Humans of Schiller Park: Suzanne Schwartz

A group of little kids once found a dead squirrel outside the Schiller Park Community Center.

They were devastated.

Suzanne Schwartz didn’t rush them past it or try to distract them. She found a box. She gathered the children under a tree in Schiller Park. She led a small eulogy so they could say goodbye properly.

Did she have to? No.

But she understood that feelings matter. That small moments shape how children learn to process loss, care for one another, and move through the world.

That instinct to slow down and honor what people are feeling is at the heart of how she leads the Schiller Community Center.

Suzanne’s path to Schiller spans decades. She began as a dance instructor with Columbus Recreation and Parks, later became a Recreation Supervisor, and three years ago stepped into her current role as Recreation Manager at Schiller. Before parks and recreation, she spent twenty years as a preschool teacher, including time with Head Start. She jokes that she wasn’t burned out when she left just “a little crispy around the edges” and ready for a new chapter.

What she brought with her was a deep understanding of child development, family systems, and the quiet power of community spaces.

The Schiller Community Center has stood since 1965. It is a well-loved neighborhood building that works hard year-round, especially in the summer, when more than forty children attend camp programs each day. Even as summers grow hotter and the building faces the limitations of its age, the energy inside remains steady and joyful because of the structure and care Suzanne provides.

She understands that a center only thrives when its people do. Suzanne loves her staff and invests in them. She knows every teacher by name and sings their praises openly. She builds a culture where staff feel supported, trusted, and proud of their work and that culture ripples outward to every child, teen, and senior who walks through the doors.

She understands that the center serves different people in different ways. For teens, Open Gym offers consistency and a safe place to gather. For seniors, knitting circles and fitness classes provide movement, routine, and connection. For families, it is a trusted extension of home.

This is not just programming. It is mental health. It is physical well-being. It is belonging.

Suzanne calls everyone in the neighborhood “friend,” and it doesn’t feel like a catchphrase. It feels earned. She listens. She jokes. She shows up. And when children who once filled the summer camp rooms return taller and older, she feels it deeply.

The center thrives because she does not treat it like a job to manage. She treats it like a community to tend.

Inside those 1965 walls, Suzanne Schwartz has created something resilient. The center is a place where people are known, where generations overlap, and where even a small squirrel receives dignity.

And that is why Schiller’s community center doesn’t just operate.

It thrives.