Studs Terkel Humanities Service Award Recipients to Meet at the Illinois State Library October 23

CHICAGO–On October 23, 2003 the Illinois Humanities Council (IHC) will host a reception for the 2002 recipients of the Studs Terkel Humanities Service Award at the Illinois State Library, 300 South Second St, Springfield. Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White serves as the reception’s honorary chair.

To date, the IHC has named more than 300 recipients, 81 of which were awarded in 2002. The 2002 Studs Terkel Humanities Service Award recipients hail from more than 75 communities in all regions of the state, from Makanda to Morton Grove, and from Centralia to Chicago. For a complete list of recipients and their communities please visit the IHC’s website at www.prairie.org and click on “Studs Terkel Humanities Service Awards.”

The program during the reception will feature remarks by IHC Executive Director Kristina Valaitis; the Mayor of Springfield, Timothy Davlin; and Abraham Lincoln scholar, G. Cullom Davis. Secretary of State Jesse White is scheduled to appear as well. A personal message from Studs Terkel commending the award recipients will be read at the reception.

Initiated by the IHC in 1999 to honor Illinois’ unrecognized champions of the humanities, the Studs Terkel Humanities Service Award is awarded biennially to a diverse selection of educators, historians, and cultural advocates. The award was created as an honor for the state’s lesser know humanities devotees, those individuals in each community who read books to children after school, or teach their neighbors to read; who keep the doors of the historical society open, helping to preserve the connection with the past and the present. The IHC chose to honor these individuals, those that have demonstrated, in Studs Terkel’s words, “The extraordinary accomplishments of ordinary people.” Each individual considered for the Studs Terkel award must be nominated for the honor by their mayor.

Nominations for the next Studs Terkel Humanities Service Awards will be accepted in the summer of 2004. Nomination packets will be mailed directly to Illinois mayors. Winners will be announced in early fall. For more information about the Studs Terkel Humanities Service Award or the IHC, please visit www.prairie.org, send an email to ihc@prairie.org, or call 312.422.5580.

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