Many teachers at LFA are very vocal about the issues they care about, and some continue to devote their passion outside school after they retire. Constance McCabe, after her retirement from LFA as an ESL (English as a Second Language) instructor in 2021, recently ran for the office in Lake Bluff Park District. 

She has a hope to establish the Lake Bluff Reserve, so that it boosts the natural growth of animals, and provide a mild habitat for endangered species to survive when dramatic environmental changes occur. She noted a very alarming drop in the bird population: nearly three billion are gone since 1970. “It only takes a little bit of preserved land to bring back the wildlife, […] so nature could have a place to be,” said McCabe. 

With this vision in mind, McCabe found the golf course in Lake Bluff would be the solution: converting it to a wetland, meanwhile generating a $10 million fund through the wetland credits for income. However, McCabe and her campaign team also met obstacles. While they were investigating the splitting of the golf course and wetlands for six months, they found that there was 0 discussion on this issue. The park district rejected asking people’s idea about converting a portion of the golf course into a place to save animals, or oversimplified it as losing a recreational place for wetland. 

While McCabe wasn’t always so active in local politics, this impulse of converting golf courses into wetlands did not come from nowhere she and her friends in college had worked to support the candidates running for governor, and she believes that,“if you want to see things happen you have to be part of making it happen. You can’t just sit back and hope somebody else does all the work,”. Hence, McCabe contributed tremendous efforts in the campaign. She constantly discussed campaign philosophy, plans, printed material with the team, met with the golf course designer, signed contracts, and knocked on people’s door to talk about their campaign ideas…All of these require good governance, building consensus, and finding creative solutions. 

Although McCabe eventually did not win the campaign, this experience was memorable. “Knocking on lots of people’s doors, I got to know a lot of neighbors—a lot of cool people,” McCabe recalled, “It’s a good way to become integrated into the fabric of the town.”