Community Matters with Mayor Mary Alexander-Basta - Bolingbrook Non-Profit Coalition transcript

[Music] good morning and welcome to the 13th episode of community matters matters that matter to you my name is mayor mary alexander basta and today's topic is bowling brook nonprofit coalition what is the non-profit coalition well this is the non-profit coalition we realize that there is sometimes a duplication of efforts when it comes to our non-profits and we also feel that there's an opportunity for our nonprofits to support each other so sitting together in a conversation and working with these amazing non-profits we sat and created the non-profit coalition which you will learn more about later in the episode but before we get started i'd like to introduce today's guests to my left rauscha la branch founder and ceo of the le branch family foundation rasha thompson yes the name is the same i clarified that before we started vice president and education program chair of le branch family foundation debbie watson president and co-founder of angelic kindness sharon hoffman secretary and director of community development angelic kindness reggie smith retired professional football players of chicago kevin o'keefe bowling brook chamber of commerce and theresa garcinia for kids sake thank you all so much for joining us today i am truly honored to have you with us um before we get started for those of you that are watching virtually online uh you're always welcome to join in in the conversation and share your questions and we will try to get to those in the allotted amount of time i'm going to have you start by introducing yourselves and telling us a little bit about you good morning my name is rachel branch and i have the honor and the privilege of being the founder and the ceo of the la branch family foundation organized as a non-profit organization in 2017 we offer support to financially challenged families families impacted by tragedy women and children who reside in homeless shelters in addition to our age population that live in assisted living centers operating under four pillar programs our christmas wish program makes available provisional wishes to families throughout the year where we're lending help to those in need throughout each and every year our holiday operated pajama event donates the gifts of pajamas to children and specifically our age population where we're donating the gift of new pajamas to those in needs everyone agrees that everyone loves a pair of new pajamas our health and wellness program makes available free health and wellness sessions to the community where we're supporting efforts to maintain a healthy lifestyle and also alignment with community resources our educational program makes available annual awards in addition to grants to our local stem program where we're planting seeds for our future and investing in our youth we also make available investments into various non-for-profit organizations within the community thank you for having us this morning thank you so much for being here good morning my name is rasha thompson along with being an alumni at both bowling brook high school and i guess a dual alumni citizen now that i've moved back from the city i am the vice president of the la branch family foundation where i help coordinate all of our programs that our founder and ceo just mentioned but i also directly run and support our education program um and directly involved with giving scholarships and sponsorships to our wonderful bowling brook high school students as well as providing the grant to our bowling brick stand stem program thank you hi my name is debbie watson and i am the president and i am one of the co-founders of angelic kindness angelic kindness is i believe the the baby organization here we're coming up on our two-year anniversary and um we are a non-profit that believes in even the simplest acts of kindness can impact lives in a various way it doesn't have to be a large project that can help someone brighten their day we work with children seniors veterans just about anybody who is needing some type of assistance or help within the community we have simple projects where we go out and buy someone a cup of coffee or their groceries all the way up to funding large projects of for example a buddy bench program we also have donated money one of our biggest things to other non-profits in the area as mayor mary said we're all about not duplicating efforts and pooling our resources together to ensure that we are appropriately impacting as many people as we can within our communities to work smart and not have to work harder and make sure those dollars stretch as far as they can thank you hi i'm sharon hoffman and i'm with angela kindness as debbie said i mean our biggest mission is just spreading kindness wherever we go you can do simple things such as opening a door for someone you know smiling at somebody uh bringing in their garbage can or you can do bigger things like debbie said we did the buddy bench program but we we have no issues of working with other nonprofits other charities other people or organizations a lot of people are in their own little realm but we believe as long as the population and the community are being held and serviced that that's our mission just to be able to help everybody that we can wonderful kevin i'm kevin o'keefe i'm the executive director of bloomberg chamber of commerce chamber of commerce we impact community through our pro-business initiatives and services we have our our own the chamber has our non-profit coalition is out as well and we partner up with the nonprofit coalition of bowling brook to makes it a better community it's a great community and we're just trying to make a little better but we do it through our business context thank you last but not least just so we don't miss him out hi my name is theresa garzania i am the founder and ceo of for kid's sake for kids sake was founded in 2012 about 10 years ago and in that time thank you and in that time we were created to advocate and assist on behalf of children in difficult situations and we do so through our four key service areas that's health and wellness educational richness financial resourcefulness and happiness we do so by meeting the multifaceted needs within the children of our community regardless of how it fits into those pillars and as a few of these lovely organizations have said we truly enjoy working as a community pulling together and coordinating with the resources that are available here to ensure no child in need is left behind thank you and i'd be remiss on i apologize reggie it's your turn now it's a big guy i don't want to mess with reggie hi i'm reggie smith with the retired professional football players of chicago and uh the rpf pc is the non profit arm of the nfl players association chicago chapter and it was created because here in chicago we have a bunch of uh in in the chicagoland area we have a bunch of guys that wanted to give back in all the communities that they they live in um so the rpf pc was created so that we could do that um in our foundation we have two pillars a scholarship we give two scholarships a year away to a boy and girl four-year scholarships and we give four youth football grants to uh youth programs around the metroplex that are not well equipped the fields they play on are not equipped so we make sure that they have the proper equipment and they're playing on the proper fields also our guys assist in charities all around so probably a hundred different charities that we uh we lend ourselves to to help their mission as well and it's i'm just so proud to be part of this coalition because giving back is is our responsibility and to be among people that when they wake up in the morning they're leaning forward into giving back so thank you thank you again for being here and if you're at home or even here you're probably saying okay how do football players fit in with pajamas fit in with buddy benches like what is this tossed salad that we have up here but in a minute as we describe each of these you'll see how they each individually and collectively benefit our community i'm going to start with the buddy benches i know i was fortunate enough to be able to be a part of that and the unveiling of those can you talk about the who the what who who donated where did they go what was the purpose of them well i can speak to the purpose and then sharon spearheaded that project and was the behind the scenes person who really pulled it all together so the buddy bench program came into light i have a lot of teachers in my family so it was not a new concept to me but for those that might not be familiar with the buddy bench it was they've been around for a while the story goes that there was a young gentleman that was going to be going over to europe to go to school and he started kind of doing some research and he found buddy benches over there turned out he didn't go to school over there i think his family was in the military but he liked the concept so well that he brought it to the united states and the principle of the buddy bench is to put a bench in a location and we chose schools but it can be anywhere park a nursing facility just about a veteran's home but the the premise is to make sure that there's inclusion and if somebody is new to the area if they are feeling sad or down if they're having issue at home if someone's picking on them they're taught in education so it's not just about the bench but the education to go and sit on this bench and the rest of the children or the organization group that it's being presented to identify that somebody's in need of a friend basically and they are to go and include that person ask them if they want to play if they look sad ask them if they need help anything that they can do to bring that person into the playground or into their social circle to help them feel as if they're not alone so that was the premise of it and we knew that the bowling brook and romeoville area schools had a few scattered but they did not have them in all the schools so we wanted that as uh in fact sharon and gary hoffman um also you know they'd seen them with some of the other organizations they did so it was really one of the things that as a newer charity our first big project that we took on and being a good co-founder and president i said sharon go how many benches did you end up placing and where are they placed actually we um placed 12 benches and they're in the valley view school district at all the elementary schools then we also had the nights of well what we did is we got sponsors for the benches and our local businesses all supported us because of our connections to charity everybody thought it was a good idea especially like your police and fire department they really jumped on the bandwagon for that we really appreciate their help with that but um we also had the knights of columbus of saint andrews parish in romeoville they had requested a buddy bench and the mayor of romeoville john nook had requested because all the sponsorships were taken already and we had called him and wasn't able to meet with him and by the time we did they were gone so he asked there's one in plainfield right now and it was a school that his son had gone to so anyway that's where we placed them and it was a matter of um you had to meet with the school board you had to have it approved that you could go ahead and do this you met with the teachers and the counselors about the programming and we didn't want to just go in and put in a bench i mean what what sense is it going to make just to put a bench there so there's a lot of educational programming that goes along with it like w said teaching the children okay you're new in school you don't know anybody you want to be included in the games go sit on the bench okay same thing with the um the children that aren't new you teach them somebody sitting on the bench include them um somebody's having a bad day go sit on the bench um i mean the police department had brought up a very good idea which we hadn't thought of but just the fact of people getting used to the bench is like a safety a comfort place you would have other children that would go up and let's say you're just having a bad day and you sit on the bench somebody come up and give you a hug but they're thinking not only maybe in the future to help prevent bullying which is why they said let's start with the elementary schools because the older children are kind of programmed already but they thought maybe even with abuse it may help because you know somebody's sitting there their mom and daddy were fighting or they were being abused in any way they may tell their peers they may not tell an adult and then that child may turn around and talk to a teacher or their parent or and be able to help in those kinds of situations too great thank you reggie um you were part of the who am i event and we have two of the other non-profits that helped la branch foundation assisted by providing sponsorship and for kids sakes by raffle prizes so that was uh can you tell us a little bit about that event and how it supported our local community yes um i was an awesome event that started with the conversation and a few months later the event evolved into something with about an idea of listening to our children creating a space where they can talk about complicated issues and feel comfortable and we wanted to take on those tough questions in a fun environment so this the high schools in the area were invited uh to bring their uh i think it was uh ages 14 to 18. known high schoolers middle middle and high schoolers and they they came out and we had speakers on bullying uh both person and cyber uh we had uh motivation we had um um they we talked about very tough subject teen suicide things that give the children resources to know that there were people listening and there was help out for them so they came out we had games we had fun we had a a bunch of uh former nfl players come out and and play games and and uh kind of dance with the kids so it was uh probably one of the most uh fulfilling events that that that i've done in a very long time because uh whenever you do something and you see the impact immediately and you know that you made a difference in that moment it was a special day great so we we see that we help youth in many ways and then we'll go over here and le branch foundation other than the pajamas you guys also help out with some activities at one of our senior homes in town so you want to talk a little bit about that and and how you support them and their requests numerous times we do we're very fortunate to have partnered and we have a sustainable relationship with heritage woods assistant living center and we work very diligently with our seniors providing them with crafts coming in and volunteering for some of their activities um this year we've um have noticed that some of the seniors are looking for some activities and they wanted to actually help some of our not-for-profit so this year we're going to have some of the seniors assist us at the end of the year with um the not the recycling process but the actual process of sorting and assembling our processes our gifts for distribution we also have seniors that are going to be assisting us with some sewing projects some crafting projects and we're just so glad to be welcomed one to be able to work with our seniors some of the seniors really don't have relatives that are here local so we just are glad to have a friendship an established friendship with our seniors and we're so happy that they were actually willing to volunteer their efforts to be able to support not-for-profits and also just keeping them busy during the day great thank you so much uh for kids sakes i'm going to take you a little bit outside of the bowling brook realm and we're going to talk about your expanded outreach let's uh cover a little bit on the tornado yes so recently i believe this past fall when the tornadoes hit in woodridge naperville kind of area we realized that there was a lot of families reaching out to us that weren't being serviced by the needs that were already within their community so we had to think outside of the box and be quick on our feet but in doing so we actually set up a mobile distribution site on the spot for whatever families needed so for example that could have been gas cards or diapers or water a flashlight with batteries for them to be able to salvage through what was left of their items and in doing so this really helped us hit the need immediately within the community we were on the spot sending volunteers to the store to go get things that were being requested from families and just really being able to hit that need we saw that there were a lot of supporters with right intentions leaving cases of water on the ground and things of that nature but it was hot that day and families who don't have power within their house warm water isn't going the extra mile so we really set up with that mobile unit to reach the need immediately thank you kevin can you share with us what the chamber does that helps assist promote outreach for our non-profit coalition well well we we tried i noticed uh when we started our non-profit coalition and joined yours is that there's some kind of duplication of efforts so we felt like there's there we have so many resources here why not combine the resources so what we we try and we try to do um is develop these people professionally to give them a little more information to uh help them help them do their non-profit work you know we're we're more so we're a support group um as opposed to uh charlie and bob because we are a pro business organization we're kind of our own business great now we have a big event coming up that we're all extremely excited about correct and i know that i've uh probably pushed us to the backs on this event but um who wants to talk about this amazing event we actually have a couple of events so let's talk about the one coming up on the 26th who wants to spearhead that conversation don't everybody raise your hands at one time i'll start um so it's the bowling brook picnic and we're involved with the seniors and we love us some old folks because they dance circles around us and so we are going to be um collaborating to put on the best ever senior picnic that the village has seen that's our goal working together to do that and we're going to be providing food and entertainment and just a lot of fun so i'll pass along because the details i know russia's been working very diligently running around town to ensure and for kids sake um they they can share down to the ruin any surprises this is a great this is a great way to show how each of these organizations even though they each focus on their own little pocket uh i don't call it pocket of people but they have their specialty but they've collectively come together to form this amazing event and it's been uh it's been interesting so don't give anything away but let's go on august 7th the non-profit no the tell us a little bit about your role in the picnic i'm so sorry that's all right so excited about all of our upcoming events i know um the lebranch family foundation again will be partnering with the village of bolingbrook and we're going to be hosting um the senior tent we have a tremendous amount of surprises we're asking all of our seniors please come out that day visit our senior tent the tent and activities are going to be available on an hourly basis between the hours of 12 and 4 lots of activities lots of raffles lots of treats lots of surprises please come by and visit us on saturday no sunday sunday sunday the 26th and kevin is uh what kevin's going to be providing a sweet treat yes we are we we arranged for some ice cream and popsicles to to supplement the meal and it's kind of exciting to get involved in this um i'm glad that we're able to do it uh it's you know not a lot of time but i i'm glad we could do it for seniors they sometimes just need a little bit of fun in their life i'm actually looking forward to it what do you mean seniors seniors have a blast yeah they do um and we do have a big event that's coming up on august the 7th and i think this is an event where it's actually going to show how all of these non-profits work together for the greater good of not just bowling brook residents but residents in general nobody i don't believe any of these organizations and please correct me if i'm wrong we don't have the residency requirement we don't filter to the fact of show us where you live show us your tax return i don't believe correct me that we have that we're not about that we're about if you have a need or a request we are here collectively to see how we can help you the most and that sometimes that means combining efforts before we get to the august event let's talk a little bit about a special prom that's coming up because i know that various members of the coalition have been a part of that prom so who wants to spearhead that conversation because that's very exciting yup thank you so much for mentioning that the la branch family foundation is working to working with ricky ortez from helping other people enjoy as they host the annual prom and it's the special needs prom the la branch family foundation was fortunate enough to work with this particular organization on last week we provided jewelry for each of the attendees on this thursday during the prom we're going to be on site and we're going to be handing out stuffed animals for each of the attendees we're also going to be on site that particular evening attending the prom as buddies for each of our attendees and we were so unfortunate to be able to be invited to this particular prom and to be able to help some of our special needs individuals within the area so as part of the coalition angelic kindness became involved we participated in the pop-up event as well supply providing extra items so there was fingernail polish hair berets bow tie suspenders false eyelashes things like that that could help finish out the outfit for the participants and then we also worked with our partners at kidsake that's where we purchased our items from their feel good deal store and we also had the wonderful opportunity to work and help make the uh corsages and the boutonnieres that will be provided to the attendees so we um fortunately and unfortunately have an event the day of the actual prom we're hoping to stop by after but we know it's going to be an exciting event and we hope that people get involved and learn more about it and next year participate as well theresa you want to speak a little bit about the for kids sakes involvement in the prom as well and helping facilitate some of the items that will be headed out absolutely and this really goes to speak to what mayor bosta was saying regarding the coalition it's about pulling our resources and communicating with each other so regardless of what the need is based on each individual organization or their mission we come together with the resources that we have because we all have different networks and we've all been around for a different amount of time we've all worked diligently within our nonprofits to build those resources and to build those contacts and connections and by collaborating together we really reach the need and i think it's important what mayor basta said we don't just stick to bowling brook it goes to show that we're all based in bowling brook that i think we all love it here and it's a great community to be involved with and i think that speaks to why is we use the resources that are all available to us to collaborate successfully to really make sure the need in our community is hit i think one of those great great needs is the one activity that's coming up on august the 7th all the members of the nonprofit coalition we're also partnering with uh promenade bowling brook and we are hosting a school drive back to school it is going to be an amazing day uh sign ups are going to be required but who wants to address a little bit of what we're looking at it's it's going to be a learning experience a customizable experience for all those attending so who wants to reggie you want to kick us off talk a little bit about the back to school event and your role in that well as everyone knows that parents everywhere uh that's a big time for them not only to get rid of the kids again but but to make sure that they're they're equipped uh to be ready for the learning year and unfortunately not everyone has resources to go into the year equipped and the foundation makes sure uh or the coalition i'm sorry make sure that we can help with that and provide backpacks and fill those backpacks with the things that the kids will need and not only random things i think when theresa talks about it she makes sure she goes to whatever school district they're in and fills the list that the school districts want and that's paying attention to detail because uh the worst thing is to give a first grader something that an eighth grader would need so paying attention to those details details so those children on the first day of school are prepared and ready to work so uh who wants to kind of walk us through what the expectation is of the event and how it's going to be a learning process for the for those attendees absolutely um one thing we've done in the past and we've learned by being in the community and by hosting these events is every child's need is individual so a child in first grade like reggie was saying has a different need than a child in sixth grade if it's a child in valleyville school districts it may be different than another school district so what we do is we give children and families that are coming through the opportunity to use bowling brook box and a point system so you are able to for your student find the tailored needs that you need for that school list as well as the special additions so to speak so if your child wants a sparkly notebook that's the sparkly notebook you want to get you don't want a random blue one so it really tailors to the experience to keep it focused on the student and the children that are in need of this program and this support and it will definitely be a learning curve as this will be our biggest one yet as a non-profit coalition so we're very excited we are excited to have this event and again it's going to be at the uh promenade bowling brook we do know the date august 7th there will be sign up and registration only because we'd hate for someone to show up and not have or have the ability to get the supplies that we need so as we get those supplies we will send out a link through each of the organizations and then we will be opening it up as well so be on the lookout for that um events how can people help you support you donate to you volunteer for you reach you these are all the things that i think as this as people are watching today and also as we rebroadcast is probably important for people to know there are always people that want to help and volunteer with their time or donate to something different or donate to something locally um this is definitely a great and we're we're growing the nonprofit coalition is growing we've been able to start with this core group and as we continue and as the need arises we will be adding to the group but this has been an amazing group to work with i've i've been honored to work with each of you and they have never said no which is kind of awkward uh because at some point someone says no but but i have not had that experience so please share with those watching um how they can get a hold of you how they can volunteer or donate to your organization and if you have something specific to your organization that's coming up that you'd like to share sure um so for our little branch family foundation please feel free to go out and reach us on our website lffinc.org and then also we can be reached on facebook we do have several events that are coming up we're going to be doing a health and wellness event that's going to be focusing on men's health in july in august we are going to be branching out and partnering with margaret's village in the city um and sponsoring another back to school event in pajama drive september we're going to be partnering with the village of bowling brook and we are going to be hosting an education program about staying aware in cyberbullying in october this is where we reach out to you this is where we have our big masquerade ball it is our fundraiser that we have for the year for everybody that's been see a few familiar faces in the crowd it's a great time we have dinner dancing and entertainment and it is the fundraiser that we use to fund all of our great programs and of course december is our major giving season where we provide and host multiple events we provide pajamas to all of our children both here locally and in chicago and then we also have our adopted families so we're looking forward to coordinating with anybody that like to get involved the more the merrier thank you okay angela kindness um you can reach us at either our email angela kindness inc at gmail.com or angelakindness.org our phone number is 815-293-7060 we are always looking for volunteers anybody who likes to do crafts sewing knitting painting things like that we can help you with the supplies you know if you cannot afford the supplies but you like to do the work um and it's kind of like a two-fold thing because you're helping us to be able to provide something to someone and you're doing the work but you're also doing giving to people we always obviously take donations right now we just came off of a picnic for our two group homes that we adopted throughout the year we provide them meals for all the holidays easter baskets valentine's day hot chocolate packets we're always involved with them throughout the year besides other people we can help we'll be at the picnic on the 26th the senior tent now that is a free affair for the seniors so come on out and join us we'll probably be participating we haven't talked about it yet as a charity we have but at taste of bowling brook we're going to be at the back to school event on august 7th and our big fundraiser is october 8th and that's going to be at the prairie bluff uh golf course on october 8th it's betting on kindness and what that is is entertainment gaming so uh it's gambling but without money so if you like any kind of gaming like that please come out and join us we'd love to have you the chamber has event on september 28th it's a whiskey and wine night i don't know if many of you know we have a pro we have a program um at bolingbrook high school where we're it's called workforce academy we go into the classroom going to classroom in the spring in the fall and we actually teach kids how we as business people want them to uh act when they get jobs and these are kids when i when i was younger we called the work study program if these kids come to the end of their senior year they're probably not going to go to college whether it be because of grades or because of financial for whatever reason and so these kids are going to a trade many times with different things and and they need financial aid if you want to become a welder um for instance you're in a welding school there are no scholarships for that well this this whiskey and wine night is to make money for scholarships for the uh for the kids whether it be for um it's a little alone if you uh want to become a cook a chef it costs over a thousand dollars for the knives and that's not you can't get you can't uh all you do is take out a loan so we're hoping to be able to supply the young adults here with some funds so they can go into a trade school or whatever they want to go into because many times they go to college and get financially in college but just not any financially available for the trades great thank you reggie thank you we can be reached at rpfpc.org also on facebook and linkedin and twitter at our pfp pc i'd just like to mention earlier mayor bosta said that uh you'll learn how all this fits together and and how this group uh is formed i just like to share um a quick story about how i was introduced to this group the mayor and i had a meeting and i was explaining to her around christmas time i saw something on the news that struck me that and you guys probably saw it as well that in inglewood a trailer filled with christmas toys was stolen and they had been collecting all year long and they lost all the toys and they had people coming out in a week to receive these toys and they had nothing it struck me for two reasons obviously the first is kids christmas no smiles uh the second reason is i was i'm from inglewood so i was explaining the mayor and she says hey come with me i got a friend and she took me over to for kid's sake and within a couple of days we had enough toys to make sure that all the kids that showed up got more toys uh than uh and they had other people involved but four kids say came through and we were able to give almost a thousand toys to this organization because of this relationship so that put me all in and whatever i can do for something and someone that responds so quickly our organization is all in because these folks are for real now you have a fundraiser coming up as well yes our one and only fundraiser is our annual golf outing and it's held at bowling the beautiful boulder book golf course and we've been there for 10 or 15 years now and that's our connection to the community as well before i forget our scholarship winner uh this year female scholarship winner is from bowling brook high school i thought i would mention that because we picked from uh probably a hundred mile radius uh in the winter this year was from bolin brook high school but you can go to rpfpc.org to find out more about our golf outing and if you're a business that are entertaining clients or you're giving your sales team uh a reward uh it is two days uh july 11th and 12th the 12th is the actual outing the 11th we have a couple of parties that so we get ready to play golf so we have to have two parties and then and then after golf we have uh a banquet where we get to talk about our mission and you get to see the the scholarship winners and the youth football grants and to see the smiles on the kids faces so it's an awesome day for us uh and again it's our one and only and 100 of our proceeds go to those two pillars of our mission thanks um just to let everyone know that is actually where i met reggie last year hopefully he's not regretting that meeting but um that's where we met and i said hey reggie i have an idea and look at you less than a year later you've already been in three events involved in three events right who am i the car traffic what was that oh the assembly front fletcher cleaves and now the senior and the back to school and look look all in a year um but i told him i said it's very important you know if you know me you know that i'm not much into the american football because i'm a soccer mom right that's what everybody refers to me as a soccer mom but but i told him the impact that football players retired or not have on the youth because they want to play football they enjoy football they might recognize football and reggie was telling me no no no so he downplayed the football players but at the who am i event true enough they were dancing they were throwing the football with the youth they were playing games with them and the youth and when i say youth you're talking about middle and high school so they're not like little kids that you can give something to and they're gonna be happy i mean this is a hard bunch to uh to engage and the football players did that so thank you for being a part of our organization and for all that you bring to the table thank you and i anytime someone says hey reggie i got an idea kind of shut my ears oh you love it you know you love this is where we are theresa yes right now to reach us our website is being redone so it's under construction but in the meantime we can be reached through facebook at for kids sake we also have a separate page for for kid's sake food pantry and enrichment center and we can be reached by email at for kids sake org gmail.com terms of up-and-coming events we every year hold ourselves to our mission of whatever the need is within the community doing just that so every single year we do a christmas program every single year we do our easter programs every single year we do our back to school and with that um one of our biggest things that has come up as a service through for kids sake is our food pantry and enrichment center learning that one of the larger food pantries in bowling brook closed a few years back we really started to see and realize the need and right now that's our biggest service and implementation project that we're working on at the moment with that being said we're always looking for volunteers we are always looking for sponsorships one thing that we never do is charge for any of our services but there it comes with a cost that's the reality and so even though we can get food out at discounted price we to ensure we could get the best quality and fresh produce and fresh items for our clients that comes with making sure we have a truck on the road six days a week and the gas prices that come along with that so at the moment one of the biggest things we could use is any community support for a food pantry sponsor if you know of any businesses personal individual anything of that nature we can always use some extra hands and extra hands on deck so that move is going to take time it's very hot for those of you who don't know we work out of a 400 square foot space at the moment and that is half outdoors so whether it be sunny and 94 degrees or raining and snowing and negative 10 we're out there serving clients so we are working diligently within the community to make sure we still keep our home here and we're lucky for the support of our village but in that process that's one of the biggest supports we could use at the time other than that just continuing on through that food pantry service we tailor to the children that we serve there so for christmas we partner with different local organizations to offer stockings and for easter we partner with different youth organizations to offer easter baskets if a child comes in that went from a c to a b average there's not many businesses that support that it's always bring us your a's bring us your a's and you get a free pizza or you get a free ice cream and we believe growth anywhere is important to recognize in children so even through just the for kid's sake implementation of our organization which is only 25 maybe of what we really do we really try to tailor to those specific and individual needs of each child and make sure nobody is left behind mayor i didn't uh mention how we can hold to the chamber obviously bullyingchamber.org is our is our website there's uh our work number is 630-226-8420 our way to get emailed to us at info bowlingchamber.org thank you and thank you all again so much for being here and sharing with us what your nonprofit does and also being a part of the coalition all of these guests with us today will be with us on the 26th at the annual village of holy brook picnic as well as at other events across town please if you want to again volunteer be a sponsor look into the organizations and see how you can be a part of that with that this will conclude our community matters i wish you all an amazing rest of the week and look forward to seeing you for our next episode thank you again and have a great day thanks for having us thank you [Music] you