On Foundation Night on February 27, our club named two community Paul Harris Fellows. The biographies for these two outstanding community leaders are provided below.
Joan Bortolon, President of Lincoln Land Honor Flight
Joan is the president of Lincoln Land Honor Flight. Her father, WWII veteran John Bortolon, was with the 101st airborne, rode gliders in Normandy on D-day, and participated in the Battle of the Bulge. Joan's father passed in 2004, the year the WWII Memorial opened in Washington D.C. Several years later Joan was contacted by Ray Wiede, who brought the program to Springfield, and she has been the face of the program ever since. For her efforts she has been nominated for the First Citizen Award. Joan has undergraduate and master’s degree in political science from Illinois State university. She worked for the state for 40 years, retiring in 2017.
There have been approximately 64 honor flights, which are free to veterans. Over 500 veterans and over 500 guardians have participated in the flights. Joan works from 35 to 40 hours each week on the Honor Flight Program and goes on each flight. Each veteran is given a colored shirt designating the era of their service. WWII veterans (prior to 1946) wear blue shirts. Korean War veterans (1947-1957) wear yellow shirts, and Vietnam (958-1975) veterans wear red shirts. All of the veteran guardians wear green shirts. There is currently a waiting list of about 500 veterans. Any veteran with a terminal illness is given priority. Bill Sturm presented her with the Paul Harris Fellow recognition, and we thanked her for all her efforts with this exemplary program.
Chris Richmond, Chairman of Moving Pillsbury Forward
Chris Richmond is Springfield’s former Fire Marshall who retired in 2019 and has since spent nearly full-time volunteering as the lead person on a project of major complexity called Moving Pillsbury Forward (MPF). The goal of the project is to redevelop the blighted eyesore Pillsbury Mills 18-acre site in the NE part of Springfield.
Chris is a Springfield native and graduate of Illinois State University. He is an independent consultant who works part-time to provide project design and management services to his clients. He served for 25 years with the Springfield Fire Department in the areas of emergency planning, smoke detector education, risk reduction, and community service outreach for the fire department. Since retirement in 2019, he has devoted almost full-time to Moving Pillsbury Forward, a not-for-profit group whose goal is to demolish and redevelop the Pillsbury Mill site. Chris is the Chairman and Treasurer of the group.
He’s involved members of the neighborhood within one mile of the Pillsbury site to inform them of the MPF’s activities. He has considered historical and preservation information and has reached out to former Pillsbury workers in Springfield. This activity has required working with city, county, state, and federal agencies, and officials. The complexities of the MPF environmental protection aspect and the legal complications encountered in this project are the tip-of-the-iceberg of activities they have completed. Working with a small cast of volunteers he has gotten clear title on ownership of the site, and EPA approvals for the ground and building, so that a clear path of demolish lies ahead.
Chris is active in the American Red Cross, South Central Illinois Chapter. He is also on an advisory board at IL State University where he serves as a resident assistant.
Randy Erford presented Chris with the Paul Harris Fellow recognition and everyone thanked him for his exemplary work on this project.
