UIS director Joan Sestak named to Route 66 Centennial Commission

A longtime director in the chancellor's office at the University of Illinois Springfield has been named to a federal commission created to celebrate the centennial of Route 66 in 2026.

The appointment of Joan Sestak came in a White House announcement Friday.

A Springfield native, Sestak, 58, is the director of community and governmental relations at UIS under Chancellor Janet Gooch.

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Sestak said she was approached several months ago by the office of U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois. Sestak served as a scheduler and office assistant and did case work in Durbin's Springfield office when he was a congressman representing the 20th district.

Sestak has worked collaboratively with Durbin, the senate's majority whip, during her tenure with UIS.

"I was thrilled when they asked me if I would be interested," said Sestak, prior to the university's commencement at the Bank of Springfield Center Saturday.

Late in 2022, two people from central Illinois were appointed by President Joe Biden to the Route 66 Centennial Commission: Cinnamon Catlin-Legutko, then-director of the Illinois State Museum in Springfield, and William "Bill" Thomas of Atlanta, chairman of the Route 66 Road Ahead Partnership. Catlin-Legutko passed away on Jan. 21 after a battle with cancer.

The centennial commission was established by Congress to study and recommend in a report to Congress "activities that would be fitting and proper to celebrate the centennial anniversary of the Mother Road...in 2026."

While those "activities" will include national, state and local celebrations and commemorations, the idea also is "to honor the road through projects and programs focused on promotion, preservation, research, education and economic development that are designed to help the millions of people who live, work and travel on Route 66," according to the commission.

Route 66 was the nation's first transcontinental highway covering a total of 2,448 miles from Chicago to Santa Monica, California. The highway, celebrated in songs, movies and a TV series, was established on Nov. 11, 1926, before losing its official national designation in 1985.

According to SangamonLink, Route 66 entered Sangamon County near Williamsville and traveled through Sherman to Springfield. The highway then took two different routes, one from 1926 to 1930 and the other from 1930 to 1977.

The earlier route led to Chatham, Auburn, Thayer and Virden before exiting the county. The later one ran through an area now submerged by Lake Springfield and then to Glenarm and Divernon.

Sestak said her late father's family was from Virden, Girard and Thayer "so we traveled a lot on Route 66. It's a great road, the Mother Road, to have an adventure on, and I'm looking forward to the Route 66 commission, in all of the states, increasing tourism.

"These are hidden gems, these little towns that people have not been going to. So, we're hoping as part of the Route 66 celebration that they will explore some of these smaller towns and the wonderful things they have to offer."

Sestak, who also served on Illinois' Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, said there will be representatives from all eight states Route 66 runs through and "we're looking forward to working collaboratively with all the states and their commissions."

Illinois established its own centennial commission in 2018.

Among Springfield's Route 66 destinations are Motorheads Bar and Grill and Ace Sign Co., both of which have museums of memorabilia; Route History, the former Texaco gas station in the 700 block of East Cook Street which highlights stories about the Black experience on Route 66, Jim Crow laws and the Great Migration; Fulgenzi's Pizza & Pasta, which includes Mahan Filling Station dating from 1917 and the Cozy Dog Drive In.

Route History is also creating a "metaverse experience" using augmented reality and virtual reality to give visitors the sense of what it was like for Black travelers on Route 66 from the mid 1930s to the mid 1960s.

At the Illinois State Fairgrounds, the Route 66 Experience, launched by the Illinois Route 66 Scenic Byway will give visitors a chance to experience the Mother Road and the communities along its route in walkable form using QR codes and story boards.

The Illinois State Museum is planning a major exhibit for the centennial and has begun collecting historic objects related to the history of Route 66 in Illinois that were made, purchased or used between 1926 and 1977.

Last year, museum officials announced that Robert "Bob" Waldmire's family had donated a significant collection of his art and personal belongings to the museum.

An itinerant artist and peace activist, Waldmire was known as "the mayor of Route 66," traveling along the route from the 1970s through the 1990s. He died in 2009.

Contact Steven Spearie: 217-622-1788, sspearie@sj-r.com, twitter.com/@StevenSpearie.

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Springfield woman named to Route 66 Centennial Commission