Miriam Perrone
Miriam “Miggie” Perrone was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on June 10, 1926. She grew up in Missouri and that is where she attended high school and college. She attended the University of Missouri and graduated with honors, earning a dual bachelor’s degree in 1949 in English and Journalism.
Upon completion of college, she taught and worked in public relations. In 1966 she moved with her family to the Chicagoland area where she went to work for the Chicago Daily News serving as a correspondent focusing on featured stories and reviews of books, dance, and theater. During her time in the Chicago suburbs, she began to shift her career and started to volunteer with North Shore Special Education. She later moved with her family to the Rockford area and started working with the Rockford School District while completing coursework from both Mallinckrodt Community College in Wilmette, IL and Rockford University to earn a Master of Arts in Learning Disabilities.
Her interactions with the park district were intermittent until she met with the then executive director, Webbs Norman in the early 1970’s. The Perrone family had one child with a disability and was dissatisfied with the park districts program for youth with disabilities and demanded better programs. Perrone passionately declared that the program offered to her son and others with disabilities was insulting. Then came the famous question from Webbs to Miriam, “Could you do better?” She said yes, and she was hired on the spot. And she did do better.
In 1973 Miriam was tasked with doing an in-depth study to determine wants and needs of the community if the Park District were to expand programs and services to people with disabilities. After months of outreach and gathering data, it was determined that the District should expand recreational offerings to provide community based recreation to promote the development, maintenance, and expression of a meaningful leisure lifestyle to people with disabilities.
Impact on Youth:
During her time at the Park District, Miriam championed children with disabilities and worked to promote inclusion services across the park district. She used her experience in developing programming to create Camp Sunshine and attendance grew quickly. Miriam instituted four goals/components for the program:
Campers and staff would have fun by consistently interacting
Dance, drama, music, and visual arts would be the tools to implement consistent exchange between campers and staff
The arts would encourage campers to develop self-confidence and self-expression, while demanding discipline and giving each camper a lasting memory of achievement
Parents, educators, business leaders, community activists, medical personnel and artistic community would be involved.
Camp Sunshine was a great success and put the Rockford Park District on the national stage as the camp was named one of nine national models and Rockford was known as a progressive community that offered the best it could for all its citizens. Miriam even took a group to New York City where they performed at the Institute of Rehabilitation. She also spoke at numerous sessions, conferences, and gatherings around the country, showing others how to conduct similar arts camps.
Camp Sunshine continued to expand and in the 1980’s, programs for teens were added and in 1989, and the Rockford and Freeport Park Districts formed the Northland Association for Special Recreation. Establishing a special recreation association enabled the Park District to levy a tax used exclusively for programs for people with disabilities.
Miriam left Rockford in the 1980’s but her legacy lives on daily and the philosophy she instilled is still at the heart of everything the Therapeutic Recreation department does today. With the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1991, there was a focus on the concept of inclusion over segregation. The Park District delivers services promoting and/or providing access, inclusion, and specialty recreation. Over the years adapted sports programming was added such as Buddy Baseball, Buddy Basketball, Buddy Dance, and a wheelchair basketball team named the Junior Chariots. The programs and services offered through the Rockford Park District are deeply beneficial to the community and have been forever impacted by Miriam Perrone, a passionate advocate for the rights of those with disabilities.
Words of Wisdom: “I ask you not to brand a child with a label but instead nurture him or her in an environment that is challenging.”
Awards, Recognition, and Publications:
1979 – 1980: Nominee for Governor’s Award for outstanding contribution to the arts
1979: Icarus and Other Flights, Published by the National Committee Arts for the Handicapped
Lite Up Your Classroom, 1981
Numerous articles in Chicago Daily News, Chicago Sun Times, St. Louis Post Dispatch, Dance Magazine, High Fidelity, National Enquirer