Navy Morale, Welfare and Recreation, or MWR, is a crucial element in the development and maintenance of “Total Force Readiness” for the military community. Navy MWR provides a variety of quality-of-life programs and services in the areas of fitness and sports, deployed support, movie theaters, libraries, golf, bowling, marinas, enlisted Sailor or Liberty Program, youth and family recreation, entertainment and hospitality. Now providing even broader opportunities, the new “Navy Community Recreation” program further engages its customers in the areas of outdoor recreation, community events, discount attraction tickets, vacation bookings, leisure skills development, recreation equipment rentals, parks and picnic areas, and information and referrals to a variety of recreational offerings in the local area. Although providing these recreational options for years, this new initiative is a better way for Navy MWR to communicate what it does and create efficiencies — and ultimately better offerings — to the active duty, family members and other eligible patrons at 75 Navy installations around the world.
Streamlined Service
Navy Community Recreation is Navy MWR’s consolidation of community-focused recreational programs and services. It contributes directly to the MWR mission and positively affects quality of life for the entire installation community. Through streamlined programs and services that are both facilitated and self-directed, Navy Community Recreation engages customers by providing information, services, equipment and facilities to meet their leisure interests.
The concept of the Navy’s Community Recreation Program was born several years ago, but only recently came to fruition. The idea is to offer quality programming for each Navy community by sharing existing resources, storefronts and personnel. While the concept of recreational programming isn’t a new idea, being able to bundle resources to offer improved programming is. Part of the success and appeal of the Navy Community Recreation program is that it bundles resources and offers the right amount of standardization and flexibility to truly fit the needs of each and every MWR program around the Navy, regardless of geographical location, mission or size of the population stationed at a particular base. Through the efforts of Commander, Naval Installation Command (CNIC), and a designated Community Recreation Advisory Board, program standards, position descriptions for all levels of employees, desk guides with standard operating procedures and other processes have been created and implemented around the Navy. Plus, specific marketing initiatives, including a new logo and brand promise, were implemented. In addition, training workshops have been held in all 11 Navy regions to help educate and engage current MWR employees who will be participating in the new Community Recreation approach. These standardized processes have allowed a streamlined, global roll-out of the new Community Recreation program.
Getting to Know Naval Station Great Lakes
Naval Station Great Lakes is the home of the United States Navy’s only boot camp, located near North Chicago in Lake County, Illinois. The base has been transforming civilians into sailors for more than 100 years. From its founding in 1911, it has maintained its position as the Navy’s largest training facility with more than 25,000 military and civilian personnel working, training and living there. The mission at Great Lakes is to deliver highly skilled, technically proficient, disciplined and motivated sailors to the fleet. Naval Station Great Lakes is a dynamic environment where training occurs 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It continues to be a preferred duty station, which attracts some of the finest sailors in the Navy.
From Community Recreation’s inception, the MWR Department at Great Lakes has been at the forefront of the initiative, with members participating on the original Internal Process Team. This team brought together senior leaders from various headquarters and installations to develop the baseline of the new program. MWR Great Lakes also played a role by forming a secondary group, which developed the actual details and basis for the program standards that were recently rolled out in 2015. As an advocate for NRPA and the first-ever winner of the Armed Forces Gold Medal Award in 2012, the Community Recreation initiative was ultimately an extension of efforts that were already underway at Great Lakes. John Prue, MWR Installation program director says, “This new initiative was a great way for us to not only expand our services to our military community, but also provide an opportunity to better package and communicate what services we offer to a very transient population.”
With almost 950,000 square feet of facilities and 150 acres of recreational green space, the MWR Department at Naval Station Great Lakes is a vibrant program with a combined operating budget of $18 million and a recorded 1.6 million customer visits this past year. Through the advent of the new Navy Community Recreation program, MWR Great Lakes has increased recreational offerings for the military community with base-wide special events such as the Lake Michigan Polar Bear Plunge, a murder mystery dinner theater, the annual Cardboard Boat Regatta, Breakfast with the Bunny, Customer Appreciation Week, a character dinner and dance, live music concerts, life-sized holiday card challenge, “Smoke on the Water” barbecue cooking competition, “Fish Fest” and more. MWR’s signature special event is its Fourth of July Celebration, which is a tremendous example of community recreation through a public celebration.
Building Community Recreation through Celebration
Naval Station Great Lakes has celebrated the nation’s birthday since opening its gates 104 years ago. For decades, though, the celebration was internal and took the shape of a family picnic or barbecue, and in most years some form of fireworks display was a part of the annual festivities. However in 1993, MWR leadership had a vision to turn the internal holiday celebration into a major open-to-the-public community festival, which would allow local residents a chance to see the base and celebrate with Navy families. From that point forward, Naval Station Great Lakes hosted a true open-to-the-public Fourth of July Celebration. The event grew so big that in 2001, well over 50,000 people were entertained during three days of festivities. During that time, the event hosted headline acts like REO Speedwagon, The Doobie Brothers, Charlie Daniels, Eddie Money, Joan Jett and Cheap Trick. The event also hosted the official “Taste of Lake County,” featuring many area food vendors, and became known for its amazing fireworks and laser light shows that are choreographed to music. Both in 2000 and 2001, the Fourth of July Celebration received international recognition through the International Festival and Events Association (IFEA) with numerous Pinnacle Awards for various categories.
In 2011, the event expanded for the base’s Centennial Celebration. This time, it was recognized with a third place “Grand Pinnacle” award from the IFEA, categorizing it one the three best festivals in the world for budgets less than $250,000. Today, the tradition continues with an annual two-day Fourth of July Celebration, bringing together families, the general public and military personnel from all over the region to enjoy the nation’s birthday at the “Quarterdeck of the Navy.” Surveys indicate that the festival is still noted for great fireworks shows with 40,000 people regularly in attendance. Most recently, the festival was recognized again at the IFEA’s annual conference in Tucson, Arizona, with four additional Pinnacle awards. The Great Lakes MWR team utilized this long-standing community outreach celebration to create its own internal community recreation program for all ages and abilities throughout the year.
Making Wider Connections
Building on the success of its Fourth of July Celebration, MWR Great Lakes continued to expand Community Recreation through interdepartmental collaboration. In the fall of 2014, MWR was able to align its existing tickets and leisure travel office, special events, green spaces, outdoor recreation and gear rental program with the new CNIC Program Standards. First, staff focused on the services and programs they were able to offer with the talent and qualifications of employees already in place. With limited programming staff, the determination was made that in order to enhance programming, additional outside expertise would be needed. Organizers then began the process of networking and building relationships with agencies in the local community that could offer valuable services and recreational programming to the military community stationed at Great Lakes. As a result, they formed partnerships with several off-base attractions and organizations in order to broaden services and offerings. Great Lakes Community Recreation worked hand-in-hand with a local community college to offer enrichment courses, including cartooning, drawing and painting classes, and pet wellness clinics, right on the base. They also worked with a nearby botanical garden to register base families for weekend leisure skill and educational programs like making homemade ice cream, gumballs and super balls. Recently, Great Lakes Community Recreation also partnered with a popular sports and entertainment center, indoor water park and the county forest preserve for additional classes and special military nights for families. The Navy Community Recreation initiative allowed Great Lakes to leverage these partnerships, which facilitated greater quantity and variety of programs and services offered to program participants.
Throughout the year, Great Lakes Community Recreation partnered with other off-base support services to offer themed programming that included Month of the Military Child in April and November’s Military Family Appreciation Month. The Great Lakes Community Recreation department coordinated the programs and presented a consolidated month of activities, events and outings geared toward families. A sampling of the wide variety of programming and leisure-skill classes hosted by Community Recreation this past year includes overnight camping trips, cinema café, basic bike maintenance clinics, beginning archery classes, DIY holiday wreath class, paint nights, family sledding meet-ups, an ice fishing trip, recreation and leisure travel expo, DIY hand-knit scarf instruction, fly-tying class, kite-making class, self-defense for women classes, themed 1980s karaoke nights, Cinco de Mayo and Mardi Gras parties, pumpkin painting, family-fun nights at the bowling center, DIY kid’s moss terrarium making, free fishing days, how to make bonfire treats, camping gear orientation, beach day, kayaking class, story-writing contest, sensory-friendly movies, parent and child photo booth, and outings to local zoos, concerts, amusement parks and theatrical productions. As a result of the re-alignment under Community Recreation and the partnerships with local organizations this past year, Great Lakes was able to offer approximately 48 trips and outings, about 50 new programs, 38 new classes/clinics, and 14 major special events to the base community, which was an increase of 120 programs from the previous year.
Growing Happy, Healthy Communities
Survey data gathered from program participants during the past year has allowed staff members to evaluate and adjust programs to better fit the needs of the base community. This feedback was collected, analyzed and implemented to truly enhance the Great Lakes Community Recreation program. Overall, the customer feedback has been positive. Debra Pruitt, MWR customer and military spouse, wrote, “MWR staff is WONDERFUL — they are always willing to go above and beyond to make any event unforgettable. I am impressed by their ability to really take into consideration the needs and wants of the local [military] community.”
According to CNIC program standards, Navy Community Recreation focuses on the community as a whole, as well as unique demographic markets, including but not limited to single service members, families, retirees, couples without children, single parents, etc. Navy Community Recreation keeps a pulse on the community’s interests and needs, as well as current recreational trends, and provides programming for niche demographics as warranted. Navy Community Recreation staff has the knowledge to refer customers outside the base when necessary and encourages engagement with the civic community. With this in mind, park and recreation organizations located near Navy installations can reach out to the Community Recreation department to discuss ways that they may be able to partner.
When asked what makes military communities similar to any other city or town, Leslie Gould, the Community Recreation program manager for CNIC says, “Military communities share similar wants and desires for expanded recreation opportunities just like any other city or town. Our military community wants improved green-space offerings such as trails and parks, creative programs that provide fun such as special events and command parties, and recreational opportunities that get them out and about. They want to build relationships with others who have like-minded recreational pursuits. Our military communities are striving to create memories, increase socialization and improve well-being through the recreational opportunities that are available to them both inside and outside the fence lines.”
Overall, Navy Community Recreation is program-centric and offers a variety of different facilitated and self-directed recreational opportunities that guide participants through leisure experiences in the form of events, activities, trips and outings. By combining departmental resources, Navy Community Recreation provides services that equip participants with the ability to pursue a variety of recreational endeavors.
“Navy Community Recreation strives to bring ‘More Ways to Recreate’ to our patron base,” Gould says. “We are focused on building a strong relationship with communities surrounding our installations in order to expand program offerings. Bundling allows for ease of access for our customers and innovative programs, which is our number-one priority. Our Navy community, with the help of our MWR recreators, can access information, resources, fleet support and so much more from a well-educated and cross-trained staff. In addition, our recreation staff members are learning all aspects of recreation and are able to use that knowledge for advancement and expanded programming options for the fleet.”
Elisabeth Weaver is the Recreation Director, MWR, at Naval Station Great Lakes.