Working for Illinois Caucus

State Rep. Stephanie Kifowit, D-Oswego, and Fox Valley Mall in Aurora will host the Illinois Secretary of State’s Mobile Drivers’ Services team for a mobile DMV event on May 6 at the mall.

The event will run from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the first floor Center Park courtyard area of the mall.

“A trip to the DMV can be extremely difficult for seniors, those who have trouble standing for a long time and those with demanding work schedules.” said Kifowit in a press release about the event. “With this mobile DMV event we are hoping to bring services to residents in a more convenient and accessible way.”

The unit operates like a regular DMV and offers driver’s license and state ID renewals, replacements and corrections, in addition to vehicle renewal stickers and motor voter registration, officials said. Seniors 65 years old and older can get state IDs renewed free of charge at the event.

For some services people will still have to go to a regular DMV location. Driver’s license renewal will not be available for seniors over the age of 75 at the event, and Real IDs will not be available.

For more information on the event, go to www.ildistrict84.com/events or call 630-585-1308.

The style and techniques of mid-century artist Ruth Van SIckle Ford will be explored on a free walk through the current exhibit of her work at the Aurora Historical Society at 2 p.m. April 29, event organizers said.

Art conservator Scott Sherwood will speak, discussing what he sees in the 34 oil and watercolor paintings on display at the PIerce Art and History Center, 20 E. Downer Place in Aurora. Sherwood is a museum assistant for the Aurora Historical Society and has worked on restoring several of the Ford paintings in the show.

Although the program is free, donations are appreciated, Aurora Historical Society officials said. Guests are encouraged to register for the event at www.aurorahistory.org or by calling 630-755-5657.

Geneva’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Task Force will be hosting a virtual inclusive language session from 11 a.m. to noon May 11.

Residents and community stakeholders are invited to participate in the online session, which will focus on why the words we use are important to promote healthy conversations, event organizers said.

The task force’s facilitator will moderate the session to review guiding principles on keeping up to date, honoring preferences and navigating up to 24 categories of diversity, according to a press release about the session.

The session will be conducted via Zoom. The event will be recorded and later be available to watch on the city of Geneva’s YouTube channel.

In addition to the inclusive language session, the task force will conduct other public engagement events in the coming months and develop a community survey. Based on the findings and community feedback, the facilitator will assist the task force in formulating a recommended action plan that will be presented to the Geneva City Council in 2023, according to the release.

More information about Geneva’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Task Force is available on the city’s website at www.geneva.il.us.

John Swalec, former president of Waubonsee Community College, received the Illinois State University Distinguished Alumni Award Friday at the annual Alumni Awards Celebration, according to a press release about the event.

The award recognizes the achievements of Illinois State University alumni and is the highest honor presented by the Alumni Association, according to the release. Selection is based upon significant accomplishments in one’s chosen field, leadership and outstanding contributions made to the recipient’s community, state or nation.

Swalec’s career in education and athletics began at Illinois State. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees at ISU that helped launch a career in teaching and coaching. He later returned to campus to earn a doctorate and went on to become president of Waubonsee Community College.

Swalec guided the community college from 1981 to 2001. The college grew by more than 50% during that time and added campuses in Aurora and Plano, according to the release.

His legacy at Waubonsee lives on through the John J. Swalec, Jr. President’s Achievement Award scholarship, officials said.

Swalec earned ISU’s Alumni Association Achievement Award in 1987. He was inducted into Illinois State’s College of Education Hall of Fame in 1997 and Waubonsee Community College’s Hall of Fame in 2011.

Swalec was a standout wrestler and track and field athlete at Illinois State, and he was inducted into the Illinois State Athletics Percy Family Hall of Fame in 1983. He served as University High School’s first wrestling coach, coached at several other northern Illinois high schools, and later guided Joliet Junior College to a National Junior College Athletics Association national championship.

Swalec’s work in athletics earned him induction into the National Junior College Athletic Association Region 4 Hall of Fame and the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.

Literacy Volunteers Fox Valley will host a free tutor training workshop from 6:30 to 9 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays, May 9, 11, 16 and 18, at the St. Charles Public Library, 1 S. Sixth Ave. in St. Charles.

Literacy Volunteers Fox Valley helps adults communicate in English by matching them with trained volunteer tutors one on one, group officials said.

Once tutors are trained, they will meet with their learner for one hour each week at a time and location that is convenient, most often public libraries.

The program needs 30 volunteers to help the 30 adults who are waiting to learn, officials said.

Volunteers do not need a teaching background or a second language to be effective, group officials said. The workshop provides materials and instruction so anyone can help, according to organizers.

For more information about the workshop or to register, go to https://www.lvfv.org/become-a-tutor or call or text 630-584-4428.

CHICAGO (WLS) — Down in Springfield, the House is expected to vote on a resolution, officially making Wednesday, March 29 “Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day” in Illinois.

Meanwhile, veterans and their families met along the Chicago Riverwalk Wednesday morning, commemorating this day in history.

At the Vietnam Veterans Memorial at Wacker Drive and Wabash Avenue, a wreath laying ceremony was held, honoring those who gave their lives to the United States.

“And we were the lucky ones. We got to come home. The names on that wall, that’s why we do this here,” veteran Kevin Calkins said.

Wednesday marks the 50th anniversary of when the last combat troops were withdrawn from Vietnam in 1973.

More than 58,000 members of the United States Armed Forces lost their lives in Vietnam. More than 300,000 were wounded.

Carlos Saladino was one of those wounded, taking Wednesday to reflect on the young lives lost.

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“It’s all volunteer Army now. Back then, it was drafting. And people don’t understand draftees. I turned 19 years old when I was over there, and so the life that was lost then. I see myself, I’m 73 years old and I’ve got four children, married my wife, had a good job with the Chicago Police Department, met so many good friends, and what they missed,” Saladino said.

Nearly 3,000 of those killed in Vietnam were from Illinois.

Their names are on display at the memorial site.

Each veteran took turns passing the microphone, saying the names of their fallen friends aloud.

“We can all relate in a certain way, just by being there, and it makes a difference, keeps us closer together,” veteran Barron Buchunas said.

In Springfield, the House resolution will be voted on Wednesday.

The session is expected to start at noon.

A measure that would allow multiple occupancy public restrooms to be labeled gender-neutral was passed by the Illinois House on Thursday with the bare minimum of votes.

The bill, which now moves to the Senate, would amend the Equitable Restroom Act of 2019, which required all single-occupancy public restrooms to be available to all genders. The amendment would only allow restrooms with two or more toilets to be available to all.

“The bill does not require gender-neutral bathrooms,” Rep. Katie Stuart, an Edwardsville Democrat who was the first sponsor of the bill, said. “Builders would choose what bathroom facilities to offer, and would be required to meet appropriate standards for toilet and urinal privacy.”

The floor debate before the vote took all of two minutes. House Republican Floor Leader Rep. Patrick Windhorst of Metropolis asked Stuart to confirm that this bill contained the same language as a bill from the previous session that was passed by the House but died in the Senate.

The bill passed with 60 yes votes, with all but one of the 40 House Republicans voting no.

“Average Illinois residents are just not for this type of agenda,” GOP Rep. Joe Sosnowski of Rockford, who voted no on the legislation, said in an interview after the vote. “If there is an issue with identification, well, you got two separate bathrooms. Why do you need multi-use, multi-gender bathrooms? It isn’t doing anything to address that in my opinion.”

Restroom preference has become another issue feeding the national culture wars. Earlier this week, Republican Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed into law a measure that prevents transgender people in public schools from using restrooms matching the gender with which they identify.

The Illinois bill is not specific to schools, though it allows for any multiple-occupancy restroom to be identified as an all-gender facility. It would require the restroom to have specific signage, stall dividers and partitions for urinals.

The bill also requires sufficient numbers of toilets or stalls to be available for male and female patrons. The Illinois Department of Public Health would be tasked with establishing rules for enforcing the measure, and these bathrooms would also be subject to health or building inspections.

The bill passed through the House Human Services Committee on Feb. 22 in a 6-3 party-line vote. Stuart noted during the hearing that a similar bill passed through the House a few years ago but didn’t make it through the Senate.

She said the bill allows for businesses, universities and other places the option to create a multi-stall gender-neutral restroom.

State Rep. Charles Meier, a Republican from Okawville, raised concerns during the hearing about whether some larger facilities could be equipped to handle multi-stalled, gender neutral bathrooms.

“Think of in large arenas where you’ve got people stacked high and low, you only have so much space. A lot of people will not want to go into an all-gender restroom, and you won’t have no space,” Meier said at the hearing. “You know, when buildings are plumbed you’re plumbing is run through certain areas that are heated and they’re air-conditioned so they don’t freeze. And other parts of these big outdoor arenas aren’t. And so, you’re adding a lot of cost into that.”

Stuart stressed that arenas that are worried about space don’t have to include such restrooms because they would be optional.

“If an arena is worried about the space they do not have to create such a restroom,” she told Meier. “That’s why it’s permissive and it’s because we understand types of constraints like that.”

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This story was originally published March 23, 2023, 8:59 PM.