Lockport resident Al Bean helps organize donations of clothes, toys and sports equipment. Patty Daw of Homer Township has spent days sorting, mending and washing donated clothing. And Homer Township’s Jerry LaPointe regularly stops by to offer his skills as a handyman.
These three and many others are volunteering their services to SOS Children’s Village in Lockport, a community that seeks to provide a loving and secure environment for orphaned, abandoned or abused children.
While there are 325 SOS Children’s Villages serving more than 180,000 children in 124 countries throughout the world, the $5 million village in Lockport is only the second such community in the United States. The independent organization started in Austria in 1949, in part to aid war orphans.
Built in 1992 and 1993, “the Village,” as it’s known to volunteers, includes 10 four-bedroom homes, an activity center and a barn housing the community’s maintenance facilities.
“SOS Children’s Village is a licensed child welfare agency with agency-owned foster homes in a village setting,” said Village director Bill Mathis. “The 10 homes here are each equipped to house as many as six children. We keep siblings together and for each home hire a `parent,’ who makes a 15- to 20-year full-time commitment to raise the children to adulthood. We’ve found through research and experience that a single parent can make the long-term commitment better than can a couple–although we do consider couples.” The “parents” come from all over the country.
Unlike a group home, where as many as 10 children may be cared for by a rotating staff of child care workers, SOS Children’s Village attempts to replicate as nearly as possible a family environment. For example, the parent in each home maintains a budget for the household, and each household plans its own meals and recreational activities. The first family of five children moved into the Village in May of last year; currently there are four homes functioning, with a total of 18 children and four “parents.” Plans are for a fifth home to be opened later in June.
The children, who range in age from 18 months to 12 years, are all from Cook County and the surrounding area, some placed through the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services and others through private guardians. The goals of the Village are ambitious, but its newsletter acknowledges that the vision is far greater than the resources. That’s where volunteers like Bean, Daw and LaPointe come in.
“Our philosophy on volunteerism is this: We try to involve parents, kids and employees of SOS in the community and vice versa,” Mathis said.
As an example of community participation, he cited a volunteer work day held in the fall, when more than 75 Lockport area residents pitched in to build picnic tables, wash windows, plant trees and shrubs, and perform other chores around the 50-acre grounds of the Village. For many of those volunteers, the event was a one-time gift of their services. But for others, working on the Village’s behalf has been a continuing experience.
Bean retired two years ago as chairman of the guidance department at Lockport Township High School. He was appointed one of the five original members of the Community Advisory Board, the liaison between Lockport and the Village, by Lockport Mayor Dick Dystrup in 1993. The board since has grown to 19 members.
Bean does a lot more than simply sit on the board. He and other volunteers have taken on the task of gathering donated toys, clothes, games and books for the children of the Village. Bean appealed for donations of winter season sporting goods on a Joliet radio show in the fall, and his enthusiasm for the cause led his daughter, Milne Grove Elementary School teacher Sidney Minnick, to lead a drive for donations at her school. The result has been an outpouring of generosity from area residents, who have given games, books, videos, highchairs, car seats, playpens, baby swings, ice skates and sleds to the cause.
Meanwhile, Bean’s wife, Barbara, has been a frequent volunteer at the Village, taking care of children while the “parents” attend weekly staff meetings.
“It makes me feel good,” Bean said of his volunteering efforts. “I’m really glad I got involved. It’s a tremendous facility, and anything I can do to help those kids, I’ll do.”
That includes working to raise funds for his ultimate goal: the building of a playground at the Village. An April fundraiser added $2,500 to the cause, augmented by a $30,000 grant from Ronald McDonald Charities and local McDonald’s franchise owners, according to Mathis. The goal is to raise $65,000 for the playground.
Daw, a special education teacher at Butterfly Garden Learning School in Homer Township, has been a member of the Community Advisory Board since January 1994. She spent much of last summer in the basement storage room of the Village activity center, sorting through boxes of donated children’s clothing.
“It was hours and hours and days and days,” Daw said. “I recruited neighbors and members of my family to help out. We washed and mended a lot of clothes and gave the rest to Amvets. The clothes we kept were picked out by the families prior to the start of school in the fall. We even had Halloween costumes for the kids.”
Daw, who was the advisory board member in charge of organizing the spring fundraiser, said she intends to be a long-term Village volunteer and hopes others in the community consider joining her.
Few volunteers have interacted more closely with Village parents and children than Jerry LaPointe, a Homer Township insurance agent who last year founded a Cub Scout pack that includes 12 boys from nearby neighborhoods and two from the Village.
“He’s also gotten involved with one particular family ,” Mathis said. “The kids really like him. He’ll come over to the house on a regular basis and ask the parent, `What kinds of handyman jobs do you need done?’ “
LaPointe said people volunteering at the Village need no special abilities. “If there are people out there who have any concerns about how they can help, they shouldn’t worry,” he said. “If they’ve ever enjoyed being around kids, they have all the skills they need.”
Mathis encourages those who are interested in volunteering to contact him or Delores Miller, program coordinator, at 815-740-7280.
“We’re in a slow process of putting together volunteer programs in tutoring and recreation,” he said. “And if a group wants to volunteer on a project–from painting a home basement to planting flowers and landscaping–we’ll welcome that.”
