Rightly so and at long last, we've dedicated considerable space in this issue to recognize and thank citizens for their invaluable dedication to Illinois park districts and forest preserves.

Let's start with citizen board members.

To you, the more than 2,100 locally elected board members (nearly half our readership), thanks for your time, talents and resources devoted to better your communities. Your work today is so important and both taxing and rewarding. Know well that what you do today will benefit future generations.

After all, it all started with citizens. Legacies such as Grant Park in Chicago exist because as early as the mid-1800s citizens banded together in the name of parks and recreation. See page 24 for a look back at several citizen involvement stories from park district history as well as a list of ways that citizens get involved in their parks today.

So many citizen stories surfaced while researching this special focus issue. Such as the more than 1,500 volunteers who find themselves covered in sand each year as part of the Chicago Park District's Beach Sweep. They remove debris and document it all as part of a worldwide volunteer data-gathering effort devoted to the conservation of the marine environment. Their data will also be used to help pass national clean water legislation.

On a more local level, volunteers for the Forest Preserve District of Kane County harvest seeds this fall as part of the district's Natural Areas Management Program. Two elderly residents from Joliet have invested time and money for a $1.5 million horticulture addition to the Joliet Park District. And, as the Lake County Forest Preserve District celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, it recognizes the efforts of Lake County resident Ethel Untemeyer, who organized the county-wide referendum that established the district in 1958.

So many deserve recognition. But, then, typically that's not the reason why people volunteer their time and money for parks and recreation. They do it because they believe their efforts will make their neighborhood, their city, their state, their nation and perhaps the world a better place.

They just do it.

ANN LONDRIGAN
Editor