Five decades after its start, the Western DuPage Special Recreation Association continues to make a difference in the lives of people with disabilities throughout DuPage County.
“We provide opportunities for people with disabilities to participate fully in recreation,” said Dan Leahy, executive director of WDSRA. “Many times that involves adapting an activity or designing it from the ground up to serve that population. So, in partnership with our park district partners, we serve nine communities and thousands of happy families a year.”
WDSRA supports residents in Bloomingdale, Carol Stream, Glen Ellyn, Naperville, Roselle, Warrenville, West Chicago, Wheaton and Winfield.
Program growth
From Special Olympics competitions to international trips that teach independence, WDSRA’s program list has grown over the last 50 years.
“We started back in 1976 with four communities. Naperville was one of the original founding communities, and we’ve just grown and evolved from literally two programs — camp and bowling — to a whole catalog of programs,” Leahy said.
Leahy was particularly proud of how one program, Rec & Roll, has expanded.
With seven sites across DuPage County, the program provides daily structure for around 160 adults with disabilities once they are no longer in school.
“It’s still recreation, but think 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. for individuals who are 22 years and older. That fills a huge gap for our families because oftentimes individuals with disabilities, depending on their needs, might not have a five-day-a-week job or a job at all,” Leahy said.
Future goals for facilities
As WDSRA looks to the future, Leahy said the organization is prioritizing program and facility growth.
“This administrative building is really the only building that we have, and we can’t really do a whole lot of programming out of this,” Leahy said. “So whether it’s renting spaces or getting creative with other partners, if we want to continue growing and offering new programs, it’s going to come down to facilities.”
One new facility is Naperville’s Frontier community activity center, planned to be completed by 2029.
“[Naperville is] our biggest community of the nine [that we serve], and we’ve had a little bit of a gap in the south end of Naperville. So we’re very excited to start serving more families there,” Leahy said.
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