[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 130 (Thursday, July 23, 2020)]
[Senate]
[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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