Adam Gutshall, a member of the Princeton Police Department for 18 years, has served as the resource officer at Princeton High School since January 2020 and says the role offers a refreshing change from patrol duty.
For Seneca High School Resource Officer (SRO) Ken Sangston, there is one clear cut responsibility that is above all others in his position.
A PE teacher who turned grief into a mental health movement. A school resource officer who never says he's too busy. A Marine who's always there. Meet the Illinois Valley's reader-nominated 2026 Everyday Heroes.
Raikes traces his commitment to service back to his childhood in Marseilles, because he had role models who instilled the importance of putting community before self.
Shaped by his own experience battling a heroin addiction, Tomsha has built a support system for those shaped by his own experience.
Applebee is retiring after 34 years at Seneca High School. In her final year, former students and colleagues are reflecting on how she transformed literature into lived experience – and created a classroom where every student felt safe to be themselves.
Perez has devoted himself to his family, co-workers and community in an exemplary fashion, though most may be familiar with his work as a coach.
Meet Joshua Jahn. His wife and two small children were struck and killed by a drunk driver in 2008. He's spent most of the past two decades speaking to DUI convicts and getting them to rethink their decisions.
After tearing her ACL in high school, Gina Martin decided she wanted to go into athletic training. For the past 26 years, Martin has helped La Salle-Peru athletes get on the field and recover from injuries.
For 68 years, Walker has been in Princeton Elementary School District 115 helping and guiding children in numerous ways.
A Marseilles native, Trisha Modeen is a Navy veteran who is a nurse at Ottawa High School and is involved in the Quilts of Valor Foundation, which awards quilts to active duty or military veterans that have been touched by war
Malavolti graduated from Putnam County High School in Granville in 1983 and chose to pursue an education the way many other young people have: he enlisted in the U.S. Navy with the intention of one day using the GI Bill to continue his education.
Since retiring in 2017, after 34 years in the Illinois Air National Guard and the United States Air Force, Roger Masters has become a cheerleader of all things Henry.
As the head of a very young Mendota family, Jason Donahue turned to Uncle Sam to put food on the table. He never regretted it.
Tonya Willey of Ottawa comes from a long line of proud military service but her service was different: she was a musician in the U.S. Army.
The iconic “I want you” poster was what inspired the late Marseilles native Marie Pometto Chase to become La Salle County’s first woman to enlist in the U.S. Navy during World War Two.
When Bureau County native LeeAnn Joyce enlisted in the U.S. Air Force in 1983, she fulfilled two dreams at once, becoming a nurse and serving in the military.
Brian Ksiazak was in middle school when his father, a Naperville firefighter, was honored for saving a patient’s life. Now living in Grand Ridge, Ksiazak said that moment helped shape his commitment to community.