I am leaving this review so that others in the community can be informed. Sterling Park District presents themselves as a charity and community focussed organization as per the information on their web page here: https://www.sterlingparks.org/sterling-parks-foundation/. I recently returned to my hometown from abroad with my wife and son to stay a month with my mother who is a resident of the local community. As we are an active family and were planning to us the Westwood and Duis center facilities we elected to purchase a monthly total fitness pass for our household at $63.58 as per what is listed on page nine of the Sterling Park District's brochure, which can be found here: https://www.sterlingparks.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Fall2024_Guide.pdf. In the brochure the membership options are presented as annual and monthly memberships. Therefore, I went to the Westwood desk and told the attendant that I wished to purchase a monthly membership for my family. I was appalled when the attendant told me that I must 1. subscribe to the annual membership and cancel before I would leave (or I would be charged monthly until I told them I was going to cancel) and that essentially there was no option to simply purchase a monthly membership, which does not reflect how the information is presented in the brochure. 2. I was asked to write my credit information on a form that would go somewhere; I am assume in a filing cabinet somewhere, where someone else may be able to access it. Quite frankly, I was shocked. In the age of credit card theft that we live in, the fact that this organization does not respect one's right to privacy of their credit card information and requires an annual subscription, which they do not advertise, is not the organizational behavior one would expect from a charitable community organization. At the Westwood desk Apple Pay and Google Pay are available, and Apple pay does a pretty good job of protecting their customer's information. So why should one need to trust the park district with their credit card information and also allow them to charge customers beyond when they would be using their facilities (i.e. having to subscribe for a year when one would only wish to purchase a one month subscription.) This is unfair to customers and the community and the park district seriously needs to reconsider this policy. In addition, I brought my nine-year-old son, who is a competitive swimmer to the Duis center for lap swimming. My son swims all four strokes competitively and swims the 50 meter freestyle in about 45 seconds. I was going to swim next to him, and his mother was going to be watching from the pool deck. However, he was not allowed to swim during lap swim times, and we were told that anyone under 16 is not allowed to swim during lap swimming times at the Duis center. Again, this was not published anywhere in the Sterling Park District's brochure. We were told that this policy is in force because there is no life gaurd on duty during lap swim time. This leads me to ask two questions: 1. Don't lap swimmers also need a life guard? What happens if they get in trouble? and 2. Aren't there also children in the community under 16 who would want to be able to comfortably lap swim during lap swim times rather than fighting the public for use of a lane during the open swim times (This is the only time that we were told that my son could use the pool.)? Is the life guard then supposed to tell these children who want to swim to be fit that they cannot lap swim during open swim times? Must a child under 16 (whose family has paid to join the pool) be made to join a swim team to be able to swim for fitness? Again, the Duis center and the park district need to seriously reconsider some of their UNBPUBLISHED policies and what the community and their customers' social and fitness needs are. Unfortunately, there are few alternatives in this community where one can go for swimming, and the weight lifting facilities at Westwood are world class. I would hope that the community oriented organization that is the Sterling Park District could also rise to the level of their facilities in the design and administration of their policies. read more