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Recreation in Naperville

Naperville is Illinois’ fourth-largest city and has grown dramatically over the past 25 years. Because of this growth, the city is fortunate to be able to offer an incredible array of recreational opportunities for residents. The Naperville Park District maintains several thousand acres of neighborhood parks, sports fields, bike trails and walking paths. There are numerous commercial fitness/sport centers and the YMCA hosts three local facilities. All are dedicated to making opportunities a reality for Naperville families.

Our nation is in the midst of a health epidemic. Obesity, cancer and diabetes are taking a toll on the national economy and affecting the healthy lifestyle of both children and adults. For the first time in history, our children today have shorter life expectancies than those of their parents. We are living in a society that super-sizes its meals and is becoming alarmingly more sedentary. Surfing the web and video games have taken the place of healthy exercise. Because of this turn toward inactivity, there is much work still needed by all organizations, agencies and commercial enterprises directly and indirectly connected to the business of recreation. The good news is that Naperville is a community focused on healthy activity for all its residents, on a regular basis. There are multiple athletic associations geared toward baseball, softball, football and soccer leagues. Naperville has nine municipal golf courses in the immediate area and several private courses. Three private gymnastic clubs, seven swim teams and several volleyball clubs are all available.

Naperville is a community that expects and demands excellence in itself. This excellence, aimed at offering residents the best possible lifestyle, is evident through the combined efforts of local churches, schools, park districts, hospitals and nonprofit organizations. The YMCA in America’s Activate America Initiative focuses on community health issues by teaming up with these same organizations to address the challenges facing a community on a partnership level. The Heritage YMCA’s partnership with the Naperville Park District on summer day camp programs and its collaboration with Edward Hospital on health screenings and testing are some examples of how teamwork in addressing community issues makes for a real win-win situation. To be a real winner means cooperation in reaching our youth and adults. Everyone wins when everyone is involved, especially Naperville. Our goal and that of others is to work in concert and cooperation with similar minded institutions to provide the widest array of recreational programs for a broad cross section of our population.

Now, not everyone is going to become a professional athlete or even an outstanding amateur. In the pursuit of excellence, a significant amount of stress has fallen on children of all ages to succeed. Naperville is helping alleviate these stressful conditions by offering programs for every level of performance expectation and ability. At the YMCA, we believe lifetime recreation skills and sportsmanship help instill the necessary core values of honesty, respect and responsibility. Finding recreational interests early on and continuing them through life is paramount to becoming a healthier adult. Skills that foster healthy character growth and activities that train for a healthy lifestyle are more important than just winning a game. These are tools to win at life.

Celebrating 97 years of service to the Naperville community is another win in life. It tells us that we at the Heritage YMCA and other dedicated local organizations are working in the right direction toward a healthier future — a future that is the very breath of our children.

Tom Beerntsen
President and CEO,
Heritage YMCA Group