Glen Ellyn charities vie for Pepsi money

In a tough economy, it can be difficult for charitable organizations to get people to donate money.

But two Glen Ellyn organizations that help low-income families are taking their efforts national.

After reading about the Pepsi Refresh Project in The Wall Street Journal, Supplies 4 Success founder Karen Evans contacted the Glen Ellyn Children's Resource Center and each group came up with an idea that was ultimately accepted for Pepsi's national contest.

The ideas are the subject of voting through the end of June on the Pepsi Refresh website at www.refresheverything.com, with the top finishers receiving much-needed grant money. Registration is required to participate and voters can vote for 10 projects each day.

If voters push Supplies 4 Success into the top 10, it would be eligible to receive a $5,000 grant from Pepsi for its idea to provide 250 low-income students with backpacks and supply kits for the new school year. As of 3 p.m. Thursday, the supplies idea ranked No. 23 in the nation in the $5,000 grant category.

"Charities now have to find creative ways to raise money as people just don't have as much disposable money," Evans said.

The Pepsi project has four funding levels available, including a $50,000 mark the children's resource center is vying for.

The resource center operates an after-school tutoring program for low-income students four days a week out of Lincoln Elementary School in Glen Ellyn. Officials hope to expand that and serve more than the 100 families they currently serve. The Pepsi grant could help make that happen,

"Our main focus is literacy and life skills for these kids," said community awareness coordinator MaryBeth Sackett. "The majority are refugees where English is not their first language. They're behind from the get-go."

Sackett said the timing might be bad for the project because word-of-mouth campaigns probably would be more effective during the school year. Her group's entry hovered around No. 100 on Thursday.

The group's idea would establish a second center at Parkview Elementary School, 250 S. Park Blvd. The existing center runs on a $150,000 annual budget and relies on donations and grants to operate. But the center falls into a financial dilemma: it's not large enough to qualify for bigger grants but it can't afford to serve more families without additional money.

Sackett said the Pepsi project could help alleviate that "Catch-22."

"It would broaden the base," she said. "Right now, we're in Lincoln and are pretty well-known around Lincoln. If you expand, you get that whole other side of Glen Ellyn. It could just get the whole ball rolling."