New Naperville park to feature pull-up bar memorial

One piece of fitness equipment in a new park under development in south Naperville will double as a memorial.

A set of pullup bars to be built near a future challenge course and fitness area at Wolf's Crossing Community Park will honor the nine military members from Naperville killed in action since Sept. 11.

Wolf's Crossing will be the second park where a budding nonprofit organization called Pull-Up Bars for Patriots installs one of its fitness-focused remembrances for fallen military members, founder Gregory Kantz said.

The first of what Kantz describes as interactive memorials went up this year at Rathje Park in Wheaton, where it honors Lance Cpl. Nick Larson.

Larson grew up across the street from the park at 616 Delles Road and played there as a child, Kantz said. He became a Marine and served during Operation Iraqi Freedom before he died Nov. 9, 2004.

With the memorial to Larson up as an example, and with the second memorial planned in Naperville, Kantz said he's now working with park districts in Aurora, Bolingbrook and Elmhurst to honor fallen post-Sept. 11 military members from those communities as well.

"Now that people can see and touch it, they're more on board," Kantz said.

It didn't take much to convince the Naperville Park District to support the memorial by paying half of the projected $19,957 cost, park board President Rich Janor said.

"It's a really unique way and a fitting way of honoring the fallen," Janor said. "Often, when you think about Marines or military service, you think about pullups. So as opposed to a different type of memorial, this is a memorial where one can actively participate."

Kantz thought a lot about pullups, too, after his time in the Marines. And when he was in a park one day a few years back, he noticed there are monkey bars for kids, but no adult equivalent.

He worked for a few years to change that, starting Pull-Up Bars for Patriots in 2015, getting it certified as a nonprofit in 2016 and installing the first memorial earlier this year.

Now, Kantz said he's grateful Naperville park officials were so receptive to adding a memorial to plans for Wolf's Crossing Community Park. The park, at 3253 Wolf's Crossing Road, is set to include a splash pad, playground and sled hill; fields or courts for basketball, tennis, volleyball and pickleball; a 1.4-mile walking trail; a pavilion, bathrooms and a parking lot.

Site work began after a groundbreaking in June, and the 33-acre park is expected to be complete next year.

"We just get to be another piece in the puzzle," Kantz said.