Body. Mind. Spirit.
Since it began 90 years ago as a small cabin in the woods, The Center in Palos Park
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has had the same mission: to connect or reconnect people with the things that matter in life.Sprawled along 84 wooded acres, flecked by snow-covered branches in winter and dotted with wildflowers in summer, the complex is home to a farm, a chapel, a series of gathering spaces and a residential treatment program.
Whatever they seek, people who come to The Center are likely to find it — an afternoon of outdoor fun, a quiet moment of mindfulness or a second chance at life.
They can hold baby ducks and pet grown pigs while touring the Children’s Farm. Inside the lodge across the street, they can craft, paint or join a luncheon discussion. And if they follow the path to the quaint, stone Wayside Chapel, they can attend a prayer service.
And amongst it all, Pathway to Sobriety, the program that helps addicts recover and the engine that drives the mission, is ongoing.
Dave Sanders is the current executive director charged with carrying on the mission his grandfather started and to which his father devoted a lifetime.
In the November newsletter, Sanders wrote: “We celebrate all people who have found enrichment and growth in their lives here. This is a wonderful community of support and care for all to share and partake in — from the young and old rediscovering the wonder of God’s magnificent creation of natural beauty that surrounds us every day, to those who long to find new purpose in life, to those laboring along the path to recovery from addiction and hopelessness, to the weary seeking friendship, healing, encouragement and support. The Center has always embraced all people from all walks of life. That is our foundation. That is why we exist.”
In 1932, while the Great Depression raged, Paul “Sandy” Sanders and his wife, Elizabeth, approached a local farmer about acquiring a small portion of land so he could open a community center, said Mark Walker, The Center’s development director.
A local minister, Sandy envisioned a place where everybody could come and feel welcome. At first, Ernest Warner was skeptical about donating his land for such an unusual cause.
“But after he got to know Sandy, he decided to give about nine acres. Later, when he saw what the couple did with it, he gave more land,” Walker said. In all, Warner donated 84 acres to help Sanders complete the dream.
The complex began as a humble Girl Scout camp. Sandy and some volunteers moved the cabin from what is now forest preserve area to its current location next to the lodge’s parlor, Walker said.
Money was tight so they took frugal cost-saving measures, such as removing the nails, straightening them and reusing them, Walker said.
Sandy’s main goal, Walker said, was to start a nondenominational vesper service open to the public.
“He wanted people to go to their regular church on Sunday mornings and then come for a vesper service at the center in the afternoon,” Walker said.
That weekly prayer service, Walker said, continues to this day, as does the substance-abuse recovery program that predates Alcoholics Anonymous.
“The very first handyman hired on at The Center had a drinking problem,” Walker said. “Sandy helped him with it and, ever since, in one form or another, The Center has been helping alcoholics rehabilitate.”
Pathway to Sobriety has had a 55% to 60% success rate over the past 40 years, something Walker said “is really high for a residential treatment program.”
He attributes the success to the program’s “small-batch” approach. It takes only 15 men at a time in Phase I. The participants are vetted and hand-picked to ensure they have not had any violent or child-related brushes with the law, he said.
Because The Center does not accept insurance for payment and does not receive federal or state funding, it can choose the recovery program participants, Walker said.
Those in treatment do not, and cannot, pay for the program. In return for their counseling and room and board, they work on the grounds of the facility.
The benefit is reciprocal, he said. Not only does the give-and-take make the participants feel vested in their own progress, they’re vested in The Center.
Each Pathway participant gets one-on-one counseling every week as well as group counseling twice a week. And they can stay up to a year, if needed, Walker said.
“That limits the number of participants we can accommodate,” he said. “I wish we could take women but we just don’t have the room.”
The Center also offers six nonresidential 12-step programs, including one for women, each week.
“I don’t know of a program like it anywhere,” Walker said. “There are all kinds of advantages to (the way Pathway works): from the instant you’re accepted, you’re thrown into work that’s meaningful. You’re helping The Center run. The work is directly related to your recovery so you’re helping to run the recovery program.”
Duties include building maintenance, groundskeeping, kitchen chores and tending to the animals on the farm.
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The combination of tending to both mind and body seems to work, he said.
Walker said The Center’s $2.2 million budget relies heavily on community support and is balanced annually. “It’s in our charter that we not take on debt or encumber the land in any way,” he said.
About a third of the budget comes from donations, he said.
“People believe in us,” he said. They also take in money from events such as the annual fall festival.
“We depend on about 300 volunteers each year. About 170 people came and helped at our rummage sale,” he said.
“Volunteers help in the office, the art center and especially on the farm, which is labor intensive. They drive tractors, give farm tours and explain animal behavior to visitors,” Walker said.
Not only do they believe in the cause, he said, they seem to appreciate how increasingly rare it is to have a working farm in Cook County.
Attendance quadrupled during the height of the COVID pandemic, Walker said. And staff is expecting a big turnout for their annual Christmas events, which include yule log ceremonies, live nativities and Christmas Eve vesper services for both adults and children.
“We offer wholesome outdoor activities, the kind that are disappearing near Chicago. People seem to want that connection to nature and the outdoors, to simple, wholesome activities,” he said.
“There’s nothing high-tech,” Walker said. “We’ve been doing the same kind of thing for 90 years. But people are really responding well to it. They still love it.”
Donna Vickroy is an award-winning reporter, editor and columnist who worked for the Daily Southtown for 38 years.