Donation trailer for diabetes charity coming to Naperville
A trailer to collect donations of discarded household items to be resold for charity by the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation is coming to a shopping center in Naperville.
City council and city staff members just had to get over a size issue first.
The donation trailer originally was proposed at 26 feet long and was taller than allowed in city code, with larger sign lettering and more related structures than typically permitted.
But when council members asked representatives of JDRF, a nonprofit organization that raises money toward a cure for Type 1 diabetes, if they could use a smaller trailer, they said sure. Problem averted.
The council unanimously gave the charity permission to locate a 12-foot-long trailer and a small hut for an attendant in the Riverbrook shopping center parking lot at 1523 North Aurora Road. The permission is temporary and lasts eight months.
JDRF has about 10 donation trailers across the region, including in Arlington Heights, Chicago, Darien and Tinley Park, but none near Naperville.
Mary Anne McKenna Bryan, a senior development manager, said the sites have collected enough goods to contribute $200,000 to diabetes research since 2015. The Naperville location can add to that total.
"Once constituents from JDRF know the trailers are there, they're thrilled to go to them," Bryan said. "Our constituents also drive traffic to the mall, which is nice as well."
At the corner of North Aurora Road, Raymond Drive and Ogden Avenue, the Riverbrook shopping center has a vacant former Dominick's and plenty of parking spaces. The donation trailer is expected to occupy about three of them.
Dennis Ryan, property manager for the site, applied for permission for the nonprofit to place the donation trailer in the parking lot.
The trailer will be staffed by an attendant 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week and will have a small pull-down box where donors can drop off items after hours. Donations will support research on Type 1 diabetes, which is a chronic condition in which the body stops producing insulin, a hormone needed to regulate blood-sugar levels. There is no way to prevent it, and while there is treatment, there is not a cure.
"They (donors) know that their discarded goods are going to a wonderful cause," Bryan said.
Before the council granted approval, a Naperville native who has Type 1 diabetes got in on the pitch.
Lindsey Riley, a JDRF development manager who oversees a yearly fundraising walk in Warrenville, said many participants wish they had a closer place to drop off items to benefit the foundation.
"The research we fundraise for is extremely important," Riley said. "I would love to get rid of this disease, and I know the millions of others that fight this disease every day would as well."