Volunteers make sure Chicago's Winnemac Park is a blast — even without fireworks

Chicago Tribune

4 days ago

Both the magician and the balloon man had arrived. Chelsea Brown was about to be the woman of the hour.
Brown, the self-ordained family activities coordinator for the Fourth for All party in Winnemac Park, organized all the kid-oriented events that took place Friday afternoon. She brought in a man who makes balloon animals, a card-trick magician, a band from the School of Rock and — the most anticipated feature of the afternoon — a face painting station.
Brown is a member of the Winnemac Park Advisory Council, the volunteer group that takes care of the North Side location. For the second consecutive year, the council organized a Fourth for All party at Winnemac, a free, 12-hour event open to anyone. The party was born as an alternative to the illegal firework demonstrations that, before 2024, had gone on for years in the park. Last year, the celebration drew more than 2,000 people; this year, organizers were expecting an even bigger crowd.
'This is a huge day,' Brown said. 'I'm full of nervous energy, because I'm really excited about it happening, and I really want it to go as well as it can for the community.'
For many families attending the celebration, the Fourth for All party was another day at the park, albeit this time with food trucks and disc golf. After all, Winnemac Park is crowded every weekend, according to 40th Ward Ald. Andre Vasquez.
For the advisory council, however, the Independence Day party meant a culmination of eight months' planning, fundraising and advertising. On the day of the event, all the volunteers wore baby blue T-shirts emblazoned with the group's willow tree logo as they buzzed around the park to ensure a smooth run of things.
Council President Jacob Schuster said he spent between five and 20 hours a week, from September to July, working on the park's biggest event of the year. He also has a full-time corporate job. Comparing his presidency to 'a secondary career,' Schuster admitted that it's a hefty time commitment, but said he does it because he cares so much about the space.
'It's the best park in the city,' he said. 'It's a civic duty to help out around here.'
The council has roughly 40 official members, Schuster said, though only about 10 to 12 regularly show up to meetings. Within that group, there's a powerhouse of five who made the July Fourth event happen, according to Brown. There's no money in this gig — it's all about loving the park.
Tessa Groll, the advisory council's co-secretary, wore two pairs of earrings Friday. One was a dangling pair made of red, white and blue beads in a nod to Independence Day. The other was a pair of studs in the shape of two black-capped chickadees, the bird she feels represents her the best. Groll, who grew up in Naperville but lives in Lincoln Park now, is an avid birder in Winnemac Park.
'I've always been a big nature girl,' she said.
Groll's love of the outdoors compelled her to get involved in the park, where she spends time every day staring at deciduous conifers that aren't native to Chicago and watching red-winged blackbirds launch attacks on passersby. When not watching birds or trees, Groll works remotely as a recruiter for an insurance company. For the last eight months, she has dedicated 10 to 15 hours a week to marketing and social media for the Fourth for All party.
Brown's connection to Winnemac is similar to Groll's. They both live just a few minutes from the park and enjoy birding. Brown frequently walks her dog, Cliff, in the park, and like Groll, soaks in the diverse natural landscape. A home gardener, Brown is always looking for plant inspiration.
But Winnemac is perhaps most personal for Deb and Dave Miretzky, who have lived 'three doors down' from the park for 35 years. They watched their children grow up in Winnemac Park and consider it part of home.
'It's kind of an extension of our house,' laughed Deb.
'It's kind of a center of the community,' Dave said. 'A nice oasis in the city.'
Dave Miretzky co-founded the first Winnemac Park Advisory Council in 2000, which ran for about 15 years before going 'stagnant,' as Deb put it. In 2023, the neighborhood found itself divided on the matter of a dog park, and the council revitalized with some of the members who lead it now.
'We're still at a point where we need to mature as an organization,' Deb said.
She and other advisory council members would like to add more to the park's programming, aside from the Fourth for All party, but they say they don't have the resources at the moment. The group also has been advocating for bathroom access at Amundsen High School's stadium, which is attached to the park, so they can curb a recent issue they've had with children urinating in the prairies, which is bad for the plants.
'It's not the most glamorous,' Brown said of the council's work.
None of the council members are trained in event planning or fundraising. They just barely met their $14,000 goal for the event, an effort spearheaded by Deb Miretzky.
Still, community members continued to show up at the park all afternoon for the Independence Day celebration. Young adults lay on blankets and munched on tortilla chips; little kids played disc golf while they waited for their faces to get painted; parents looked generally at ease. A representative from the Chicago Ornithological Society stood hopefully at his booth, armed with a pair of binoculars.
Claire Riley, who just graduated from Amundsen, was leading a band from the School of Rock in singing mellow renditions of Avril Lavigne and Melissa Etheridge hits. Her guitarist, Ava Wise (11th grade at Lane Tech), and drummer, Bena Nee (seventh grade at Disney Magnet), kept perfect tempo as they entertained a growing crowd of Chicagoans lounging in the brightening July sun.