SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Maria Pappas is the treasurer of Cook County, Illinois, the second-largest county in America. She is now 75, and some time ago, the treasurer developed a bucket list.
MARIA PAPPAS: I want to, you know, go down the Nile River. I want to climb up a mountain. I want to stay in a monastery, and I wanted to do a calendar.
SIMON: A calendar. We reached Maria Pappas on vacation in Athens. She's proudly a Greek American but got to notch an item off her bucket list four years ago when she was named Polish citizen of the year.
PAPPAS: And they wanted to do one photo shoot on top of a building in Chicago. And I said, no, that's not me - on top of a building. I have a lot of different roles. I play a lot of different personalities. So let's just do 12 different pictures. And so out of that came the 12 months, which turned into a calendar.
SIMON: The calendar is also an opportunity to display the treasurer's wide range of bedazzled jackets and T-shirts. One features the diet Coke logo. Another, the slogan, back off. She even has one with Maria Pappas in all caps. Treasurer Pappas gave the calendars out to friends and family. Then, a couple of TikToks brought her into the spotlight.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: There's a new diva in my life. It's Maria Pappas, the treasurer of Cook County, who every year releases a glamour shot calendar.
PAPPAS: I mean, I can't even believe the comments. And people from all over the country are saying, please, can I get a calendar? (Laughter) It's like, really?
SIMON: Pappas had to print 8,000 copies just to meet demand for next year's calendar.
PAPPAS: This is a miserable world that we're living in. People are unhappy. So here comes Pappas and says, you know, let me make you happy with this calendar.
SIMON: Imagine someone who collects property taxes, making people happy. The Cook County, Illinois treasurer's just signed to start doing senior modeling.
PAPPAS: And you know what, why not? I'm enjoying every day, you know? A lot of my friends are dead. A lot of them are sick. And I'm like, you know what, I'm going to live today to the fullest. Life goes on, you know? You wake up in the morning and you say what am I going to do today that I've never done before?
(SOUNDBITE OF GUSTAF LJUNGGREN AND EMIL DE WAAL'S "MARSH MARCH") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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