Bison's Bluff Nature Playground

Feature story unveiling Schaumburg Park District's newest playground—Bison's Bluff at Spring Valley Nature Center

1. DAILY HERALD SECTION 1PAGE3SATURDAY,APRIL22,2017
C
Local
Focus
Spring sports
Your favorite team in action
The season is in full swing for high school
badminton, baseball, boys gymnastics,
boys tennis, boys volleyball, girls soccer,
softball, track and field, and water polo.
You’ll find the best coverage of suburban
schools atdailyherald.com/sports/prep.
Sketchofrobberysuspect:
Arlington Heights police on
Friday released a sketch of a
man suspected of trying to rob
a Sally Beauty
Supply store
earlier this
month. The
attempted
robbery
occurred at
2:29 p.m.
Tuesday, April
11, at 1050
S. Arlington
Heights Road, authorities said.
The artist’s rendering follows
the earlier release of store sur-
veillance images. Police said
the suspect gave the cashier
$3 for a small hair care prod-
uct, but when the regis-
ter opened, he reached over
the counter and tried to take
money. The cashier held onto
the cash, which began to tear,
and the offender ran away,
according to a crime alert. The
suspect is described as white,
in his late 30s, approximately
6 feet tall, with brown hair, a
medium build, and wearing a
black windbreaker jacket and
dark pants.
Earth Day at Heritage Park:
Wheeling Park District cele-
brates Earth Day from 11 a.m.
to 1 p.m. Sunday at Heritage
Park, 333 W. Dundee Road.
The free event features nature
tours, live animal presenta-
tions, a beehive exhibit, recy-
cling services, arts and crafts,
and live music, along with a
variety of activities and give-
aways. For information, con-
tact Amanda Hamill at (847)
465-7766 or ahamill@wheel-
ingparkdistrict.com.
‘Creating Justice’ festival:
Oakton Community College is
hosting the 6th annual “Creat-
ing Justice” festival 12:30 p.m.
to 7 p.m. today at the TenHo-
eve Center, 1600 E. Golf Road
in Des Plaines. The event is for
anyone interested in creating
a more just society, bringing
to campus artists, poets, film-
makers, musicians and phi-
losophers for a day of sharing
and activism. Information is
at oakton.edu/creatingjus-
tice. The day concludes with
a meal of Indian cuisine and
music from jazz-funk group
Groove Witness. A staged
reading of “Powerless Gods”
follows the event at 8 p.m.
Tickets for the reading cost $8.
Meeting on Windsor traffic:
Another meeting to dis-
cuss Windsor Elementary
School’s student drop-off and
pickup procedures in Arling-
ton Heights is scheduled for
Monday. Officials from the
village and Arlington Heights
Elementary District 25 will
present an updated plan and
gather feedback from fami-
lies and neighbors during the
meeting, scheduled for 7 p.m.
in the third floor board room
of village hall, 33 S. Arlington
Heights Road. The two gov-
ernmental agencies have been
developing proposed system
improvements since two com-
munity meetings in Febru-
ary. The school district’s $13.7
million Windsor expansion
plan has been met with some
concerns about its impact
on traffic congestion in the
neighborhood.
Northwestsuburbsin60seconds
Robbery
suspect
Submitted by Schaumburg Park District
Climb. Explore. Create.
Imagine.
As unstructured play oppor-
tunities fade in an era of
screen time and schedules,
Schaumburg Park District is
working to ensure they don’t
disappear for good. That’s
the idea behind Bison’s Bluff
Nature Playground, a new
play concept at Spring Valley
Nature Center, 1111 E. Scha-
umburg Road.
Set to officially open today,
Bison’s Bluff includes climb-
ing structures and towers, a
meandering shallow stream,
a beaver lodge and an area for
rock and mineral exploration.
Nature playgrounds simi-
lar to Bison’s Bluff have long
been popular in Europe, said
Spring Valley Manager Dave
Brooks. They offer a throw-
back to the empty lots, creeks
and overgrown fields where
previous generations of chil-
dren spent endless hours
engaged in adventure and
discovery.
“Those places were like
jungles and wildernesses for
kids,” Brooks said. “Bison’s
Bluff is an attempt to bring
that back in a more controlled
environment and reintro-
duce kids to the wonders and
magic of open-ended play.”
The site boasts an artis-
tic area where children can
create with mud and sand
or weave with natural mate-
rials and a musical space
for creating sounds with
wood and metal percussion
instruments. Celebrating its
namesake, an impressive
bluff resembling a rock out-
crop features a large bison
and slides leading to the base
of the bluff.
Upon first entering Bison’s
Bluff, parents might be
tempted to start organizing
activities for their children,
Brooks said. His answer:
don’t.
“Let your kids do what-
ever they’re capable of doing
and whatever their imagina-
tions are capable of coming
up with,” he said. “Some kids
will want to be very active
and some will be more pas-
sive. Some kids are going
to look for a quiet place to
sit and imagine and oth-
ers are going to be jumping
around. There’s no right or
wrong way to play at Bison’s
Bluff.”
Unstructured, open-ended
play experiences provided
by nature playgrounds like
Bison’s Bluff offer numer-
ous developmental benefits.
Play is a critical component
to children’s cognitive, phys-
ical, social and emotional
well-being, according to the
American Academy of
Pediatrics.
“It’s healthy for children
to be outside finding ways to
use nature that are different
from what we might imagine
as adults,” said Spring Valley
Education Coordinator Mary
Rice. “We also know that play
reduces stress and encour-
ages active living.”
Thepowerofplay
Bison’sBluffseekstopromoteanessentialchildhoodpastime
COURTESY OF SCHAUMBURG PARK DISTRICT
Alia Sagerer, 8, of Elk Grove Village, plays with the percussion instruments at the new Bison’s
Bluff playground in Schaumburg. Her mom, Molly Sagerer, said she appreciated the emphasis on
imagination and pretend play. “With so much technology available, it’s important these types of
playgrounds exist.”
If you go
What:Bison’s Bluff Grand
Opening & Earth Day
Celebration
When:10 a.m. to 2 p.m.,
today
Where:Spring Valley Nature
Center, 1111 E. Schaumburg
Road
Admission:Free
Information:[phone]
or ParkFun.com
Benefits of open play
• Boost social skills. Through undirected play, children learn how to work in groups, share, negotiate, resolve conflicts and learn self-advocacy.
• Learn resilience. Play
enhances confidence and
fortitude, making it easier
for children to face future
challenges.
• Develop leadership skills.
Play allows children to create
and explore a world they can
master, conquering their fears
while practicing adult roles.
• Breed creativity. Nature play
areas provide opportunities
for open-ended, creative, free
play in a natural setting.
• Stay active. Encouraging
play increases physical activ-
ity — a crucial component in
reducing childhood obesity.
Sources: Mary Rice, education coordi-
nator for Spring Valley Nature Center;
American Academy of Pediatrics
Submitted by Saint Viator High School
Just four years after the former president
of Saint Viator High School, the Rev. Robert
M. Egan, left to serve at a Viatorian-staffed
parish in suburban Las Vegas, he has been
called back to Arlington Heights to lead 160
Viatorians.
Viatorians in the U.S. and in Colombia
gathered Tuesday to elect a new provincial
superior to lead them for the next four years,
electing Egan, a native of Wheeling and 1969
graduate of Saint Viator.
He succeeds the Rev. Thomas von Behren,
who has led the Chicago province for the last
12 years and was only the second Viatorian to
be elected to three consecutive terms.
Egan will be the pastoral leader of nearly
160 associates, brothers and priests, serving in
this country and in Colombia, the site of two
Viatorian schools and a growing number of
vocations.
Egan and his council will be installed in
June. It will be his second time as provincial.
He also held the office from 1992-2001, before
leaving to serve as pastor of St. Viator Parish in
Chicago and later as president of Saint Viator
High School from 2005-2013.
His election means he will leave St. Thomas
More Catholic Community in Henderson,
Nevada, where he has served since July 2013,
first as associate pastor and then as pastor for
the last two years. The parish of more than
6,000 families with 1,000 children in its reli-
gious education program is one of the largest
in the Diocese of Las Vegas after being started
by Viatorians more than 25 years ago.
Viatorians also voted for two members to
serve on the provincial council: the Rev. Mark
Francis, president of Catholic Theological
Union in Chicago and former Superior Gen-
eral of the Viatorian Community for 12 years
and the Rev. Daniel Hall, who has served on
the council for the past seven years and who
was named last year as vice president of Via-
torian identity and mission at Saint Via-
tor High School, where he is a social studies
teacher and coach.
FormerSt.Viatorpresident
calledtoleadViatorians
COURTESY OF SAINT VIATOR HIGH SCHOOL
The Rev. Robert M. Egan celebrates an all-
school Mass in 2012 at Saint Viator High
School.
Daily Herald report
Elmhurst police say they
have recovered the body of a
man in his early 20s from the
bottom of the quarry at West
Avenue and First Street.
The identity of the man and
cause of death have not yet been
determined, authorities said.
Police and firefighters were
searching the west side of
the quarry Friday afternoon
when the body was discov-
ered around 12:40 p.m. The
body was taken to the DuP-
age County coroner’s office in
Wheaton.
Police said they believe the
body may be that of a 24-year-
old man who has been miss-
ing since April 14.
Elmhurstpolicefindbodyinquarry
TRUE
PASSION.
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THURSDAY,APRIL27
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