Awake Illinois Celebrates Four Years of Grassroots Advocacy and Passes the Torch to Empowered Citizens
- Awake IL Board of Directors
- 5 days ago
- 9 min read
On this Independence Day, July 4, 2025, Awake Illinois proudly reflects on four years as an unstoppable force in uncancelable advocacy, driven by the courage to confront injustice, empower parents, and defend constitutional liberties across Illinois—echoing the revolutionary spirit of 177
6 that birthed our nation’s fight for freedom.
"We will be on the front lines of the fight for the soul of our nation. God Bless You." - John Blakey, Awake IL Director of Equality and Civil Rights in Education, Feb. 22, 2022 to Naperville School District 203
Since our founding in May 2021, Awake Illinois was built from scratch, rising from a small group of determined citizens in Naperville into a statewide grassroots movement unlike anything seen before in Illinois, mobilizing thousands to take ownership of their freedoms. Our mission has secured transformative victories for parental rights, educational transparency, and community resilience through relentless grassroots activism, significantly weakening woke ideology across Illinois by challenging its overreach across many sectors.
"I applaud the people. The people of this state are the ones that we need to be looking at and generally, the kids right now." -Steve Lucie, Awake IL Director to ISBE, August 2021
“It’s a nonviolent ideological war and our children are at the heart of it and parents are awake and we’re going to fight it.” -Shannon Adcock, Awake IL Founder, July 2021, Center Square
Profiled in local and national media, including outlets like Fox News, Bishop on Air, Illinois Review, DailyMail, The Federalist, WLS-890, NBC Chicago, and The Daily Caller, as respected advocates on the issues, we have elevated the voices of Illinois families to a national stage. We express deep gratitude to all who amplified our mission and gave us a platform to our fight for truth and liberty. As we close this chapter, on a high note, celebrating a legacy of impact and resilience after four years of relentless effort, we are honored to pass the torch to activated parents and communities who exemplify the same bold courage that sparked our movement.
The resounding success of this movement, built on the strength of empowered citizens, signals that the time is right for the people we’ve inspired to lead the charge, fulfilling our vision of a citizen-driven fight for truth and liberty. We extend heartfelt gratitude to our dedicated leadership, tireless volunteers, and generous donors, whose unwavering commitment and sacrifices fueled every victory and sustained our mission through countless challenges.
Our members will continue to be empowered by national advocacy partners like Parents Defending Education, Courage is a Habit, and Moms for Liberty, whose bold leadership amplifies our shared mission to protect parental rights and preserve liberty. Here in Illinois, leaders like the Freedom Caucus, Rep. Mary Miller, and state organizations such as the Illinois Family Institute and local parent groups will carry forward robust advocacy, ensuring the fight for truth and freedom remains strong across the state.
A Grand Finale Inspired by a New Era of Leadership
Following President Trump’s election in 2024, Awake Illinois recognized a transformative moment to align our vision with a renewed national commitment to liberty and truth. In early 2025, we strategically positioned our federal civil rights complaints, filed in March through May of 2025, as the grand finale of our advocacy efforts.
These actions against the Illinois State Board of Education, Valley View School District 365U, and Naperville 203—challenging Title VI and Title IX violations—serve as a powerful capstone to our four-year mission, demanding accountability and amplifying the voices of Illinois families. We celebrate these complaints as a testament to our unwavering resolve, leaving a lasting legacy for empowered citizens to carry forward under a revitalized national landscape.
Key Victories:
Federal Civil Rights Complaints: In March, April, and May 2025, Awake Illinois filed federal complaints against the Illinois State Board of Education, Valley View School District 365U, and Naperville 203, alleging Title VI (for race-based violations) and Title IX violations (for policies allowing males in female bathrooms and sports). These actions demanded accountability and amplified pro-civil rights voices statewide, countering ideological overreach in K-12 education.
Support for the DeVore Lawsuit: Our inaugural year saw robust advocacy on health freedom. Regarding unlawful mandates and medical apartheid, our team appealed repeatedly to Governor Pritzker, state agencies, the state legislature, and JCAR. We were ignored.
"The primary benefit of masking is one of conformity...that is not the way to nurture independent thinkers." -Dave Wade, Awake IL member to Naperville School District 203, August 2021
In 2021, we rallied hundreds of parents to support a class-action lawsuit against Governor Pritzker, the Illinois Department of Public Health, and IL State Board of Education, challenging unlawful mask mandates in 145 school districts. We also spearheaded fundraising efforts to help parents cover legal costs, enabling more districts to join the lawsuit and amplifying its impact. This effort secured a Temporary Restraining Order in Illinois, upholding due process rights for all students.
Empowering Grassroots Advocacy: From our Naperville roots, we grew to over 30 county chapters, mobilizing thousands. By 2022, our advocacy led to statewide mobilization. Our 4 year effort to recruit hundreds of thousands of witness slips from citizens is a top organizational achievement. Over the past 4 years, we also empowered parents statewide by providing opt-out forms—which saw an opt-out (from radical sex ed and ideological grooming) increase year over year at every K-12 grade level. This enabled families to reject radical curricula that conflicted with their values, ensuring parental choice in education across Illinois and weakening the push for ideologically driven curricula. Our annual Sex Ed Analysis reports offered ground breaking awareness on this issue.
Countering Defamation and Silencing Attempts: Facing legacy media antagonism, a smear campaign led by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), targeted attacks from teacher unions like the Illinois Education Association and groups like Indivisible, and relentless harassment from countless trolls and false accusations levied against us on social media and beyond, Awake Illinois stood firm. Critics attempted to silence us through intimidation, defamation, and coordinated opposition, but our constitutionally protected speech was upheld.
Pushing Back Against Cancel Culture: We also supported businesses like Moveable Feast in Wheaton and other Fox Valley establishments facing cancel culture, organizing community support and amplifying their right to operate freely, reinforcing our commitment to defending free expression against ideological suppression. These challenges only fueled our resolve, inspiring others to resist censorship and stand for truth.
Grassroots Legislative Lobbying Success; Hundreds of Thousands of Witness Slips
SB1169 (Health Care Right of Conscience Act): Awake Illinois mobilized robust grassroots support for SB1169, which strengthened protections for individuals and healthcare providers to refuse participation in medical procedures conflicting with their conscience. When a Democrat-led amendment threatening to weaken these protections emerged, we rallied over 50,000 witness slips in opposition, with most citizens noting it was their first time submitting a slip, showcasing our ability to engage and educate new advocates. We also had Awake IL members testify in the committee hearing, including a public school teacher who was fired for not agreeing to viral testing or experimental injection.
Peaceful Advocacy Amidst False Accusations: The Downers Grove Public Library planned a Drag Queen Bingo event for teens in grades 7–12 on October 11, 2022, to coincide with National Coming Out Day. The event, hosted by drag performer Aurora Divine, aimed to promote "diversity and inclusion". It faced significant opposition. Awake Illinois and the Downers Grove chapter respectfully advocated against the event, which was eventually cancelled. While local politicians and activists tried to accuse Awake Illinois of making threats to the library - included a bullet mailed to the building - our organization rejected such false claims.
"For the record, Awake IL never suggested, posted, nor engaged in any threats; any reports of this are false. We advocate for the law, not against it and have grown to over 30 statewide chapters as a result."
-Shannon Adcock
President, Awake Illinois
Downers Grove Library Meeting September 28, 2022
Awake Illinois still awaits apologies from Congressman Sean Casten and Downers Grove city council member Leslie Sadowski-Fugitt for falsely accusing voters, our members, and advocates of engaging in threats/criminal acts. They created unnecessary division in the community by using a hoax of a letter for their own political advantage without attempting to get to the bottom of the mailing.
Freedom of Information Act requests we received back from law enforcement state "this was not viewed as a credible threat, more of an implied or veiled threat. Due to no evidence being collected from the envelope its stamps and stickers, the letter, and bullet as well as no suspect information being produced by the USPS Postal lnspectors Division this case is being closed as all leads have been exhausted."
Communities must remain actively engaged in advocating against Illinois tax-payer funded entities that continue procuring adult-themed sexualized programming marketed to children.
HB4876 (Radical Anti-Parental Rights Bill):
In 2024, Awake Illinois was the sole leader in halting HB4876, a bill filed by Rep. Anne Stava-Murray (Democrat) that threatened to criminalize parents who protect their children from gender ideology, including irreversible medical interventions. Through a massive media blitz, a robust livestream series featuring diverse viewpoints from national thought leaders, and relentless advocacy, we stopped this dangerous legislation in its tracks, preserving parental rights to safeguard their children’s well-being and directly challenging woke ideology’s encroachment on family autonomy.
HB2827 (Radical Anti-Homeschool Bill): In 2025, Awake Illinois engaged in a historic grassroots effort and national media campaign against HB2827, a radical bill filed by Rep. Terra Costa Howard (Democrat), that would have imposed restrictive homeschool regulations. Over 134,000 witness slips were filed in opposition, with 45,000 submitted overnight before a key committee vote. Surprisingly, it never made it to the Senate. Though the bill passed house committee, our campaign delayed its progress, shamed the legislator sponsors, and empowered homeschool households and families statewide to continue the fight against overreaching policies.
Philanthropic Impact: Uplifting Communities Through Strategic Giving
Awake Illinois has proudly extended its mission to empower communities through philanthropic outreach in our headquarter community of Naperville via donations to tornado victims in 2021 and to Naperville police and first responders in 2025. We also made significant donations to transformative organizations like Project H.O.O.D. and Ulmus Academy. These contributions reflect our unwavering commitment to fostering opportunity in communities across Illinois-both rural and urban.
A Historic Legacy
This summer, Awake Illinois will officially dissolve as a 501c4 nonprofit, marking the culmination of our organizational mission. Updates on our federal complaints will continue to be posted at Awake Illinois social media channels and website. The Awake Illinois Board of Directors are excited to pursue new avenues of leadership, continuing to champion liberty and truth in innovative ways to further strengthen this movement. Where few were willing to come alongside us at the start of our journey, we welcome opportunities to mentor and uplift grassroots leaders and voices in our state.
We celebrate Illinoisans who are now leading respected local advocacy—activated by our efforts to engage citizens in activism, elections, and policy—and are empowered to hold our institutions accountable. We encourage you all to vote and elect Team Sanity in the 2026 midterms—not wokeness—in the Land of Lincoln, to reclaim liberty’s promise. Awake Illinois proves truth prevails when people rise. From the start, our goal was to ignite a movement of activated citizens, and today, that movement stands strong, ready to be led by the people we’ve empowered.
In the words of Abraham Lincoln, “I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis.”
They tried to silence us, but we roared louder. We cannot be canceled—our truth endures, of the people, by the people, and for the people.
Our team invites you to share your top advocacy memories of the last 4 years on social media & tag us or email us at info@awakeIL.com.
Continue being uncancelable, Illinois. Onward!
With heartfelt gratitude and resolve,
Awake Illinois Board of Directors
Shannon Adcock, Steve Lucie, and Helen Levinson
They were asleep. Now they’re Awake. Mission accomplished.
Does this mean you are closing down your organization? This is terrible! We need powerful Christians like you to carry the Word to our schools! What's next for you?