Village Clerk Cathy Aparo Named Evergreen Park Citizen of Year

EVERGREEN PARK, IL — Glass-ceiling breaker and six-term village clerk Cathy Aparo was named Citizen of the Year by the Evergreen Park Chamber of Commerce. She was recognized at the chamber’s annual holiday luncheonheld earlier this month at Saint Xavier University.

Aparo is a lifelong resident of Evergreen Park who has worked for the village government since 1984, serving with empathy, enthusiasm and humility. She has held many positions and in particular has been elected to an unprecedented six terms as village clerk.

She is a 1973 graduate of Evergreen Park Community High School, where she was a rule-bending, guitar playing, wisecracking funny girl who helped overturn the dress code that banned girls from wearing pants to school. Aparo was inducted anyway into the high school’s hall of fame in 2019.

In her comments, Aparo acknowledged the many mentors she’d had in her professional life and said she was also proud to see the first woman mayor elected in Evergreen Park.

Aparo said she hopes that families will become active participants in the community and come to love the Village as much as she does.

“In Village government, we are entrusted with the care of not only the Village but all the people who live and work here,” she said. “According to our 2020 census, we are 19,943 people strong. And it is my intention that the Village and its inhabitants will not just survive, but thrive here.”