An upcoming meeting and event to keep your eye on.

October 2007

Event:  Halloween Party in the Park
Date:  October 27
Time:  TBD
Location:  Supera Playlot

September 2007

Meeting:  Supera Park Advisory Council Meeting
Date:  September 25
Time:  7:00PM
Location:  1224 W. Draper

See you there!

Hi, Everyone!  Thanks to all who attended our concert on that beautiful summer evening!  It was really a great night.

We initiated our brick drive and there were a few attendees who submitted their form and check while enjoying the music.  We want to broadcast our message about this drive, though, because we are only planning on allowing a short time to collect the money (i.e. the month of September).  So, I attach the form here, in case you want to buy a brick. Please complete it, enclose a check and mail it to me at the address on the form.  We will soon have the form posted to our website, so tell your neighbors and friends to look for it, if they are interested to have a keepsake in their children’s park.

Thanks for all you do!  We’ll see you at our next meeting on September 25^th!

Amy and Sheila

PS – Again, download the Supera Playlot Brick Drive Form.

We are delighted to advise you that we will be hosting a family friendly concert in the park, Friday August 17th at 6:30 pm.

Phil Angotti and the Idea will take center stage for this fun event and we look forward to seeing all of you!

In addition, the Supera Playlot Advisory Council will be launching our “Buy a Brick” campaign on the night of the 17th. The brick campaign will be a swift process as we have entered the planning stage for the renovation of the park in Spring 08. We hope that all the families that use our park will consider this opportunity to support our renovation, which will memorialize your support of the endeavor! Details will be available on our website after August 17th. (www.superaplaylot.com).

Spread the word and see you on the 17th.

The next Advisory Council meeting will be Tuesday, May 22 at 7:00PM at 1224 W. Draper.  See you there.

Happy Spring, Everyone!  Spread the word – Karen Banks-Lubicz and Friends will make a return appearance for a spring concert at Supera Park on Saturday May 19th at 10:30 am.  Please mark your calendars, plan to attend and tell all your friends.  It’s sure to be another great day in the park! See you there.

Got to love runoff elections.  Work get’s done.  This is Chicago politics at its best.  I just learned that the 2600 and 2700 blocks of Magnolia street, my street, are getting paved.  No mention of the politician who made this happen as I would like to avoid a frenzy of political comments.  I welcome neighborhood improvements.

The Supera Playlot website has been given a face lift as you can tell by the new design.  Kind of the internet equivalent of a Spring cleaning.

Along with the look and feel, one of the great updates is the ability to receive the latest playlot news via email.  Want to get the latest Supera Playlot news sent directly to you by email?  If so then subscribe to our email feed and receive the latest news as it is reported.

Of course if you are into this techy stuff, then just subscribe to our RSS feed.

Greetings!  We are very pleased to inform everyone that today our alderman, Ted Matlak, presented the Chicago Park District with a check for $215,000 for the renovation of our Supera Playlot.  We were then pleasantly surprised to hear the Superintendent of the Park District, Tim Mitchell, promise to match this with a $200,000 contribution from the Chicago Park District.  This is an amazing development for our project and is a testament to working together in a positive way toward a common goal.  Along with the $145,000 that we have raised, we are in a very good position with nearly complete funding lined up for our renovation in 2008!  We are very grateful to Ted Matlak, the Wrightwood Neighbors, the Supera Playlot Advisory Council, the Chicago Park District, the Parkways Foundation, Friends of the Park and the Supera Family for their many productive contributions.

We’d like to thank everyone in the Supera community who played a role in helping this come to fruition.  There’s still plenty of work ahead of us, so please stay in touch!

Amy & Sheila

Ted Matlak, 32nd Ward Alderman, presents Tim Mitchell, CPD Superintendant, with a check for $215,000 for Supera Playlot renovations.  This will be matched by the Chicago Park Department up to $200,000.  Playlot re-design will commence this year followed by construction in 2008.

Mr. Supera says a few words.  The Supera family has made a generous donation to the project as has the Wrightwood Neighbors Association.

Hi, Everyone! I am getting back to you quicker than I thought with very big news!

The Chicago Park District contacted us today to inform us that a press conference will be held at Supera Playlot tomorrow (Tuesday, March 27) at 2:00pm, so that our alderman, Ted Matlak, can present Tim Mitchell, CPD Superintendent, with a generous check to help finance the renovation of our great playlot.  It is very important to us that you be there (sorry about the short notice) in order to be recognized for your contributions to this effort.  In addition, as the news media will be there to cover the event, we’d love to have lots of kids there for photo opportunities.  Please come – it represents a huge community achievement and a great initiative for the future of our neighborhood!

Amy and Sheila

We have received a hint of the future from our Alderman, Ted Matlak.  We have been scheduled to renovate our playlot in 2008, hopefully in the spring.  While there are no guarantees until they break ground, we are hoping that this plan will hold up over the next 11-12 months.  Based on that, we have sent out letters to businesses soliciting donations to complete our financing plan.  The finance/fundraising committee will be busy this year getting the remaining elements of funding in place, including starting our neighborhood brick drive.  If any of you are interested in taking a role in this, or if you know of any neighbor who would be a good finance committee member, please let us know!

Amy and Sheila

Hi, Everyone!  Sorry it’s been so long since our last correspondence.  After a winter hiatus, we are ready to hit the ground running!  Our next meeting will be on Tuesday April 24^th at 7pm at my house (1219 W. Wrightwood).

Amy and Sheila

What’s this, a new boulder garden at Supera Playlot?  No, just the footings for the old swingset.  The old set was showing it’s age and in need of replacement.  Look for the new set this swing … I mean spring.

The sand at Supera Playlot has once again been replaced, this time with a much finer grade.  Much better for building sand castles.

Out with the old…

In with the new…

Spooky Halloween was held on 10/28 at Supera Playlot.  The park was bursting at the seams with kids and families.  A fantastic time for all.

Lots of Folks in Attendance

Candy Bowl

Duck Game

The new banner is up at Supera Playlot.  Run, play & grow with us by volunteering.

Great presentation to the Superintendant of Parks at the Chicago Park District 2007 Budget Hearing meeting the other night. 32nd ward Alderman Ted Matlak was there to support the cause.

The new sand has arrived at Supera Playlot.  Head on over to check it out and don’t forget your pales and shovels.

Hi, everyone!

We were so happy with our latest concert at Supera Playlot.  Attendance was great and everyone appeared to have a great time.  Many thanks are due to Cynthia Ragona and the entire programming committee (and their spouses!) for organizing such a great morning for our families.  Many new families signed up for our email updates and we would like to welcome them.  Please feel free to join our monthly meetings or one of our committees (programming, landscaping/park renovation or finance/fundraising) if you are interested.  We try to keep meetings brief (1 hour only), have fun and distribute tasks so that no one has to allocate too much time to organizing our activities.

We wanted to keep you posted on what is happening this week. The Chicago Park District 2007 budget hearing for the North Region is Thursday Sept. 21^st at 6pm ( Warren Park 6601 N. Western Ave ).  Sheila and I have prepared a presentation (including preliminary renderings of a park renovation from the CPD planning office), which we hope will confirm our status as a renovation project on the 2007 CPD calendar.  If anyone is able to join us there, we understand that it looks very good to the superintendent of parks when many people show up to support their project.  If you can’t make it, we will be holding our monthly meeting on Tuesday, Sept 26^th at 7pm (Sheila’s house at 1224 W. Draper).  We plan to provide a summary of the budget meeting there.  In addition, this monthly meeting is an important one, where we will discuss some of the plans for renovating the park.  The park district has given us three options for our plans to renovate, so we need to discuss what direction to take.  Anyone who is a member of the landscaping committee or who wants to have some input into this project should try to come.  There are some interesting, important decisions to make.

Finally, don’t forget to mark your calendars for our Halloween party on Oct. 28^th.  This should be another great party for the whole family.

Best,

Amy and Sheila

Hi, Everyone! Sorry that my summary of our last meeting is a bit delayed.

We met at my house and about 7 people were there. We began our discussion with generating some ideas for fundraising events for the park renovation. Now that we have a project planner drawing up renderings for our park, we want to get a detailed fundraising plan developed. Lots of good ideas were discussed for a neighborhood event, but we are open to any suggestions or ideas that you may have. Please let us know if you have attended any fundraiser that you loved or was particularly successful in raising money and creating fun. Sheila and I are working on a list of corporate and local businesses that we will approach for contributions, as well.

We discussed our recent July concert, which everyone reported was a success. We are making plans for our next event, which will be a Saturday morning concert on September 9th at 10:30 am. The performers will be musicians from the Old Town School of Folk Music, which will be ideal for all our little kids. Please mark your calendars and let all your friends know. We will be distributing flyers next week.

These great events were the result of a very generous grant from the Wrightwood Neighbors Association last spring. Since we haven’t used the entire grant, we approached the Wrightwood Neighbors to ask if we may use the rest of the funds for our Halloween Party (Oct. 28th at 10:30am), a winter event, and for a permanent banner to advertise our website at the park. We are waiting to hear what they say. In the meantime, we are awaiting the delivery of new, clean sand that Wrightwood Neighbors is providing (date is to be determined). If you are like me, I am very excited for this delivery! We are reasonably optimistic about the progress of the park renovation. Sheila and I are attending a Chicago Park District budget meeting on September 21st, where we will present our plans to the Superintendent of Parks. This will be a critical meeting for determining if we are included on the schedule of parks to be renovated in 2007. I have been told that it can make a very good impression if neighbors who support the park come to the meeting. If anyone would be interested to join us, please let me know and I’ll give you the location and time. The drinks are on me after the meeting for anyone who attends! Enjoy yourselves and the park and hope to see you soon, Amy and Sheila