Flooding dishes out hard knocks at teen center
It was just a year ago that the Boys and Girls Club of Dundee Township had an open house to show off the improvements at the Paul Knox Unit in Carpentersville.
For almost 12 years, the club has served at-risk youth at several sites in the township, such as Carpentersville Middle School and Perry, Golfview and Lakewood elementary schools. The Knox Unit is the home for the club's Teen Center.
However, the torrential rain that fell in late August hit the Knox Unit hard.
When Executive Director Mike Berger arrived one morning he found the basement of the Knox Teen Center flooded with over 5½ feet of standing water. When he went halfway down the stairs, all he could see was mulch floating in the water.
After the water was pumped out, it became evident that everything downstairs was ruined. Unfortunately, after talking to the insurance company, he found out that the club's coverage did not include flood damage.
The teens take great pride in the building at 3036 Wakefield Drive, and worked hard cleaning up the facility, painting the building and preparing it for last year's open house.
Last year, the Teen Club entered a contest sponsored by the Boys and Girls Clubs of America. As a group they had to submit an original healthy recipe and present it in a cooking-show format. On the menu were fish tacos and watermelon cookies. Their work so impressed the judges that they won the National Grand Prize -- a $1,000 kitchen makeover.
Fortunately, the new kitchen, including by an additional donation of a new oven and dishwasher by Reece Arroyave of Domino's Pizza, is on the upper level of the Teen Center, as were the computers used for research and homework the club received as a technology grant from Microsoft.
But the Knox Teen Center is more than just a safe place to go to do your homework. It is a place for fun, games and friendship. In the basement kids can just be kids and hang out.
Many items were lost in the flood. Some of them were purchased with grant money but a lot of them were donated.
Many of you are downsizing your homes or are becoming empty-nesters with your own children growing up and moving out.
Perhaps you are wondering what to do with some of the good, usable stuff the kids have left behind, and think that it might have a second life elsewhere helping others.
To give you some ideas, here is what was lost in the flood: a foosball table, a pool table including balls and cues, two TV sets, an L-shaped leather couch, a leather reclining chair, an entertainment center, an Xbox console, two karaoke machines, a fabric-covered sofa, a VCR, a CD/radio player, a large Connect Four game, three tables, one computer table, 15 folding chairs, baseball equipment, football equipment, basketball equipment, tennis balls and golf clubs.
If you have something that you would like to donate, call Mike Berger at (847) 814-7302.
If you would like to help this club that provides services and programs to approximately 1,200 boys and girls in our area, you can send a tax-deductible monetary donation to Boys and Girls Club of Dundee Township, P.O. Box 173, Carpentersville, IL 60110.