Cubs Charities hits a homer for Gage Park

By Joan Hadac

Greater Southwest News-Herald Columnist at Large

Greetings, Gage Parkers! I’m pleased to be pinch hitting again, as the search continues for the next columnist for this neighborhood.

It’s fun for me to report on Gage Park, the neighborhood where I lived for the first 26 years of my life. There’s always something happening in this big, exciting part of Chicago, so here goes.

• Congratulations to the good people in charge of the Gage Park Baseball & Softball Association, who recently succeeded in obtaining needed upgrades to their fields at Gage Park.

Thanks to Cubs Charities’ Diamond Project, some $140,000 is being delivered to fund improvements to the fields, fences, storage containers and bleachers, as well as purchase equipment.

Since 2014, Cubs Charities has donated about $9 million to fund 103 sports-related capital projects across the city. Well done, Cubs!

Since 2019, Gage Park Baseball & Softball has provided athletic opportunities for boys and girls ages 3-18. Play ball!

• Looking for a summer activity for your little ones? Registration is now open for day camp (ages 6-12) at Gage Park. Dozens of openings are still available, but please hurry because camp fills quickly. Fee is $120, and camp runs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays from July 5 to Aug. 12.

Camp includes sports, arts, fitness and outdoor activities, as well as with what Park District officials call “brain play, environmental awareness, civic engagement, journaling, inclusion and team building.” Lunch and a snack are provided daily to campers.

Parents of campers must attend an orientation session with Park District staff. For details, visit the fieldhouse, 2411 W. 55^th St., or call (312) 747-6147.

• For teenagers (ages 14 and up) looking for something to do this summer, now is the time to visit afterschoolmatters.org and apply for a paid summer position.

There are spots in the arts, communications, sports and STEM. There are activities occurring in every city neighborhood. Locally, Solorio Academy, 5400 S. St. Louis, will be an After School Matters site.

• Also for boys and girls ages 14 and up, Planet Fitness is offering free summer memberships to you. Visit planetfitness.com for details. Locally, there is a Planet Fitness in Archer Heights, near 43^rd and Pulaski, and in Back of the Yards, near 47^th and Damen.
• Belated congratulations to the girls varsity soccer team at Soto High School, 5025 S. St. Louis. The team played in the championship at the BodyArmor Series Tournament against Westinghouse and won the game 2-0. Congratulations! Go Wolves!
  

  Joan Hadac

• St. Gall School’s incoming principal, Thomas Houlihan, has announced that he will be running in the Bank of America Chicago Marathon in September, as part of the Big Shoulders Fund’s Racing Team.

The Big Shoulders Fund was founded by a group of business and civic leaders in 1986 to provide support to Catholic schools with demonstrated need in Chicago. The Fund invests more than $20 million annually in scholarship support and academic enrichment for students, operational improvement for schools, leadership development programs for the next generation of school leaders, and academic programs and professional development for teachers. St. Gall is a Big Shoulders beneficiary.

Best of luck, Principal Houlihan!

• As I mentioned at the top of this column, the search continues for the next Gage Park correspondent for the Greater Southwest News-Herald. Could it be you?

You don’t need to be a trained journalist or anything like that at all. In fact, the large majority of neighborhood correspondents at this newspaper over the years had no formal training—and they did just fine.

We’re looking for a person who is active in the community, is naturally curious and enjoys writing and passing along news—nothing big or earth-shattering, but rather the smaller stuff. You know, the kind of news that won’t make the front page, but which is just as important, in its own way, as the big stuff: birthdays, anniversaries, birth announcements, engagements and weddings—plus news tidbits from our local schools, libraries, parks, churches, Scout troops, Little Leagues, senior citizen clubs, veterans’ posts, small businesses and such.

If you want to give it a try, send an email to editor@ swnewsherald.com and we’ll discuss things further.

• Well, that’s all from me for this week. I was called upon at the very last minute to whip this column together, so I gathered what news I saw and presented it as best I can. But I worked up an appetite, so now I’m going to head over to Carnitas Uruapan, 2813 W. 55^th St., and get some of the best Mexican food I’ve ever eaten, particularly the pork carnitas.