Marklund receives large donation

The Foglia Family Foundation has pledged the largest individual gift in Marklund’s history.

It is giving $540,000 to Marklund’s aquatic therapy program.

The pledge will be paid over three years to the agency, which serves adults and children with profound developmental and physical disabilities. Marklund has residential and outpatient facilities in Geneva and Bloomingdale.

With the money, Marklund will be able to provide about three times as much therapy time in the pool as it does now, according to Gilbert Fonger, president and chief executive officer of Marklund.

The pool is on the Geneva campus. Therapy is paid for by private donations since the service is not reimbursed by the state.

Marklund plans to partner with a university to document the effects of aquatic therapy on people with developmental disabilities.

“An aquatic therapy program this extensive is rare, and we are very excited about what this is going to do for our clients and for how the research will benefit all those individuals with developmental disabilities,” Fonger said in a prepared statement.

The Foglia Family Foundation has donated more than $21 million to 30 agencies that serve families and children, as well as medical facilities and educational institutions. The Foglia Family YMCA in Lake Zurich is named after the family. It gave more than $3.5 million to that YMCA when Fonger was its executive director.

Vincent and Patricia Foglia live in North Barrington. Foglia is the co-founder of Sage Products Inc. of Crystal Lake, a medical-care supplies business.