walk; the children had raised $9,000 total after the | 3 |
| last event; and | 4 |
| WHEREAS, On Thanksgiving Day last year, the Colliander | 5 |
| Family and their friends, the Hendersons, participated in | 6 |
| Elmhurst's Dan Gibbons' Turkey Trot for the food depository; in | 7 |
| over 20 years, the event has raised over $1 million; Reid heard | 8 |
| this and decided Reid's Lemon-AID could raise $1 million as | 9 |
| well; during Reid's recovery, bike riding was really difficult | 10 |
| with stopping, starting, turning, uneven sidewalks, and cars | 11 |
| all as obstacles to Reid; Reid's Ride for Research, and a | 12 |
| family fun bike ride was born as a result; and | 13 |
| WHEREAS, Good friends of the Collianders, Penny Linneweh, | 14 |
| Lieutenant of Kiwanis of Glen Ellyn, and Rich Ducar, owner of | 15 |
| the Bike Shop of Glen Ellyn, got on board; Penny arranged for | 16 |
| Kiwanis to insure the event and provide volunteers for the | 17 |
| course, without which the ride could not have taken place; Rich | 18 |
| and his bike shop buddies helped lay out the course and later | 19 |
| performed bike safety checks; the Glen Ellyn Park District also | 20 |
| really stepped up to the plate, arranging the schedule so that | 21 |
| there were no baseball or softball games until late that | 22 |
| morning, enabling the 2,000 plus children and their families to | 23 |
| participate in the ride; the Glen Ellyn Police and the Village | 24 |
| of Glen Ellyn were instrumental in getting the event off the |
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| ground, clearing the way through permits, street closures, and | 2 |
| public parking lot closures; the children made a formal | 3 |
| presentation to the village board requesting approval; Beth | 4 |
| Fawcett, a former marketing executive handled marketing, and | 5 |
| Katie Vogg, a former operations executive, handled all of the | 6 |
| endless logistics and volunteers; and
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| WHEREAS, Doreen Domask, an executive at an Internet | 8 |
| marketing company did an amazing job promoting the event; | 9 |
| Elizabeth Bischoff, a former teacher helped coordinate and | 10 |
| organize the 40 children for their work details; Betty Crane, | 11 |
| an inactive attorney, handled many legal issues and security | 12 |
| detail; Christina Anderson, a former city planner, handled the | 13 |
| many village issues; Rose Kallas, a former food service owner, | 14 |
| handled all the food and board of health; Beth Maroney, Heidi | 15 |
| McTaggart managed the successful silent auction;
Reid and his | 16 |
| friends were heavily involved in the planning; this group of | 17 |
| mostly fifth-graders went to dozens of local businesses | 18 |
| requesting support in the form of cash donations, silent | 19 |
| auction items, signs in windows, and other methods were quite | 20 |
| successful; along the way, the children delivered formal | 21 |
| presentations to numerous organizations to garner support for | 22 |
| the event, participated in letter-writing campaigns, | 23 |
| distributed flyers, helped assemble silent auction baskets, | 24 |
| and even baked for the bake sale; they came up with very | 25 |
| creative ideas, such as juggling lemons for entertainment at |
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| the Ride, and painting windows in town to advertise the event; | 2 |
| and they performed as a group at the Churchill Talent Show;
and | 3 |
| WHEREAS, On April 21st, 2007, over four hundred people | 4 |
| participated and just under $30,000 was raised for Children's | 5 |
| Memorial Hospital through registrations, the silent auction, | 6 |
| the bake sale, and cash donations;
there were clowns, face | 7 |
| painting, a DJ, Reid's Lemon-AID, and Dairy Queen ice cream; | 8 |
| Reid's cousin and baseball extraordinaire, Kevin Jakabouskas, | 9 |
| is also a rocker and wrote and recorded a song about the | 10 |
| struggles and triumphs that created Reid's Lemon-AID, | 11 |
| performing the song and many others live at the ride;
Reid was | 12 |
| nervous before the ride started, because he is still not | 13 |
| perfectly comfortable on a bike and was afraid he would fall; | 14 |
| he got through it with his friends by his side and raised his | 15 |
| fist in triumph when he reached the bike corral, a personal | 16 |
| triumph; and
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| WHEREAS, Reid Colliander is someone that the people of the | 18 |
| State of Illinois can hold up, treasure, and admire; through | 19 |
| this young man's determination money has been raised to help | 20 |
| others, and he continues to see his eventual goal of $1,000,000 | 21 |
| raised; therefore, be it
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| RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE | 23 |
| NINETY-FIFTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we |
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| recognize the hard work and dedication of Reid Colliander and | 2 |
| his family, friends, neighbors, and total strangers who have | 3 |
| stepped up to help with a great cause and to see the dreams of | 4 |
| this young man realized; and be it further
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| RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be | 6 |
| presented to Reid Colliander as a symbol of our respect, | 7 |
| admiration, and esteem.
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