A plaque hanging in the main hall of the Riverside Township Hall lists names of those who have been named recipients of the Bill Jansky Award from the Riverside Township Lions Club.
The Jansky Award winners are chosen by a committee of Lions members who review nominations sent to the Club. Along with having their names added to the list of prior awardees, winners are also honored at a dinner meeting of the Lions Club.
This year the Lions Club is proud to announce that Cathy Maloney, of Riverside, is the 2021 Bill Jansky Award recipient.
Maloney has been long active in the community, and while she often works behind the scenes, we all benefit from her efforts. A longtime member of the Landscape Advisory Commission, she has been instrumental in revitalizing the triangle parks throughout the village. It was her love of the village’s trees and plantings that set her upon a path that ended with Riverside receiving official designation as an arboretum.
She has served as president of the Frederick Law Olmsted Society and brought that perspective to her role as a commissioner and chairwoman of the Landscape Advisory Commission.
Maloney and her husband, Mike, reside in what is known as the Gardener’s Cottage, which was part of the Coonley Estate designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. She shared the history of the cottage in her 2010 book “The Gardener’s Cottage in Riverside, Illinois: Living in a Small Masterpiece.”
The book serves not only as the history of her home but as a tribute to Frank Lloyd Wright, landscape architect Jens Jensen and Frederick Law Olmsted, Riverside’s designer.
While Jansky Award winners are typically feted at a dinner meeting of the organization, last year’s winner, Tom Sisulak, missed out due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
It is the intention of the Lions Club to honor Cathy Maloney at a dinner meeting as soon as it is possible. In the interim you will soon be able to see the plaque in the Riverside Township Hall.
The Jansky Award is named in honor of the late Bill Jansky, who was an active member of the Lions Club, a member of the Riverside business community and of the Chamber of Commerce. Longtime residents will know him as as the owner of Bill’s Finer Foods at 28 E. Burlington St. The building was demolished in 2019.
