Cecelia

Sullivan

Cecelia Sullivan, Director of Parks and Recreation for the Village of Glendale Heights, is honored with the Studs Terkel Humanities Service Award for her extraordinary commitment and dedication as project manager to the design and development of the Village's Veterans Memorial Park. Ms. Sullivan worked closely with the project architects to design the park with the theme "Journey into the Armed Forces." A walking path through the park takes visitors past granite panels engraved with quotes by U.S. Presidents, including George Washington and John F. Kennedy, and learning stations along the path educate visitors about wartime events, facts, and statistics. Ms. Sullivan also helped organize many of the fundraisers for the park and volunteered her time working at these events as well. She was personally responsible for the memorial brick program that allowed individuals and businesses to purchase personalized engraved bricks that would be displayed in the park. After the grand opening of the park in 2005, Ms. Sullivan worked with local elementary schools to arrange educational visits and put together a scavenger hunt for the students. She also served on the planning committee that brought "The American Veterans Vietnam Traveling Tribute", a 4/5 scale replica of the Vietnam Memorial Wall in Washington D.C., to Glendale Heights, a four-day event that attracted an estimated 7,500 visitors.