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Resident urges Urbana adopt honorary street-name program to honor Janice Marie Mitchell
Summary
Benita Rollins Gay asked Urbana officials to create an honorary street-name program and to name the first honorary sign for Janice Marie Mitchell, citing decades of youth-service work and community leadership.
Benita Rollins Gay, a social worker and longtime community volunteer, urged city and township officials to establish an honorary street-name program in Urbana and to name the city’s first honorary street after Janice Marie Mitchell.
At the public-hearing portion of the meeting, Rollins Gay outlined Mitchell’s work with youth and families, saying Mitchell served more than 2,000 children across Champaign–Urbana, worked with Cunningham Children’s Home and the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, served on the Champaign County Housing Authority board, founded youth programs (including Prairie Tracks and Sankofa summer exposure programs), and started an equity and social-justice club in local schools. Rollins Gay also noted Mitchell’s service as a veteran and as a U.S. Army Reserve member.
Rollins Gay asked that the city not act immediately without forming a committee to draft criteria, petitions and requirements for an honorary-street program. She said the proposal was modeled on an existing program in Champaign and that she was not asking officials to “jump and do it” without a process.
Rollins Gay gave trustees her contact information and closed her remarks. The board recorded no immediate action on the request during the meeting.
