Girl Scouts dedicate activity center

Girl Scouts -- Sybaquay Council held a dedication ceremony at its Mary Ann Beebe Center camp in Harvard to honor recent renovations to the activity center donated by Kimball Hill Homes, their trades partners, and other local businesses.

These gifts help to bring the activity center up to date and make it accessible to girls with physical disabilities. The building is now named The Kimball Hill Family Activity Center for Girls.

Representatives of the Kimball Hill family and Coleman Floor Company were present at the event.

A special plaque of appreciation was presented to Kimball Hill Homes by Deanna Harman, Girl Scout Cadette and Emissary.

Georgia Walter of the Kimball Hill family accepted the plaque. A building plaque was unveiled and a certificate of appreciation was presented to representatives of the Coleman Floor Company for their part in the renovations.

Other Kimball Hill Homes trades partners participating in the project included Anderson Lock, Bulldog Excavating, Direct Source, GE Appliances, Hallmark Cabinet Company, Midland Landscaping, Professional Plumbing, R & D Thiel, Ready Services, Residential Exteriors, SCE-Milgard Windows, Seigle's Millwork, Service Konstruction Supply, Service Drywall and T&H Electric. Contributions received from local businesses included those from Parrish Paving, Gavers Asphalt Paving aqnd Excavating, Excavating Concepts, Geske Asphalt, Meyer Materials and Wesley Crain.

Deanna Harman thanked the family and donor companies on behalf of all the girls of Sybaquay Council and related some of her Girl Scout memories of activities held at the center.

Kellyn Lawrence, council board chair, also recognized the contributions of the Kimball Hill family and all those who helped to make the Girl Scout's activity center accessible.

The individual responsible for spear-heading the renovation project for the activity center was Woodstock resident Laurie Crain, a Kimball Hill family member and Girl Scout volunteer with Sybaquay Council.

Crain has served Girl Scouts in many capacities from troop leader and troop service coordinator to service unit manager and day camp coordinator. It was while serving as a member of the council's Fund Development Committee that she got the idea for renovations. There has been a long tradition of Girl Scout involvement running through five generations of Crain's family. Her great grandmother, George Challoner, was a Girl Scout leader, followed by her grandmother, Elizabeth Hill, her mother, Georgia Walter, and then Laurie herself. Crain's three daughters Jennifer, Katy and Sara are currently Girl Scouts, as well as her nieces, and she has hopes that they, too, will continue the tradition of becoming Girl Scout volunteers.

The Mary Ann Beebe Center property in Harvard was purchased by Sybaquay Council in 1973; at that time it was named Shabbona Hills and served primarily as a rustic outdoor camping experience for girls. In the late 1970s, the activity center was built and girls began to use it in the winter months for indoor overnights and troop events. In 1990, the site was officially re-named the Mary Ann Beebe Center to honor Beebe's many years of service as executive director of the council.

Girl Scouts -- Sybaquay Council is headquartered in Elgin and serves more than 10,250 girls and nearly 3,000 adults in more than 50 communities throughout McHenry County and parts of Cook, DeKalb, DuPage, Lake, LaSalle and Kane counties.