THE JOURNAL & TOPICS NEWSPAPERS | WEEK OF APRIL 20, 2008
Youth Services Home Another Step Closer To Reality
Youth Services of Glenview/Northbrook broke ground on Tuesday, Apr. 22 on the organizations's new McLennan Center for Youth on the Potash Corp Campus.
Much of the funding for the $6 million project came from two major donations of $1.5 million each.
Bids will go out later this week to find a contractor for the project. YSGN Director Nancy Bloom said they are still in need of donations and have a $6 million goal. She said they exceeded their original goal of $5 million.
Bloom said the last million will help build the project to LEED environmental standards, cover escalating construction costs, help with initial start up costs, and help begin an endowment for YSGN.
Dr. Bob McLennan donated $1.5 million to the project in the name of his wife Becky last October. The building will bear the McLennan name. The campus is named for the other major donor, who also gave $1.5 million, the Potash Corp. Potash Corp. President and CEO Bill Doyle was scheduled to speak at the groundbreaking.
After the company's donation was made earlier this year, he told the Journal, "We share common goals and values, which are to enrich life and sustain community. Like Youth Services, we believe every child deserves to feel safe, happy, and hopeful."
Other dignitaries besides the major donors scheduled to attend the groundbreaking included Village Trustees Paul Detlefs and Deborah Karton, Village Manager Todd Hileman, Glenbrook South Principal Brian Wegley, Glenview Elementary School Dist. 34 Supt. Gerald Hill and Glenview Park Dist. Executive Director Chuck Balling.
The center will have three levels, counseling rooms, a half gym multipurpose room, an art room, media room game room, kitchen, dining room, and offices. It will sit on 1.62 acres of land valued at $750,000 on West Lake Avenue just west of its current site. The village of Glenview donated the land.
Village President Kerry Cummings presented YSGN officials with the deed to the land at yesterday's groundbreaking.
Construction is scheduled to last until March or April of 2009. The new center will open several months later after staff has moved in. Youth Services is an independent non-profit social services organization helping at-risk youth in Glenview. The agency currently works out of several trailers west of The Glen. It regularly works with the Glenbrook high schools, the Village of Glenview and the Glenview Police.