People, Places and Things

James Liston has accepted a position as executive director of the National Association of Governor's Councils on Physical Fitness and Sports in Indianapolis, IN.

James Liston

In this post, Liston will coordinate efforts to develop the first nationwide Employee Fitness Day, develop and support 40 state councils on physical fitness and sports by 1990, and develop the National Symposium on Physical Fitness and Nutrition in February, 1988.

He has served as the executive director of the Illinois Governor's Council on Health and Physical Fitness since April 1978. In addition, he has been president of the National Association of Governor's Councils on Physical Fitness and Sports since his election in July 1979.

Superintendent James T. O'Toole is leaving the Lincoln Home National Historic Site in Springfield next month to enter the U.S. Department of the Interior's Manager Development Program in Washington, DC.

The purpose of the program is to fill senior level career positions in various agencies of the department, including the National Park Service (NPS). Program objectives include strengthening leadership qualities at higher career levels throughout the department, as well as identifying and stimulating the growth of promising employees by exposing them to an extensive and diverse range of activities.

O'Toole began his NPS career in 1965 as a seasonal fire control aid at Yosemite National Park in California. Subsequent assignments were to Lake Mead National Recreation Area in Nevada and Arizona, Death Valley National Monument in Nevada, and Wilson's Creek National Battlefield in Missouri. He was superintendent of the battlefield from 1978 until 1982, when he was named superintendent at Lincoln's Home.

The Franklin Park Park District recently added two new members to its Recreation Department staff.

Sandy Wolfanger has assumed the position of recreation supervisor, in which she is responsible for preschool, youth and teen programming. She was previously employed by the Hoffman Estates Park District as a program coordinator for preschoolers, teens and special events.

Sandy Wolfanger

Mike Bleidi

Ms. Wolfanger received a bachelor's degree from Eastern Illinois University (EIU), where she served as president of the Recreation Club. She is currently an active member of the Suburban Park and Recreation Association (SPRA) and the Illinois Park and Recreation Association (IPRA).

Mike Bleidi was named athletic supervisor, and is responsible for coordinating all of the district's athletic programs. Prior to accepting this position, he assisted the district in coordinating athletics and intramurals, served as director of intramurals at St. Leo College in Florida, and founded the Franklin Park Thunder Soccer Club.

Bleidi has a bachelor's degree from Elmhurst College. He is currently a member of SPRA and IPRA.

Obituaries

Joseph Stauder, former commissioner of the Round Lake Area Park District, recently died in Naples, FL.

Stauder, 62, was an original founding member of the park district. He worked toward creation of a park district, which culminated in a referendum, and then initiated the creation of the park district in 1974.

Stauder was elected to the first park district board in 1975 and thereafter in 1977 and 1983. He resigned from the board in 1985 when he returned to Florida.

While on the board, Stauder's emphasis was the expansion of athletic facilities and programs, with a special love of the softball programs. He was known for his quick wit and sympathetic understanding of residents' concerns and recreational preferences.

Stauder was an employee of the John Crane Packaging Company for 33 years until retiring in 1983. He was director of quality control since 1967.

Cole Lenzi, founder of the McCook-Hodgkins Park District, died in June. He was 95.

Lenzi was president of the park district from 1950 to '85, and served on the Hodgkins Park District board from 1985 to this year.

Before starting the park district, Lenzi served on the local school board for 25 years. He was also a businessman, having at one time

Illinois Parks and Recreation 15 July/August 1987

owned a grocery store, a butcher shop, a semi-professional baseball team and a bowling alley.

Events

The concepts and techniques of successful marketing programs for park and recreation agencies will be the topic of a seminar on Thursday, October 29, from 8:45 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Oak Meadows Center in Addison.

This seminar, Is Your Park and Recreation Agency Market Driven?, is being sponsored by the Joint Public Awareness and Joint Continuing Education Committees of the Illinois Association of Park Districts (IAPD) and the Illinois Park and Recreation Association (IPRA).

Dr. Philip Kuehl of Westat, Inc., and the University of Maryland will be the seminar facilitator. He has 18 years of consulting experience, and has been very highly rated as a speaker for several associations, corporations and governmental bodies.

The seminar is targeted for agency administrators, public relations personnel, facility supervisors and commissioners. The cost is $75 for IAPD and IPRA members, and $100 for non-members. A special discount will be given for a team consisting of one staff member and one commissioner from the same agency. The attendance price for a team is $100.

Additional information will be available in August.

The Illinois Therapeutic Recreation Section is sponsoring the Northern Region Workshop at Loredo Taft Field Campus in Oregon, IL, on September 3 and 4.

This workshop will focus on programmatic trends and concerns in therapeutic recreation. The educational sessions will include Programming in the Arts, Computer Application in Recreational Programming, Coaching Team Sports, Inner City and Urban Recreation, Fitness Programming, Play to Grow Program, Professional Withdrawal, Substance Abuse, Outdoor Education, Public Relations, and Promotion, Research, and Stress Management Programming for Clients.

Socially, participants will enjoy a buffalo tro the evening of September 3.

Registration materials will be mailed this month. For more information, contact Gary Koenig or Nancy Schmidt at (312) 831-2450.

Correction

Inez Goodzey Berg, director of horticulture at the Washington Park Botanical Garden for the Springfield Park District, contacted the IPR editorial staff shortly after the May/June, 1987, magazine was published.

She noted the magazine cover featured the Calceolaria or "pocket-book" plant, and not the spotted orchids as had been indicated in the photo credit.