Oakland Recreation Commission Chair Mike Guadagnino Credits Dedicated Volunteers for Success of Past Projects, and Shares Vision for Future Ones

Mike Guadagnino, who moved to Oakland in 1998, first became involved in sports recreation through his role as a dad.

He started out coaching when his kids began playing sports, then joined the baseball leadership, eventually becoming the baseball commissioner.

“I wanted to make a difference,” he said about why he took on coaching and volunteering on the commission.

With both his children, Michael and Nicole, playing travel sports, Guadagnino had an opportunity to visit fields around the state, and those visits sparked ideas for creating and improving recreational fields and facilities back home in Oakland.

During his tenure, six baseball fields were revamped.

“The ones we had were tired,” he said, adding that it's important to "always work to make something better."

"If you're stagnant, you go backward."

In 2006, Guadagnino, who has a chiropractic practice in Ramsey, began serving on Oakland’s Recreation Commission, and continued his tireless dedication and visionary work on developing programs and recreational space for the residents of the borough. He became chairman in 2012.

One of the projects he is most proud of is the borough Recreation Complex, which houses soccer, baseball and football fields, tennis courts, a walking path with workout machines in one area, a playground, and a roller hockey rink.

The endeavor that holds the highest sentimental value was procuring a piece of steel from the World Trade Center to bring to Oakland, where it is displayed in Veterans Park in a September 11 Memorial. A ceremony was held at the borough’s new memorial last September to mark the 17th anniversary of the attacks.

"Of all the things the commission has done," Guadagnino said, "that one has the most meaning."

There are many more projects in the pipeline, not the least of which is Great Oak Park, 40 acres which will boast walking trails, a skate park, a dog park and a great lawn with a band shell.

“Of all the projects going on in town, people come up to me and ask about the band shell,” he said, adding that it could be a stage for poetry, acting groups, or singers, among other things.

It’s been a long journey that began in 2012, Guadagnino noted, but it has been a massive undertaking that has included meetings with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, environmental studies, volunteers working hard in various aspects of the project, including fundraising, and more than half a million dollars in donations.

"The biggest thing is to do all this without taxpayer dollars," Guadagnino noted. "That's what I've been doing with recreation."

Guadagnino, again and again, deflects the focus from himself to the many volunteers he says are the true heroes in the many recreation projects over the years.

The Potash family, which owns James Construction, offered to help with clearing decades of debris at the Great Lawn at Great Oak Park.

“The park was such a mess,” he said, “120 people showed up to clean. One person got a tree company to do free work. If you let people take ownership, they will. We have a group of highly motivated people. I am always grateful for the number of people who help.”

While it’s important to Guadagnino to put the spotlight on all the volunteers who help make a vision a reality, his contributions to Oakland are widely recognized.

He was honored with a congressional certificate of recognition by Congressman Joshua Gottheimer, and his name unfailingly comes up when longtime Oakland residents, community leaders, and government officials speak about the borough’s most active volunteers.

“We, in Oakland,  are so lucky to have Mike as our recreation chairperson,” said Mayor Linda Schwager. “He gives so much time to the recreation program.”

“Mike has dedicated himself to constantly improve our programs and our recreation facilities. Mike is always available to help our children.  He never says ‘No.’ Great Oak Park could not exist without Mike's leadership and perseverance.”

Oakland’s unofficial historian and longtime resident Kevin Heffernan called Guadagnino “perhaps the most dedicated, committed person I have ever met in enhancing Oakland, both as the commissioner of parks and as the athletics commissioner.”

Heffernan recalled calling Guadagnino about the possibility of a park at Bush Plaza, just off the train tracks in the center of town.

Heffernan thought it was an ideal spot to beautify and “enhance the entrance to Oakland.”

“We met at Bush Plaza on the following snowy day to discuss it and he loved the idea,” Heffernan said. ”After walking the park outline and rough boundaries, within an hour we were at Borough Hall checking records. And within the same hour, he was committed to making it happen.”

“Simply stated, that's typical Mike always trying to improve Oakland. Oakland is a far better place with the dedication, work, and leadership exhibited by Mike, as no one has done more than he.”