One Reason Why We All Ought To Chip In

[Note across several postings, Apr 27th: I apologize for late postings of the last regular board meetings of the Plainfield Fire Protection District, the Plainfield Public Library District, and the Plainfield Township Park District. I did attend and record these meetings but other commitments took priority over getting these videos posted via The Patch. I will try to be more dependable on this in coming months. Thanks for understanding.—Vicky Polito]

Below are links to the Plainfield Township Park District’s meeting of April 8th, 2015. Total run time is just about an hour and no actions taken following brief closed session.

PPD mtng 9APR2015 part 1 of 3 (30 mins)
PPD mtng 9APR2015 part 2 of 3 (30 mins)
PPD mtng 9APR2015 part 3 of 3 (1 min)

All commissioners except Peter Hurtado attended.

This month I only want to highlight one aspect of this meeting, because it was the most important thing I’ve seen in a long time at any meeting:

I’d like to draw attention to roughly 23m40s into part 1. The stepfather of a young man lost too soon in his life to war spoke movingly about this soldier, PFC. Andrew Meari. To honor PFC Meari’s service and sacrifice, and given that as a boy growing up in Plainfield some of his best memories and days were had in Mayfair Park, near his home, Mayfair Park will be renamed and rededicated as PFC Andrew Meari Memorial Park.

When people ask how or why it’s important or “worth it” to spend as a community to have beautiful parks and open spaces, to have sports and recreation opportunities through a vibrant and well managed parks and recreation system, this young man’s story might help people to understand. To hear his stepfather speak about PFC Meari and his childhood spent enjoying that park, anyone with a heart and a brain can understand why that sort of resource is valuable to us all, often in ways we won’t get a chance to hear about. But, the value of a park like Mayfair in this particular little boy’s life was and is clear. While PFC Meari was somewhat unique in how he chose to live and give to his fellow citizens, I bet his love of playing out in nature, learning and making friends is very common. And, his parents no doubt loved seeing him have that to help him grow on.

The next regular PTPD meeting is on Wednesday, May 13th. Agendas and meeting packets become available here in the few days leading up to the meeting.

As always, should you have any questions regarding this content, please feel free to contact me at radical4plainfield@gmail.com or via regular mail at Polito, PO Box 1071, Plainfield, IL 60544.