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Arlington Heights, Franklin Park and Urbana Receive Urban Innovation Awards Three park districts are among the 13 recipients of Urban Innovation Awards presented by Urban Innovation in Illinois, a consortium of professional and local government groups that has identified, documented and promoted outstanding innovative practices in Illinois government since 1986. Presented in Chicago in August, the awards are granted in six areas: citizen involvement, service delivery, economic development, quality of life, fiscal responsibility and intergovernmental cooperation. The Arlington Heights Park District received an Honorable Mention in the service delivery category for its online registration, recognized as among the first in Illinois local governments to do this and "as a model for others to follow." The Park District of Franklin Park received an award in the citizen involvement category for its James Park Redevelopment and the district's extraordinary effort to involve citizens whose native language is not English, which "takes planning to a new level." The Urbana Park District and Champaign County won in the intergovernmental cooperation category for their jointly run Community Service Work Program and their "unusually close relationship that maximizes the public benefit from such work." For more information about the Urban Innovation Awards, contact Serene Wise of Urban Innovation in Illinois, 312.440.0418 or see www.src.uchicago.edu/depts/faui/archive.html. Dunsmuir and Jessen Receive National Awards
At the Great Lakes Regional Council meeting in July, Skip Dunsmuir, executive director of the Wheaton Park District, received the National Recreation and Park Associations Outstanding Professional Award for the Great Lakes Region; Don Jessen, commissioner for the Addison Park District, received
the regions Outstanding Board Member Award. Pictured left to right are NRPA executive director T. Destry Jarvis, Dunsmuir, Jessen, and Phyllis Cossarek, commissioner for the Wilmette Park District.
Highland Park's Web Site Earns National Recognition The Park District of Highland Park received two national awards for excellence in professional communications from APEX, Awards for Publication Excellence. The district's "Vision Quest" training manual, designed by communication supervisor Lindsay Dudeck, was one of 18 recipients among a field of 650 for an Award of Excellence in the "Training & Information Brochures, Manuals & Reports" category. The park districts Web site (www.pdhp.org) received the APEX Award for "One to Two-Person Produced Web & Intranet Sites," which received more than 600 entries. The awards are sponsored by the editors of Writing that Works: The Business Communications Report published by Communications Concepts, Inc. St. Charles Teen Center Receives Governor's Home Town Award At a June 23 awards ceremony in Springfield, the St. Charles Park District's STC Underground Teen Center received the prestigious 2002 Governor's Home Town Award, which honors communities and volunteers who have planned and implemented successful projects to meet community needs. Teens and volunteers have committed much time and effort in the development of STC Underground. Representatives from the St. Charles Park District, City of St. Charles' Youth Commission, Community Unit School District #303, and teens from St. Charles East High School were Involved in the original planning process. STC Underground is funded and operated by the park district. Lake County Preserve Named Best New Park Independence Grove Forest Preserve near Libertyville was honored with the Best New Park award from Chicago Magazine as part of the magazine's annual roundup of the best the Chicago area has to offer. This beautiful natural setting, surrounding all 5-acre lake, has become Lake County's newest destination for outdoor fun and relaxation. Set in the broad valley of the Des Plaines River, the 1,100-acre Independence Grove offers a wide range of nature, outdoor recreation and education opportunities. Over seven miles of trails, an expansive 115-acre lake, the dramatic Visitors Center and rustic North Bay Pavilion, the Millennia Plaza and Native Garden, and graceful prairies and quiet woodlands combine to provide a picturesque backdrop for a variety of fun activities for visitors of all ages. Bolingbrook Parternship Earns Governor's Home Town Award The intergovernmental cooperation between Bolingbrook Park District and a local School District was recognized with a 2002 Governor's Home Town Award, In Bolingbrook, nearly 400 volunteers at Jonas E. September/October 2002 47 Salk School addressed one such need in the spring of 2001. With nearly 1,500 young children in the neighborhood, the school's aging playground was in need of an upgrade. With the help of KaBOOM!, a not-for profit-organization that seeks funding from businesses to build safe school playgrounds, the need was met. CNA Insurance was recruited to contribute $10,000 and nearly 200 volunteers. This was combined with nearly $20,000 raised and 200 more volunteers enlisted by the school's PTO.
IPRA Announces Newly Certified Professionals The Illinois Park and Recreation Association is pleased to announce the following newly certified park and recreation professionals. • Marsha L. Nolan, APRP, recreation specialist, Waukegan Park District • Kathleen M. Presti, CPRP, athletic coordinator. Lombard Park District • Dr. Susan J. Quattrochi-Tubin, CPRP, Quality Care Consulting Service • MaryJo Vincent, APRP, CRRD commissioner
Maria Saldana, newly elected board president of the Chicago Park District, was named to the board of the Illinois Association of Park Districts. A senior vice president with investment banking firm Ramirez & Company, Inc., Saldana is the Chicago Park District's first Hispanic to lead the board. Previously, Saldana was a partner with Altheimer & Gray in Chicago where she concentrated on real estate development and public finance. Other legal experience included work as an associate with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meager and Flom as well as Isham, Lincoln & Beale. From 1989 to 1997, she worked in the city of Chicago Law Department as the chief assistant corporation counsel in the Finance and Contract Division. Saldana also serves as member of the Mayor's Advisory Council to the Department of Administrative Hearings; the board of directors' of the Chicago Scholars Foundation; and the board of directors of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund. She also served as a member of the Chicago Board of Education. She graduated with an A.B. from Stanford University and received her J.D. from the University of California at Berkeley. She is the mother of four and resides in the Austin neighborhood. Rouhy J. Shalabi was named to the Chicago Park District board of commissioners. A partner with the firm Rouhy J. Shalabi & Associates, Shalabi received his law degree from the Northern Illinois College of Law. He completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Illinois. He is active on several public service organizations, including the Chairman of the Mayor's Advisory Council on Arab-American Affairs; Chairman of the Local School Council at Stevenson School, 8100 S. Kostner; member of the Cook County States Attorneys Hate Crimes Commission; and member of the Multi-Cultural Advisory Committee on the Media. He also is a member of the Arab-American Bar Association of Illinois, the Illinois State Bar Association, and the Chicago Bar Association. Commissioner Shalabi and his wife are raising their five children in the 13th Ward. Cindy Mitchell was approved as a park board commissioner. The co-founder of Friends of the Park over 25 years ago, Mitchell also helped to establish the Parkways Foundation, the philanthropic arm to the Chicago Park District. She has been a longtime advocate for improving the parks. She is also a member of the Mayor's Landscape Task Force. Commissioner Mitchell and her husband reside in Lincoln Park. Maria Guadalupe Calderon Garcia was appointed by the board of commissioners of the Chicago Park District to fill the post of general counsel. Garcia will oversee a staff of 18, conduct law business for the district including claims filed against the district, environmental litigation, real estate issues, tax matters, labor relations, Constitutional First Amendment Issues, preparation of bonds and Soldier Field license 48 Illinois Parks and Recreation agreements as well as advising the board of commissioners on various matters. Garcia most recently held the position of director of Intergovernmental and Community Affairs for the Chicago Park District. Previously, she served the City of Chicago as assistant commissioner/deputy chief of staff for the Chicago Department of Human Services and as assistant to Mayor Richard M. Daley. Garcia received her Juris Doctorate from Loyola University School of Law. She is a married mother of two and resides in the Jefferson Park neighborhood. Joseph P. Cini joined the Chicago Park District as director of Intergovernmental and Community Affairs. Cini leads a staff of 11 on issues including municipal, state and federal strategies, communication with internal and external governmental agencies and identifying funding opportunities to enhance Chicago's parks. The Community Relations division also falls under Cini's jurisdiction and encompasses Chicago Special Olympics, the Volunteer Program, Green Deed Program and Park Advisory Councils. Prior to joining the Park District Cini served the City of Chicago as Deputy Commissioner for Facilities Management for the Department of General Services and Contractor Administrator for General Services. He has been affiliated with a number of organizations including Midtown Educational Center, Friends of the Chicago River, Cardinal Bernadin Early Childhood Center, Chicago High-Rise Commission and Kedzie/Elston Business Industrial Council. Cini received his Juris Doctorate from Duquesne University School of Law in Pittsburgh, PA. Cini lives in the Near Westside. Kimberly A. Ryan was recently promoted to director of marketing for the Chicago Park District. As director Ryan manages a $3 million budget to increase public awareness of the Chicago Park District through a variety of marketing initiatives. With a staff of 14 the Marketing Department develops innovative marketing and image campaigns, conducts market research, provides field marketing like the Green Machine and Parade Floats and produces the park district @ Play Magazine. Ryan has a long history with the Chicago Park District. She has worked for the district for over ten years in a variety of capacities including deputy director of marketing, special events manager, recreation leader and lifeguard. She has also participated in district programming for over 30 years, beginning as an infant in park district playgroups, to tennis lessons, to softball leagues to regularly using the Lakefront Trail and beaches, which are close to her current South Loop home. Ryan has a BA from Syracuse University, Syracuse.
Mary Bahr is the manager of the fitness center at the new Downers Grove Park District Recreation and Fitness Center. She plans, implements, promotes and oversees operations and programs for the center, scheduled to open in February 2003. Bahr has held faculty positions at Harper College in Palatine, Illinois, Waubonsee Community College in Sugar Grove, Illinois, and Century Community and Technical College in White Bear Lake, Minnesota. Formerly, she was the owner of Fitness Works in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota and a fitness coordinator/personal trainer at the Emma B. Howe Family Northtown YMCA in Coon Rapids, Minnesota. She holds a B.S. in chemistry from Southwest State University in Marshall, Minnesota and an M.A. in exercise physiology/ September/October 2002 49 kinesiology from the University of Minnesota. She is an American Council on Exercise Certified Group Fitness Instructor, a former ACE faculty member and a national trainer for NDEITA. Tina Hlousek, CPRP, has joined the staff of the Downers Grove Park District as a recreation supervisor. She is responsible for youth sports and the park district's summer concert series. She also served as the liaison between the park district and the local elementary school district. Previously, Hlousek was a youth sports supervisor at the Carol Stream Park District and a supervisor of athletics and special events at the Prospect Heights Park District. She graduated from Eastern Illinois University with a B.S. in Recreation Administration. She is a member of the Illinois Parks and Recreation Association, the National Recreation and Parks Association, the National Youth Sports Coaches Association and is a certified youth sports administrator.
Anne Scheppele, CPRP, has been named manager of the Lincoln Community Center for the Downers Grove Park District. She is responsible for overseeing center operations, including registration and maintenance staff. She comes to Downers Grove from the St. Charles Park District where she managed the Pottawatomie Community Center. She also served as a recreation supervisor for the Carol Stream Park District. She holds a B.A. in Secondary Education Physical Education and Health from Franklin College in Franklin, Indiana. Scheppele is a member of the Illinois Parks and Recreation Association.
Emily Johnson was named part-time staff coordinator for the Northwest Special Recreation Association. She joined the staff in 2000 as program specialist and is a graduate of Eastern Illinois University, majoring in Therapeutic Recreation. Her responsibilities include recruiting, hiring, training and supervising over 90 part-time staff.
Joelle Szyszka was named inclusion coordinator for the Northwest Special Recreation Association. She is a 2000 graduate of Elmhurst College, majoring in communications. Her responsibilities include coordinating inclusion services for the member park districts of Arlington Heights, Elk Grove, Mount Prospect and Prospect Heights. Scott Aken joined the Oregon Park District as athletic coordinator in charge of all youth and adult sports activities. Aken majored in Physical Education at Illinois College in Jacksonville, Illinois. Kristy Waffs was promoted to assistant aquatic coordinator with the Oregon Park District where she has been working as a staff member since 1997. Watts holds an associate's degree from Kishwaukee College.
Kathy Nowicki was appointed to the position of executive director by the board of commissioners of the Prospect Heights Park District. An 18-year resident of Prospect Heights and former park board commissioner, Nowicki brings a wealth of community relations and leadership experience to the position. Her leadership roles include Prospect Heights SummerFest committee chairperson and Prospect Heights Park District commissioner. In addition to more than 20 years of management and public relations experience in both the private and public sectors, Nowicki has also served as a volunteer for local non-profit organizations including St. Jude's Children's Hospital, the Prospect Heights Police Department, Prospect Heights Lions Club, Wheeling Elementary School and High School District #214. The City of Prospect Heights recognized her dedication to the community in 1999 when she was named of "Citizen of the Year." Terry Adams was hired as PHN Architects' newest project coordinator, responsible for all phases of projects. He handles a wide range of duties, including assisting with the development of design concepts and details, coordinating the permit and approval process, coordinating and developing construction documents, and working with clients. Adams most recently was a senior associate at Phillips Swager Associates in Naperville, working on a variety of projects from the programming phase through construction. Prior to that he was with Dixon Associates Architects in Naperville. He is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Chicago and the Morrison Institute of Technology. Julie Barbour is PHN Architects' new coordinator for business development. She is responsible for investigating and developing new business opportunities for PHN and handling a wide range of other marketing activities. She previously was a sales representative for Fabrica International in California, creating new territory by opening new accounts and resurrecting unproductive accounts. She also has been a sales associate and representative for several wallcovering, fabric and textile firms in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Chicago. 50 Illinois Parks and Recreation Acquisitions & Developments • The Rockford Park District received a $45,744 grant from the Department of Commerce and Community Affairs (DCCA) to expand the district's recycling efforts at seven facilities. Last year the park district worked with DCCA and Onyx Waste Services, Inc., to implement a One Sort Recycling Program at Sportscore; the program has collected and recycled more than 23 tons of plastic, glass, aluminum and cardboard in five months.
• On June 31 Mayor Richard M. Daley and Chicago superintendent David Doig officially opened the South Shore Nature Sanctuary, a four-acre nature sanctuary that is part of the South Shore Framework Plan and the second opened by the Chicago Park District along the city's lakefront at a cost of $500,000. Designed by Wolff Clements and Associates, it uses native trees and shrubs, important to attracting migratory birds, as well as a boardwalk, nature signage and two council rings reminiscent of Jens Jensen's work. The center of the sanctuary features mixed short grass prairie, which doubles as a butterfly garden.
• Godley Park District representatives presented Mason Gereaux with a new fishing pole in appreciation for the enthusiasm that his mother, State Rep. Mary K. O'Brien, has devoted to the area's environmental concerns and recreational programs, especially the park district's Kid's Fishing Derby. Mason received his fishing pole at Godley Park District's 20th Anniversary Celebration last summer. (Photo from left to right) Camille Floyd, commissioner; Mike Schott, commissioner; State Rep. Mary K. O'Brien and son, Mason; Ron Leonard, president; and Evelyn Leonard, commissioner.
• On a rainy Saturday morning in July, Sadafumi Uchiyama and Toru Tanaka put some finishing touches on Jackson Park's, 6401 S. Stony Island, recently renovated Osaka Garden on Wooded Island, and after a ribbon cutting for the rehabilitated Jackson Park Lagoon the two Japanese landscape gardeners, gave Mayor Richard M. Daley a guided tour of Osaka. The renovation process began three years ago when the Chicago Park District sought to improve the Japanese Garden and contacted Uchiyama and Tanaka to help with the task. Uchiyama, a third-generation Japanese gardener, brings centuries of skill from Japan, along with what he learned at the University of Illinois to the project, and a cultural understanding of the Japanese sensibility for gardens. The $400,000 Osaka renovation, a joint project between the Park District, Clauss Brothers, Inc and the Japanese designers, includes steel retaining walls that line the banks of the pond; 100 tons of new boulders to shore up the edges of the pond and lagoon and resetting of 120 tons of rock. Uchiyama picked jagged stones to redesign the "behavior of the water" in the waterfall. It will flow into the pond at 600 gallons per minute, more than six times faster than before.
September/October 2002 Lifeguard Games 2002
The Aquatics Division of the Illinois Park and Recreation Association Facility Management Section held the 11th Annual Statewide Lifeguard Competition, on Saturday, August 3 at Wheeling Park District. The largest turnout to date—72 teams of four representing 31 agencies— arrived pumped and ready to go for the gold! Prior to the start, Phil Jacobson (son of Buffalo Grove Park District commissioner Scott Jacobson) and Drake Reporto sang "Proud To Be An American" and the national anthem to welcome all. Each team participated in seven challenges: Two-person Rescue Relay, Unconscious Victim Rescue, First Aid/CPR Word Search, SandVolleyball, Sunscreen Relay, Spinal Injury Management, and the Cold Weather Relay. Each challenge specifically was developed by the IPRA Lifeguard Games Committee to test related skills, which a lifeguard is trained to use when responding to a variety of aquatic situations. Of the 72 teams, 7 were Jr. Lifeguard Teams, a new division added to the 2002 games. The winners are:
Spirit Award
Lifeguard Overall Scores
Two-person Rescue Relay
Unconscious Rescue - Female
Unconscious Rescue - Male
Team Backboarding First Place - Arlington Heights Park District Team #26
Team Cold Weather Relay
Jr. Lifeguard Overall Scores On behalf of the IPRA Aquatics Division, Maryfran Leno (Itasca) and Steve Neill (Arlington Heights) would like to thank the 2002 Lifeguard Games Committee members, each of the 50 volunteers. And, congratulations to all the participating teams. Mark your calendar! The 2003 IPRA State Lifeguard Games will be held Saturday, August 2, 2003, Elgin Parks & Recreation Department. Interested in volunteering? Contact maryfran@itasca.com or sneill@ahpd.org. 52 Illinois Parks and Recreation |
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