Great Lakes region. (Regional Reports).

Kent State University's Student Recreation and Wellness Center earned the Outstanding Sports Facility Award by the National Intramural and Recreation Services Association. NRPA Member Paul Milton is the director of recreation services at the center, which won this honor because of its innovative construction design. For more information on the award, go to www.nirsa.org.

The park district in Highland Park (Ill.) received two national awards for excellence in professional communications from APEX (Awards for Publication Excellence). To view the district's award-winning Web site, go to www. pdhp.org. The district's training manual, Vision Quest, designed by Lindsay Dudeck, also earned recognition in its category.

The Centre of Elgin, which opened its doors in December, is the Midwest's largest municipally owned recreation facility. Measuring nearly 185,000 square feet, the facility features an expansive health/fitness center, three swimming pools, a climbing wall, racquetball courts, a three-court field house and an eight-laps-to-the-mile track. Other features include a pre-school wing, senior center, dance/tap studios, banquet and meeting facilities, a teen center and the Sherman Hospital Wellness Center. Although programming and public spaces at the Centre are open to the general public, use of the health/fitness center, aquatic area and racquetball courts will be by paid membership only. The Centre was constructed without resident tax dollars. The $35.4 million budget was supported by $15 million derived from riverboat revenues, developer impact feeds, proceeds from land sales and existing bond proceeds.

For more information, contact NRPA Member Lynn Robbins at 847-951-6120 or www.cityofelgin.org.

The Illinois Conservation Foundation has awarded 32 grants totaling more than $75,000 for environmental enhancement, natural resources preservation and education programs. NRPA members that received grants in 2002 include the Vandalia Park District, Vandalia ($2,500 for a trail and stream enhancement for the Lincoln Loop in the Vandalia Heritage Trails, contact Gary Oldham at 618-285-1029); the Illinois Association of Park Districts, Springfield, ($5,000 to promote and expand the Eagle Eye Neighborhood Park Watch Program in northeastern Illinois, contact Ted Flickinger at 217-523-4554); and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources Division of Education, Springfield, ($1,500 to provide materials for education activity stations used in formal orientation of citizens who assist in collecting and sorting species in scientific monitoring, contact Tom Clay at 217-524-9505).

"Nature centers, butterfly gardens, prairie restorations and other similar projects have all benefited from Illinois Conservation Foundation grants," says Illinois Department of Natural Resources Director Brent Manning, who serves as chairman of the foundation. "We are proud of the variety of projects we have been able to fund the last few years. Many of them provide hands-on experiences in the outdoors for school children." Individual grants of up to $5,000 will be awarded, with a preference given to projects for which applicants provide matching funds. Up to $75,000 is available for projects this year. An application is available on the foundation's Web site (www.ilcf.org). Applications for funding are due Feb. 7.

Great Lakes Service Center
Walter Johnson, CPRP
Regional Director
615 Cambridge Lane
Hoffman Estates, IL 60195
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
[e-mail]