Ready to rake and roll
Julie Lichter can hardly wait.
The community development director for NCO Youth and Family Services knows the challenges her nonprofit agency faces in providing around-the-clock services at its group home for troubled boys ages 13 to 17.
She knows what it's like to offer all the necessary counseling and make sure the teens get the life skills and other support they need to get and stay healthy.
She also knows that when you're caring for eight teens with serious emotional, substance abuse or family problems, some less-important things might fall through the cracks -- such as landscaping at the home's one-acre site in Lisle.
Which is why Lichter can hardly wait for Wednesday, when roughly 30 volunteers from several National City bank branches are scheduled to show up and delve into some outdoor housekeeping projects at the Cornerstone Group Home for Boys -- the only such short-term residence in DuPage County.
The volunteers will do "whatever we can coerce them into doing," Lichter said, joking only a little. "No, really, they'll do some yard work, wash some windows. We have more than an acre to weed and a general overhaul of landscaping is humongous for us."
This is the third straight year National City employees have volunteered to do work for NCO, and the second time they're tackling yard projects at the home.
It's part of the company's fourth annual Community Appreciation Week, a statewide program aimed at saying thanks to customers and neighbors, spokeswoman Susan Chang said.
The bank will close its lobbies at 1 p.m. at branches in Naperville, Aurora and North Aurora so employees can spend about three hours each working at the group home, Chang said.
The NCO project is one of 17 the company is involved in, and they're all being managed by the United Way.
The bank's drive-through teller windows and ATMs will remain open.
Lichter says National City became involved with NCO a couple years ago when she met the manager of the bank's 95th Street branch in Naperville.
Employees did some work at the agency's Oswego headquarters that year and then tackled some yard work at the group home last year.
Such volunteer efforts help the agency focus its efforts on providing assistance for the boys at the seven-day, 24-hour facility that currently offers short-term housing for eight teens.
The youth are expected to do their share of chores, of course, but mostly they concentrate on attending classes in Naperville schools and receiving counseling.
"These kids are pretty (emotionally) beat up when they get to us," Lichter said. "There's a lot of therapy."
The cost of providing such services makes it difficult for NCO to afford things like a lawn service, she says, which is why the National City volunteers will be greeted with open arms -- and maybe a few rakes and Windex bottles.
"We're just very grateful," Lichter said. "Getting 30 people to give us three hours of their time is just invaluable."