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[Page S4460]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
REMEMBERING MARIA WHELAN
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, on June 10, we lost an extraordinary
advocate for children and families in Illinois. For more than four
decades, Maria Whelan fought to ensure equal access to quality and
affordable childcare. Today, we pay tribute to her hard work and life.
Maria was born on December 4, 1950, in East Hampton, NY. She was the
third of 12 children. Ten cousins lived just down the road. Maria went
to Clarke College and completed her master's at the University of
Chicago. She supported herself working as a waitress and a janitor. It
was in Chicago that she met Jack Wuest. They married and raised three
daughters in Chicago's North Side neighborhood of Rogers Park.
In 1976, Maria was working with educators and advocates to help
families when the local afterschool program's sponsoring agency closed.
Maria and some of these folks formed what would later become the Carole
Robertson Center for Learning. She served as the center's first
executive director until 1989. Maria helped the center become a
thriving center for quality early childhood education. Maria continued
her fight for families as the director of children services for the
Illinois Department of Human Services and then the senior program
officer for the Chicago Community Trust. In 2000, she became the
president and CEO for Illinois Action for Children, which provides
150,000 children and families every year access to high-quality early
care and education opportunities.
Under Maria's leadership, Illinois Action for Children expanded its
scope. She helped create the Healthy Food Program, which helps families
stretch their dollars by reimbursing childcare providers for the cost
of feeding children with healthy food. Maria was instrumental in the
development of Innovation Zones that connect critically important
resources in some of Chicago's most underserved communities.
The Innovation Zones led to the transformative Community Systems
Statewide Supports Program, which helps communities improve early
childhood services with training, planning, and collaboration. Maria
also helped move Illinois Action for Children into direct early
childhood services with its early learning program centers in Chicago's
South and West suburbs.
There was no one like Maria. Maria was tough, smart, passionate, and
an authority on what needed to be done to best serve families in
Illinois. I made it a point to meet with her. She made partnerships
that mattered. Maria helped them launch the Lunch Bus with the Greater
Chicago Food Depository to provide free summer meals to children.
Maria enjoyed reading, classical music, and spending time with her
family in Vermont. And she always loved a good laugh. We will miss her
smile, her wit, and her heart. She is survived by her husband Jack; her
three daughters, Catherine Mary, Ellen Rose, and Maeve Margaret; her
three grandchildren, Teddy, Archie, and Evie; and her nine brothers and
sisters.
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