Stephen Janiszewski, Park Lawn Board President, Dies At Age 67

Stephen Janiszewski in one of his favorite roles: collecting donations for Park Lawn’s Tag Days in 2012.

Current board president and devoted advocate of Park Lawn Services, Stephen Janiszewski, passed away at age 67 on May 9.

A few years ago Patch had the pleasure of interviewing Janiszewski about Park Lawn, an organization founded in 1955 by a group of families in Evergreen Park and Oak Lawn who sought services and programs for their intellectually challenged children.

For Janiszewski, Tag Days was personal. Next to Park Lawn’s annual Rhapsody in Blue Gala, the organization’s spring Tag Days is the biggest community fundraiser of the year. Since 1982, Tag Days has raised over $1 million.

Watch Patch’s 2012 interview with Stephen Janiszewski.

The donations collected from local residents on their way into the supermarket, or driving by in their cars, support Park Lawn’s vocational, educational and residential programs for adults with developmental disabilities.

As cars whizzed by 95th Street that rainy morning in 2012, Janiszewski strode confidently into the busy intersection collecting donations and rewarding motorists with donated candy. He spoke passionately about his daughter, Cara, an employee of Park Lawn’s sheltered workshop, and the dignity she achieved through work.

Cara got up every morning with a smile on her face when she boarded the bus to “go to work,” her dad said.

For the past several years Janiszewski coordinated Park Lawn’s Tag Days, which involved hundreds of volunteers, and sponsored a golf outing benefiting Park Lawn. Cara’s three brothers have also taken an active role in Park Lawn’s fundraising and activities.

Janiszewski held a Bachelor’s degree in accounting from Chicago State University. He was employed at C&S Training since 1993 where he currently served as president. Prior to that, he worked in banking for 23 years, according to his Park Lawn board bio.

It was seeing his daughter feeling good about herself, however, and “cashing her paycheck” at the bank that was his greatest reward.

Although Janiszewski remarked that serving on the Park Lawn board was both rewarding and demanding, “seeing the workshop program, the clients, the facilities, and the staff makes me feel privileged that I am a part of it and makes me realize that I have an important role in maintaining a quality of service that is synonymous with Park Lawn.”

In addition to his daughter, Cara, Janiszewski leaves his wife, Rita (Sullivan), of 45 years; his sons, Stephen Jr. (Shannon), Daniel (Stephanie), and Michael (Kristin); grandchildren Jordynn, Matthew, Danny, Jack, Luke, Audrey, Avery, and Michael; sister Mary Lou (late Ken) Pustelnik, and brother, Joe Janiszewski; sisters-in-law Therese Sullivan, and Mary (Jerry) Koncel; and many nieces and nephews.

A funeral Mass was held Thursday morning at St. Catherine of Alexandria in Oak Lawn, with arrangements by Curley Funeral Home in Chicago Ridge.

Memorials to Park Lawn, 10833 S. LaPorte Ave. Oak Lawn, IL 60843 or www.parklawn.com are appreciated.