U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi joked Friday that he was glad to hand over $2 million to the Boys & Girls Club of Dundee Township because the ceremonial check was taking up too much space in his wallet.
Club officials were more than happy to take that giant prop off his hands since it represents the money they’ll be using for their new Woodlands Impact Center in Carpentersville.
Krishnamoorthi, D-Schaumburg, helped secure the federal funding for the organization’s newest venture, which will provide a place where 300 children can go after school to participate in educational programs for things like life skills and STEM training.
“I’m so honored to be able to help,” Krishnamoorthi said. “I can’t wait to see them after this program and what they are going to do.”
The Friday presentation attended by Krishnamoorthi and other dignitaries was held at the club’s High School Impact Center on the Perry Elementary School campus in Carpentersville. The new funds will be used for a similar center using the former Woodlands Elementary School at 770 Navajo Drive.
Drew Glassford, Boys & Girls Club of Dundee Township CEO, said the club has 2,000 members in the six communities it serves, 90% of whom live below the poverty level and 92% of whom are minorities.
Members attend nine elementary schools, three middle schools and one high school, Glassford said. The Woodlands center will serve students who attend Sunny Hill Elementary School, he said.
The club had been trying to raise money to pay for Woodlands first phase but were struggling when they decided to send a contingent to Washington, D.C., to request $250,000 in federal funding for the project.
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Krishnamoorthi met with club officials last March and came out to meet with club members in person this past summer, he said.
“It’s always the highlight of my day to meet young people,” the congressman said. “They are the most energetic, enthusiastic, candid and honest people you’re going to meet.”
They were the reason Krishnamoorthi decided to seek far more money than the group had been requested, he said.
“It was their spark. They were just so excited and enthusiastic about the STEM field. I wanted to make sure they could realize their potential,” he said. “I decided to make it my mission to get some resources. … I decided we needed to go all out. So that’s what we did, and we did it in a bipartisan way.”
Thanks to the funding, the club will be able to close on its purchase of the Woodlands property next week, Glassford said.
Like the center at Perry, Woodlands will work with underserved middle and high school students so they have access to academic support, mentoring, counseling services and career pathway programs, especially in STEM-related fields, Glassford said.
STEM — science, technology, engineering and mathematics — skills are the future of our country, Krishnamoorthi said. Artificial intelligence, quantum computers and robotics depend on today’s children being educated in STEM, he said.
“We want to be innovators,” he said. “As Steve Jobs liked to say, ‘Innovation is the difference between being a leader and a follower.’ We intend to be leaders, as a country and as a people.”
Gloria Casas is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.