Buffalo Grove Park District

Information:

Music Man Cast Collecting Money To Benefit Midwest Flood Victims

In recognition of the Village of Buffalo Grove ’s 50th Anniversary, the Buffalo Grove Park District Performing Arts will present the 1958 Tony Award Winner The Music Man as its 2008 summer musical on July 18, 19, 20, 25, 26 and 27 at Stevenson High School . The plot of The Music Man revolves around fictional “trouble” faced by the citizens of a fictional “ River City ” in Iowa .

Heavy storms that recently ripped through the Midwest caused disastrous flooding in Iowa , as well as Illinois , Indiana , Missouri and Wisconsin . Based on recent headlines, it is clear that unlike in the play, the citizens of these real “river cities” are struggling to deal with very real, crisis-level trouble caused by these floods, which are among the worst in memory.

The cast, crew and staff of The Music Man have thus dedicated the upcoming performances to raise funds to help flood victims. As part of the fundraising effort, the actors will return to the stage after bows and invite patrons to donate as they leave the theater. Members of the company will be stationed in the lobby to collect donations.

All of the money raised from this effort will be donated to Neighbors In Need 2008, a disaster relief campaign for Midwest flood victims. This campaign is a collaboration between The McCormick Foundation and WGN Radio, WGN-TV, Chicago Cubs, Chicago Tribune, and a variety of broadcast stations throughout the Midwest . The McCormick Foundation will match the first one million dollars raised in the campaign at fifty cents on the dollar, and all of the funds will go to nonprofit agencies providing short-term and long-term aid to flood victims in Iowa , Illinois , Indiana , Missouri and Wisconsin . The Foundation and its partners will also cover one hundred percent of the campaign’s administrative costs, ensuring all of the funds raised plus the matching dollars will be granted directly to local organizations helping flood victims and their families.

The cast is also seeking residents and members of our area business community to join with them in this effort. Although businesses receive many appeals for their philanthropic dollars, support is urgently needed to help alleviate the disastrous trouble our neighbors in “ River City ” face. Please consider making a generous donation today. Checks made payable to "Neighbors In Need 2008" can be sent to:

The Music Man - Neighbors In Need 2008 Campaign Campaign
c/o Lindsay Grandt, Producer
Buffalo Grove Park District
530 Bernard Drive
Buffalo Grove , IL 60089

or

The Music Man - Neighbors In Need 2008 Campaign Campaign
c/o Jeffrey Berman, Village Trustee
Village of Buffalo Grove
50 Raupp Blvd.
Buffalo Grove , IL 60089

For further information, please contact Lindsay Grandt at (847) 850-2132 or lgrandt@bgpkr.org or Jeff Berman at (847) 909-7091 or jberman@vbg.org For additional general information on the McCormick Foundation or the Neighbors In Need 2008 Campaign, contact Kristin Kiss at (312) 222-4502 or kkiss@mccormickfoundation.org

Summer Musical Auditions

The Buffalo Grove Park District Performing Arts is pleased to announce auditions for their Summer Musical, The Music Man.

Auditions are open to all adult performers, as well as children entering third grade in the fall of 2008 and older. Auditions will be held in the evening on Monday, May 5 and Wednesday, May 7, as well as in the morning on Saturday, May 10 and are scheduled by appointment only. If accepted into the cast, rehearsals will be held on Tuesday and Thursday evenings and Sunday afternoons.

The production will be held in the Performing Arts Center at Stevenson High School on July 18, 19, 25 and 26 at 7:30 p.m. and on July 20 and 27 at 3 p.m. Please contact the show producer, Lindsay Grandt, at (847) 850-2132 or lgrandt@bgpkr.org to schedule an audition.

BG Singers Encore! Selected As Best Of The Best

Encore! is the traveling performing ensemble of the Buffalo Grove Park District Performing Arts adult choir, The BG Singers. This talented group performs a variety of music, such as jazz, pop, oldies and the best of Broadway. Encore! has taken their show on diverse roads, from political functions and charitable organizations to Chicago tourist attractions and outdoor summer concerts.

Thanks to an outstanding performance at an area library, Encore! has been included in “Best of the Best 6,” a publication of the Library Administrators Conference of Northern Illinois. Only performers who have been recommended by library adult programmers are included in this publication, which is a valuable resource for libraries in planning adult programming. The publication will be available to more than one hundred area library personnel in May.

For Encore! booking information, call Lindsay Grandt at (847) 850-2132.

Buffalo Grove Park District Receives Highest State Honor For Third Time

The Buffalo Grove Park District has been recognized as a Distinguished Agency under the Illinois Association of Park Districts and the Illinois Park and Recreation Association Distinguished Agency Program for the third time in a row. Less than 10 percent of eligible agencies earn this honor.

The Distinguished Agency Program is an accreditation process that Illinois park districts can go through, and the accreditation is good for 5 years. The Buffalo Grove Park District first earned Distinguished Agency status in 1996.

The goal of the Illinois Distinguished Agency program is to improve the delivery of recreation services to the residents of Illinois through a voluntary comprehensive evaluation process. The desired result is to improve the quality of life for Illinois residents and to recognize those agencies that provide this quality service.

The Distinguished Agency Award is the highest honor the agencies give and is the result of the district’s continuous efforts to provide its residents with the highest quality of recreational opportunities and services.

The Joint Distinguished Park and Recreation Agency Committee visited the district on November 12 and scored it in five categories; general management, finance and business operations, facilities and parks, personnel, and recreation services. There are 500 base points and 9 bonus points that can be earned through exemplary achievements and/or special facilities, for a total of 509 possible points. The Buffalo Grove Park District earned 506.01 points.

Evaluation Team Leader Roger Keys said, “I have had the honor of serving on the Joint Distinguished Park and Recreation Agency Committee Board for 11 years and have been on a series of agency reviews and Buffalo Grove’s was the most detailed, organized and comprehensive that I have ever witnessed. The entire evaluation team was quite impressed with the organization of the materials presented and the high caliber of professionalism that (their) staff demonstrated throughout the process.”

Vik, Zamboni, Lopez receive annual LPGA T&CP national awards presented by Etonic

The Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) Teaching and Club Professional (T&CP) membership has announced the 2007 recipients of its prestigious annual national awards presented by Etonic: Kristy Vik, Buffalo Grove Golf and Sports Center, Buffalo Grove, Ill., Professional of the Year; Teresa Zamboni, Ladies' Links Fore Golf, Port Orange, Fla., Teacher of the Year; Maria ‘Loopy' Lopez, Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, Fla., Coach of the Year. The LPGA T&CP membership's Executive Committee selects the national award winners from the pool of sectional award winners voted on by the members of the five regional sections. All three of this year's award winners are first-time national winners.

Vik, Professional of the Year presented by Etonic

Vik, a Class A LPGA T&CP member since 1987, has served as the director of facilities and programs at the Buffalo Grove Golf and Sports Center since its inception. Before the facility opened its doors in 1999, the board of directors approached Vik for the role, after witnessing her success in changing the Park Ridge Golf Learning Center from a non-profit center to a profitable business.

“This award is the culmination of everything that I have done in my career. There are a lot of adjectives that come to mind for describing what this award means to me, but it's just not something that I can sum up with words,” Vik said. “I never thought that I'd be a golf professional, but I've had great mentors and have gotten so much out of the game. I'm very fortunate to be fulfilling my passion everyday and, to be acknowledged by my peers and the largest professional women's sports organization, means everything to me.”

With Vik's expertise, the Buffalo Grove Golf and Sports Center has become one of the most recognizable golf domes in the Chicagoland area, and was recently ranked as the No. 1 Golf Dome by the Golf Range Association of America. In addition to Vik's managing responsibilities, she also teaches both private and group lessons, indoors and outdoors. Her myriad of duties include management of the special events run by the park district and overseeing the concessions and park services patrol. Having combined the park services and concession areas, and thus improving safety, eliminating vandalism and increasing revenue, Vik was recognized by the Illinois Park and Recreation Association for this innovative program.

A LPGA T&CP member since 1983, Vik is the current chairperson of the LPGA National Club Professional Advisory Committee, which she has also been a member of since 2005, and she is also a LPGA National Education Program Instructor. In addition, Vik was named the 1997 LPGA T&CP Midwest Section Professional of the Year and a 2007 Golf Range Magazine Top-50 Golf Professional.

The LPGA Professional of the Year Award presented by Etonic was established in 1980 and is awarded annually to a female golf professional involved directly in the entire golf operation.

Park District Administrator Wins Prestigious Award

(Buffalo Grove Park District, Buffalo Grove, IL) - Every year at their annual conference, the Illinois Park and Recreation Association recognizes a few individuals and agencies that are the best in the field.

One of those awards is The IPRA Professional Recognition Award. It is presented to a parks and recreation professional who has shown excellence in promoting parks and recreation on local and regional levels within the state of Illinois. This year’s recipient of this prestigious award is the Buffalo Grove Park District’s Director of Recreation and Facilities, Dan Schimmel.

“Dan is a leader in the field and in the community, and always has the residents’ best interests at heart in everything he does,” said Buffalo Grove Park District Executive Director, Mike Rylko. “We have all benefited from his many years of experience and are fortunate to have someone with his level of dedication,” added Rylko.

Some of the amenities Buffalo Grove residents enjoy that were established under Schimmel’s leadership are the Buffalo Grove Fitness Center, the Buffalo Grove Golf and Sports Center, Safety Town, the Raupp Museum and Clubhouse, the Park District’s before and after school care program, which is now in its 16th year.

Since joining the Buffalo Grove Park District in 1990, Schimmel has coordinated two community wide attitude and interest surveys, instituted the District’s SMILE Program (which stands for So Many Interesting Leisure Experiences), which is based on the Disney Quality Service Program, coordinated the District’s strategic planning efforts and has served as the point person for managing the various intergovernmental agreements with school and park districts in the area.

Buffalo Grove Park District Public Relations and Marketing Manager, Mike Terson, has worked for Schimmel for the past 3 years and says, “it’s been one of the most rewarding experiences of my career working for Dan. He encourages you, he listens, and he lets you do your job to the best of your ability. He is a huge part of why our park district is so successful, and I cannot think of anyone more deserving of such an award.”

“This award appropriately recognizes Dan's many years of the highest quality work, professionalism and dedication to the Park District,” said Park Board President, Rick Drazner. The Buffalo Grove Park District Board of Commissioners and staff would like to congratulation and thank Dan Schimmel for his continued accomplishments, and for helping make Buffalo Grove’s Park District one of the best in the United States.

Buffalo Grove Golf and Sports Center Receives Top National Honors

(Buffalo Grove Park District, Buffalo Grove, IL) - Last winter, the Buffalo Grove Golf and Sports Center was named the Third Best Indoor Golf Learning Facility in the United States and Canada by the Golf Range Association of America. This year, in celebration of their 15th Anniversary, the GRAA added a new category to their list of awards, Best Golf Domes, and the Buffalo Grove Park District facility was chosen as the best of the best.

Golf and Sports Center General Manager Kristy Vik and Public Relations and Marketing Manager Mike Terson designed a presentation that was submitted to the Golf Range Association of America. Once the presentation was selected as a finalist, the GRAA conducted a surprise and anonymous visit. Out of 185 golf domes, the Buffalo Grove Golf and Sports Center now ranks as the Best Golf Dome in the United States and Canada.

According to Vik, “it is our first class facility combined with our level of instruction that puts us at the top. We don’t set out to win awards, we just do what we do best and pay attention to the little details, which sets us apart from everyone else.”

The facility features 32 hitting stations, as well as a chipping green with 2 sand bunkers, a putting green, a pro shop and a snack shop. And, if you’re looking for the best golf instructors in the entire Chicago area, the Buffalo Grove Golf and Sports

Center is the winter home to some of the area’s best teachers, including Todd Sones and Bev Miller, 2 of Golf Digest’s Top 50 Professionals in the United States.

SGD Golf President Phil Gillespie says, “I do demo days at nearly all the golf domes in the Chicago area and the Buffalo Grove facility really is number one. The lighting is excellent, nice temperature, nice range balls and mats, and great teachers.”

Whether you’re taking up golf for the first time or just looking to improve your game, there is no better place to learn or practice than at the Buffalo Grove Golf and Sports Center. Come see why this Buffalo Grove Park District facility is drawing National recognition.

Buffalo Grove Park District | 530 Bernard Drive, Buffalo Grove, IL 60089 | Voice: (847) 850-2100 | Fax: (847) 459-5741