Kirsten Trimble grew up in Carbondale, where she attended University School and Carbondale Community High School. She worked as a reader for the blind, becoming aware of disability access problems. She frequently housesits for dogs, leading to working with Friends of Carbondale Dog Parks to build dog parks in Carbondale where dogs can safely play off-leash.
Kirsten's mother, Natalie Trimble, was active in local politics, serving on the Jackson County Board for many years. Kirsten says that she learned not to complain about government but rather to work to solve problems.
Kirsten and her family made good use of the city parks when she was a child.
Kirsten Trimble is a fox hunter, active in Southern Illinois Master Naturalists, the Sierra Club, the Audubon Society, and Illinois Native Plants Society.
Kirsten Trimble is running for Park District Commissioner because she sees parks as important places for children to get rid of energy, connect with nature, and to use their imaginations. A good park system adds value to the community, both in terms of real estate value and quality of life. Access to green space is good for our health and sense of well-being.
Jane Adams is a lifelong resident of Jackson County. She is active in the Arbor District Neighborhood Association and served on Carbondale's City Council 2011-2015.
In 2015 she helped organize Friends of Carbondale Dog Parks and has been working with a terrific group of volunteers to obtain a site and raise funds to build Carbondale's first dog park.
She serves on the board of the Illinois Stewardship Alliance, promoting policies and programs to develop local, sustainable agriculture. A retired professor of anthropology and of history at SIUC, she studied the history of farming and rural life in Southern Illinois and the U.S. Her major works, The Transformation of Rural Life: Southern Illinois 1890-1990 and "All Anybody Ever Wanted of Me Was to Work": The Memoirs of Edith Bradley Rendleman trace this history.
Jane attended Trico, University High School, earned her BA at SIUC, and her PhD at University of Illinois. A lifelong activist, Jane helped desegregate Carbondale's restaurants and participated in Freedom Summer in the 1960s.
Jane Adams is running for Park District Commissioner because a vital and welcoming city needs great parks where residents of all backgrounds can meet in their common enjoyment of the outdoors.