Colleen Johnson, MC
Click on the arrow below to listen to the remarks. Audio courtesy of WCBU-FM 89.9. A transcript is below the photo. All photos courtesy of the City of Peoria.
Everyone knows there’s always a woman behind the scenes that’s in charge. And today that is Stacy Peterson who’s keeping us straight. So we thank her for all of her work, tirelessly working for our beautiful city. She’s one of my heroes. People don’t even know how much she does.
I’m Colleen Johnson, and I’m welcoming you all today. And the reason I’m welcoming you is because I was the former executive director of the Peoria Historical Society. I’ve just moved to a development position in the private sector. But I have to tell you that after only living here for a few years, I had this unique opportunity to come to the Historical Society. And I had this unique opportunity to meet within my first couple of weeks one of my other heroes, Bob Hoffer. Bob, he gave me a full five minutes to get settled in and unpack my pictures and my cell phone before he came in my office and told me all about the Moffatt Cemetery. So my hair, I think, is finally not completely blown back. Once you meet this force of nature, you’ll understand. If you haven’t already met him, the zeal and the passion with which he takes on every project. Fortunately, most of those projects are for the city. And I want to tell you, they’re also for his family. And the reason that we’re really here today is because he took on an endeavor to find one of his wife’s family members. Working through genealogy, he uncovered the Moffatt cemetery, and that’s really why we’re here today and able to acknowledge what was a travesty in history. But we’re turning that around with the help of the city of Peoria and making this into a beautiful monument, a place that we can be proud of.
So, I welcome you all today. Thank you for being here. We have wonderful guests with us, and we’ll get to this beautiful program right after we have the posting of the colors I invite you to enjoy.