Add her name to the list! The naming of Riversider Cindy Gustafson as the 2011 Person of the Year by the Riverside Chamber of Commerce and the Riverside Township Lions Club makes her the 61st person so honored. The list includes the names of 52 men, six women, two couples and one organization.
Gustafson, a graduate of Riverside-Brookfield High School, holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and a master’s degree in environmental engineering. Following in the footsteps of her late parents, Phil and Dolly Gustafson, she has been an active presence in the community, following her father as a member of the Riverside Village Board of Trustees, a position she held from 1999 to 2007.
At the Riverside Presbyterian Church she was a trustee in the 1990s and most recently has become an elder at the church, serving on the Stewardship Committee. She has also found the time for the Kiwanis Club (no longer in existence in Riverside) and the Garden Club.
The mother of two sons, Kyle and Austin, she found time to serve on the Blythe Park PTA and as a den leader of Cub Scout Pack 24 and as a Scoutmaster for Boy Scout Troop 24. She led her sons into an interest in the environment through scouting and her involvement in the Hofmann Dam River Rats.
Expanding her interests, Cindy and her husband, Jim Adams, became “farmers” when purchased acreage near Kankakee six years ago. The property is known as Wild Sands Farm.
She cultivates assorted vegetables, herbs, garden plants and flowers from the farm which she sells at the Riverside Farmers Market in Riverside located next to the Library on Wednesday afternoons. Stop by her booth and visit her to learn more about her farming venture, she will tell her it is an interest she has had for a long time. She claims her father could not grow anything, but her grandfather was a botanist, so it is in her genes.
The announcement of Cindy Gustafson as Person of the Year took place in June at the Chamber Steak Fry. She was honored in the Riverside July 4 parade and will be honored again on Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2011 on Riverside Day, which is co-sponsored by the Chamber and the Lions Club.
The day will include golf at Riverside Golf Club and dinner at the club. Tickets for golf are available through Brian Brennan at 447-2949. Tickets for the dinner are available through Olga Sylvester at 267-7519 for $38. Congratulations on being named to this distinguished list, Cindy!
