Sugar Grove park named for former director Pritchard

Surprising Karen Pritchard may be as challenging as executing the hidden ball trick during a baseball game at the former Sugar Grove Sports Complex.

Pritchard, who was integral in the development of the Sugar Grove Park District in 2003 and spent 19 years working there as its superintendent of recreation before finishing her career as executive director, got quite the surprise the morning of July 6.

The park district renamed the complex the Pritchard Sports Complex during a special ceremony in her honor. Featuring four baseball/softball fields, a playground, dog park, picnic shelter, concession stand and natural wetland, the complex is located at 901 Wheeler Road in Sugar Grove.

The park district bought the complex from the city of Aurora shortly after Pritchard was promoted to executive director in 2018.

While the plans for honoring Pritchard began a couple of years ago, the real trickery of surprising her with the honor didn’t begin until about two months before the unveiling when Sugar Grove Park District Executive Director Scott Nadeau called Pritchard’s husband, Jeff, to make sure they could agree on a date.

Once that was determined, those in the know simply had to keep their lips sealed. Pritchard was kept in the dark about the official reveal until the week that it was scheduled.

“Scott sent a text on Monday before the Saturday of the reveal,” she said. “He said, ‘Karen, sorry for the short notice, but we’re going to reveal a new sign at the sports complex this Saturday. It’s a new design and [board president] Dawn [Eby] wanted you to be out there because you were still director when the sports complex was purchased.”

Rather than wait until Saturday to see it, Pritchard drove to the sports complex to sneak a peek that Wednesday night.

“I went out to see the sign and it said ‘Harter Park’ and I thought this is wrong so I took a picture of it and sent it to Scott,” she said. “Scott said the contractor screwed up and installed the wrong sign.”

“She assumed I didn’t know about the Harter Park sign and wanted to save us from public embarrassment,” Nadeau said. “I told her I was aware of it and that we were waiting on the reprinted sign to come and be installed. We knew she could come out in the middle of the night so that’s why we didn’t hang the [real] sign until an hour before the reveal.”

On Friday, Jeff told Karen that he was considering accompanying her to the sign reveal. That raised an eyebrow. The next day, she couldn’t help but notice how nice he was dressed. That raised the other eyebrow. Now she was curious if he was up to something like he was a few years ago when he pulled off a surprise 40th birthday party for her.

“Jeff said that maybe he’d go, but why would he care,” Karen wondered. “I went to [another appointment] and came home and Jeff was wearing a polo shirt. He doesn’t wear polo shirts.”

While she expected Sugar Grove Park District commissioners, staff and members of the community to attend, Pritchard was surprised to see Greg Repede, who spent 15 years with the organization as its first executive director before retiring in March 2018. He wasn’t the biggest surprise guest. Those would be Pritchard’s sons Mike and Troy as well as her daughter-in-law, Megan, and granddaughter, Mia Rose. Once she spotted them, Karen knew something was up.

“As honored as I am, I feel like I’m just kind of the person who pushes it along,” she said. “So many did as much, if not more, than me. Looking back, a lot of stuff would not have happened if not for a lot of people along the way.”

One of those people is John Clayton.

Now the superintendent of parks for the Sugar Grove Park District, Clayton first met Pritchard when he was public works supervisor for the village in the early 2000s. Shortly thereafter, she began working for the park district out of her home for $3 an hour.

“The honor to be received by your peers and appreciated is not a time to be overshadowed or measured by who you are, but rather by who you are to them – who you are to us,” Clayton said. “I imagine this comes perhaps but once in a lifetime so relish in this moment and accept this tribute if for nothing else a moment of honor on our behalf and what you mean to us.”

It’s fitting that someone who has spent countless hours at the complex has it named in her honor. In addition to dragging and prepping fields for game action, Pritchard also watched and cheered on her twin sons during their 13U and 14U seasons as the complex served as their home field.

“The sports complex has played a special part in our family life,” Pritchard said, “Growing up, Mike and Troy played at Keck Park and then Volunteer Park when (John) Shields opened up and then moved onto the sports complex with travel baseball. All those parks played a big role.”

Nadeau said Pritchard is more than deserving of the honor.

“She was integral in the process of acquiring the property from the city of Aurora,” he said. “Long before that she played a large role in the founding of the Sugar Grove Park District. During her career as recreation superintendent and later as the executive director, she was responsible for so many programs and events that have been offered to the residents.”

Pritchard has made a great impression on Nadeau while continuing to serve the community.

“After retiring, she continued to serve our community no longer as a professional, but again as a volunteer, just how her efforts originally began,” he said. “She has been so gracious during my initial transition. She has been a welcome resource for me personally in ways I would never have assumed or expected. And over the last two years that I have gotten to know her through her continued efforts to support the community and the park district, I am happy to call her a friend.”