Doors open on new Boys & Girls Club’s impact center in Carpentersville

The Boys & Girls Club of the Northwest Suburbs officially opened its teen impact center Thursday, announcing it would be named for the family foundation whose donation helped them meet the building’s $13.2 million fundraising goal.

The Foglia Woodlands Impact Center at 770 Navajo Drive in Carpentersville is not only the 17th teen center opened by the national nonprofit organization but the largest in the country, according to the club’s Chief Executive Director Amanda Schleede.

At 41,000 square feet, the building includes, among other things, a technology lab in which members can learn to code, build and fly drones, a recording studio, a café run as a business by club members, and a kitchen run by a professional chef teaching members culinary arts.

There’s also space where members can use a virtual reality program to learn how to drive a forklift or do something fun, like tour Australia, said Mike Berger, senior director of safety and facilities.

The donation from the Foglia Family Foundation put the club over its fundraising goal, but Schleede also used Thursday’s ribbon-cutting event to thank all of those who helped bring the project to fruition, including community partners like Community Unit Community Unit District 300 and Barrington School District 220 as well as community leaders and club staff.

Addressing the Boys & Girls Club members, who wore T-shirts that read “I Can Change the World,” Schleede emphasized, “this was always about you.”

“Thank you for your patience, your excitement, and for reminding us all why we do this work,” she said. “This is not just a ribbon-cutting. This is a finish line of a journey that started with a vision. It’s a starting line for thousands of kids who are going to walk through these doors for years to come.”

Berger, known by some as “employee number one” because he was there when the club’s first clubhouse in Carpentersville opened in 1996, said he was in awe of what the new building offers.

“Just to think we came from a 1,200-square-foot ‘casa verde,’ the greenhouse as the kids called it, with just me and one part-time staffer serving 100 kids,” he said. “Now, here we are in this 41,000-square-foot facility enabling kids to take the next step in their lives.” he said.

Calling the building is “the carrot,” Berger said it lures youths inside, where staff can build relationships to help guide them through their teenage years and beyond, he said. It’s not a “babysitting service. This is youth development. We’re developing young people to be the best they can be,” he said.

“It’s great to come here and work for a mission,” something “takes a whole community. We can’t do this by ourselves,” Berger said.

The culinary arts program is already one of the club’s most popular, officials said.

At one of the activities presented Thursday, Kayla Johnson, 15, who joined when Foglia Woodlands on the first day of school, and Allison Morales, 15, a club member since third grade, were learning to make dumplings under the guidance of Chef Maria Terry, who formerly owned Bleuroot Restaurant in West Dundee.

The kitchen has several stations complete with a television set where they can watch Terry during cooking demonstrations.

Johnson wants to be a chef and Morales has ambitions to open a restaurant, so the program is a good fit for both of them, they said.

Club members have been learning to prepare different dishes, and made granola bars to distribute to local firefighters in commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Johnson said.

Lorraine Orr, executive vice president and chief operations officer of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, flew in from Atlanta to attend the opening event. It’s been the organization’s longstanding mission that every young person who walks through their doors graduates from high school on time and with a plan for their future, she said.

“This investment, this center, this day is about a specific group of young people who deserve our full and undivided attention … the teenagers of this community,” Orr said.

Teens need a space where they can go to have fun, be with friends and be themselves for their mental health and social and emotional development, she said. Preteen and teen years are some of the most vital in terms of cognitive and emotional development, and those who run the clubs must ensure they can meet the needs specific to those age groups, she said.

“This is an amazing day,” Orr said. “What today tells me is that you all see them, and you understand what they need to learn and grow.”

Gloria Casas is a freelance reporter for The (Elgin) Courier-News.