Established in 1911, the Freeport Park District has a rich history of providing outstanding parks and recreation services. With more than 700 acres of dedicated parkland under its management, the Park District is charged with maintaining an expansive system of natural resources and facility infrastructure. This includes but is not limited to an aquatic center, a 36-hole championship golf course, an antique carousel, boat rentals, a historical museum, a skate park, a miniature golf course, picnic shelters, a nature preserve and athletic complexes. This robust park system is a key factor in establishing Freeport as a great place to live, work and play!
The Park District website featured an outdated design and navigation that didn’t meet modern usability standards, along with a lack of mobile responsiveness and accessibility compliance. The website also featured no streamlined way to manage events, volunteer opportunities, and memorial programs online; the site had limited integration with third-party tools like WebTrac/RecTrac and Rainoutline for event updates. Multilingual support was also needed, as was a robust analytics platform to make decision-making processes simpler. A need for an interactive illustrated map of parks and recreational areas was also identified.
Web Design & Development
McD Digital utilized a mobile-first approach with intuitive navigation, modern design and accessibility features to completely overhaul the Freeport Park District website. One key deliverable was the development of a custom integration between the website and the RecTrac customer relationship management (CRM). A custom plugin was developed to facilitate the synchronization process, including the retrieval of program and session data from RecTrac on a scheduled basis. The system collects all relevant activity and session details, including activity codes and descriptions, session dates and times, facility information, program categories, and status indicators like active, inactive or expired. Once retrieved, the data is validated, stored, and applied to the corresponding custom post types within the WordPress CMS. Existing records are updated, new items are created, and sessions that are outdated or no longer active are removed automatically. This ensures the website consistently reflects the current state of programs without manual intervention.
This integration means significantly reduced administrative burden associated with maintaining program information across multiple systems. Park District staff no longer need to manually re-enter or revise program data, monitor outdated information or correct discrepancies. Instead, the website’s content aligns with the authoritative data source, improving internal efficiency and minimizing the risk of inconsistencies. Accurate information is also essential for people seeking program details, schedules and facility assignments. By automating updates, the integration ensures program information displayed on the site remains current. Sessions that have concluded or become inactive are removed promptly and any adjustments made within RecTrac are reflected on the website shortly after the next synchronization cycle.
Other features integrated into the new website included:
The new Freeport Park District website was built on the WordPress CMS with WebTrac/RecTrac and Constant Contact integrated. The new website also includes SSL encryption, malware protection and automated backups for security, as well as GA4 and GTM installed for more in-depth analytics.
Boasting an all-new, modern, easy-to-navigate layout, the new Freeport Park District website officially launched Dec. 4, 2025.
The team at McDaniels Marketing did an outstanding job designing a new website for the Freeport Park District that truly brings our programs and mission to life. Their work is creative, polished, and thoughtfully tailored to our needs. Through a highly collaborative design process and smart use of our core messaging, they made the entire experience easy, fun, and exciting. We’re thrilled to work with McDaniels and grateful to have them as our trusted web design partner.
– Makenzie Blair, Communications & Marketing Manager
