A Healthy Bloomingdale

Leveraging Community Resources for a Healthier Bloomingdale

The National Recreation and Park Association recently reported that 18 percent of U.S. children are overweight, prompting the U.S. Surgeon General and health experts to declare that children and youth need at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity every day. The Bloomingdale Park District’s whole reason for being is to promote healthy and active lifestyles by offering convenient, affordable, quality opportunities to do so. As Commissioner Vogl stated in his letter on page 1, if not us, who?

Together, we’ve come a long way over the past five years and a great deal is owed to the residents of the Bloomingdale Park District. Our goal, however, is to continue to deliver the variety, quantity and, more importantly, quality of life-enriching parks and recreational programs that the patrons of the Bloomingdale Park District have come to enjoy and expect.

In an effort to maximize community resources, the Bloomingdale Park District created a plan in the summer of 2007 to administer, and implement district-wide sponsorship opportunities to reduce dependence on increasing registration fees and homeowner taxes.  Existing tax-cap legislation and our efforts to offset increases in registration fees has created a need to identify alternative revenue sources.

Existing Revenue (see charts above):

The Bloomingdale Park District is proud to announce that it recently received very positive responses from two local businesses interested in becoming corporate partners. The Old Town Bank and Trust of Bloomingdale and Children’s Memorial at Central DuPage Hospital both have recently committed financial and human resources towards our continuous effort to be the Park District “Where Recreation Revolves Around You.”

Beginning this Winter/Spring, you will see that we have added a new column in the Park Bench newsletter entitled, Fit & Fun. Each column will contain relevant health and fitness information for you and your family brought to you directly from local physicians affiliated with Children’s Memorial at Central DuPage Hospital. We encourage you to look for new information that you can use in each brochure.

The Old Town Bank and Trust of Bloomingdale has stepped up in more ways than we can count in supporting and promoting our family-friendly events. Their commitment to Bloomingdale’s well being is a prime example of how public-private partnerships can come together for the mutual benefit of the community.