Community Corner

Mother and Daughter Explore 92 Evanston Parks

Marci Rubin and six year old daughter Rachael embark on their "Evanston Park Project." Their goal is to visit all 92 Evanston parks.

53 parks down, 39 to go.

That’s the tally so far for Marci Rubin and her daughter, Rachael, who posed a challenge for themselves last spring to visit each of Evanston’s 92 parks.

Rubin said they wanted to see how many they could visit before Rachael, 6, started kindergarten in the fall.

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They call their adventure the “Evanston Park Project” and have even started a twitter account (@EvanstonPark) to post about their park days. They’ve reached 147 followers, most of which are from Evanston.

Rubin got the idea for the park project when she received a map of Evanston parks in the mail last year. She thought it would be something fun to do with Rachael during the summer.

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“I was amazed by how many parks there were,” Rubin said.

One of their favorite parks is Catharine Waugh McCulloch Park at 1300-1399 Livingston St., in north Evanston near Ryan Field.  The backyards of several homes surround the park, making it a true neighborhood spot.

Once she and Rachael have visited all the parks, Rubin says she’ll add a twist to the project: a learning dimension.

“It would be interesting to learn how some parks got their name,” Rubin said.

Catharine McCulloch, for example, was an Evanston native who was a leading advocate in getting women the right to vote in Illinois.

There is a small square patch called Jennifer Morris Park that Rubin had always noticed. It wasn’t until she looked Jennifer Morris up that she learned that the park was a memorial to Morris, a well-known Evanston businesswoman who died after she was struck by a car

While the history is interesting, Rachael says the biggest thing she has learned so   far is that “parks are fun.”

Rachael hasn’t been to a park she didn’t like and said the monkey bars are her favorite. 

Rubin hopes that Rachael will also learn more about the diversity of her community through their park exploration.

“Part of what we try to do is get outside and explore but also be a part of the community and use the resources that are here,” Rubin continued. “Being able to go to the park and playing with kids that are the same because they all love to play but also very different in so many ways, hopefully it’s giving her [Rachael] a very open-minded, well rounded experience of childhood.”


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