Email: ccannon@peoriaparks.org
Telephone:  (309) 589-5923

Biography:  I was born and raised right here in the city of Peoria, IL, and so I'll tell my kids I lived in what a lot of people would refer to as inner city ghettos, Taft homes, Warner homes, Harrison homes. I lived in those housing projects within our community. One thing that I was taught early in life is that anything worth having, you have to work for. So, early in life I had become a competitor. I was going to be the best at something. Not everything. But I was going to be the best at something. For me, it turned out to be athletics. I excelled. Because of that, I had the chance to go to college. I admit today that I went for the wrong reasons. I got there and found out it was about academics. I was kicked out of school and I had to make a decision: what am I going to do with my life? Am I going to join my friends who lived in those projects? A lot of them were going to jail. A lot of them are gone today, violently gone. Or, do I find another alternative? I’m a retired military officer. I took some of the precepts, some of the concepts, and some of the discipline that I had in the military and applied it to a new career that the military gave me, which was law enforcement, specifically corrections. Everything I do I have been the best. In the military, I was one of the best corrections officers they had. In one of the Federal Bureau Prisons, I was celebrated at the highest levels of the Department of Justice. It was after these celebrations that I started in CH.O.I.C.E.S. I was good at keeping them in, it just became more important to keep them out. That’s what I’m good at today. I’m about helping young people make good choices.