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Beacon Place Backpack Program
Provides Food for the Weekend
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August 6th marked the end of the Beacon Place Lunch Program for the summer of 2015 and with its end came the final backpack distribution of fresh fruits and vegetables.
The Backpack Program ran for eight consecutive Thursdays and provided six nutritious meals each week fort each child to enjoy over the weekend. T
he backpacks were returned each Thursday and repacked for the weekend. With the program ended, the children may now use the backpacks for the upcoming school year.
Program Manager, Will Guilianelli, noted that this summer backpack distribution was very successful as proved by the following stats:
2,060 backpacks containing six meals each were distributed.
This totaled 12,360 meals to support families through the weekends.
More than 475 different children received at least one bag of food this summer.
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Summer Garden Program Grows in Popularity
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It
has
been a busy and productive growing season
at Beacon Green! Twenty students are enrolled in this popular program that meets twice a week and is designed for children in 4th through 6th grade.
Under the guidance of Program Manager Gene Sekel and volunteer Sara Baldwin, participants build
their knowledge and awareness of nutrition, gardening
and leadership. Teamwork is emphasized and students
create their own "Guiding Principles" regarding respect,
support and cooperation.
Gar
den activities include planting and maintaining their own garden, as well as learning about insects. Daily journal entries are an integral part of the process of observing and documenting activities in the garden. Cooking classes are held every Thursday using produce from the garden, such as herbs and tomatoes, that they have planted. Food items to date have been pizza, broccoli casserole, bruschetta, spaghetti and homemade brownies.
Each Monday of Beacon Green is Art Day, facilitated by a local art teacher. One popular project used watercolors to paint what was observed in the garden. Another was building a clay water reservoir for the butterflies.
Students have especially enjoyed several field trips. On July 11th, students boarded a science ship from Garden State University at Waukegan harbor for a three-hour excursion of the lake where they participated in water testing, soil/silt analysis and water depth testing.
Thanks to Susie Schrieber, head of the Waukegan Clean Harbor Association, for coordinating this excursion, as well as for teaching the students about pollutants and the effect they have on the lake. The students also visited Prairie Crossing Farm in Grayslake and Elawa Farm in Lake Forest.
The Beacon Green program will continue until all the vegetables have been harvested in XXXXX.
To learn more or to get involved,
email
admin@beacon-place.org
.
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The MOMS of Beacon Place!
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 The MOMS were very active this summer. While their children enjoyed the Beacon Lunch Bunch Program, the MOMS group, led by Program Manager Maria McQuire, engaged in their own activities, including presentations about nutrition, finance, school issues and safety.
The MOMS group, which has grown to over 35 regular participants, was instrumental in the success of the Beacon Place Walk-A-Thon. They made ribbons for the children and walked themselves, raising more than $400 for Beacon Place.
Speakers this su
mm
er included Gretchen Garza, who spoke about summer learning and how to help children prepare for the upcoming school year, and Karen Stevens, who provided important information on how to navigate "parent-teacher" school conferences.
The Waukegan Police Department also visited and the women shared some of their concerns about community and personal safely. Linda Meggs from Wintrust Mortgage provided important financial information for the ladies. Congressman Bob Dold visited the MOMS group and met families impacted by hunger.
To address the difficulty of accessing fresh produce, each Monday
Liberty Prairie Farms
visited the MOMS group and brought seasonal organic produce for the MOMS to purchase at a deeply discounted amount.
This summer's biggest activity was work done on sharing recipes for the new and upcoming Beacon Place MOMS Cookbook. The ladies enjoyed sharing their recipes and why they were meaningful to them.
Several brought in their "prepared" dishes for all to taste. The cookbook will be available for before Christmas. Special thanks to volunteer Susan Addelson for leading the cookbook project!
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Please support Beacon Place at the September 12th Long Grove Heritage 5k Run/3k Walk, sponsored by the Rotary Club of Long Grove, Kildeer and Hawthorn Woods!
We are thrilled to be one of the partner nonprofits for this event! The money we raise from your pledges and donations will help us provide after-school tutoring, computer skills training and healthy
m
eals to the children in our community. Your donation will make a big difference in their lives.
$25 Purchases school supplies for
one child for the sch
ool year
$50 Purchases a new school uniform with shoes for one year
$75 Purchases a new backpack
filled with food
for the summer
Spread the word and help us reach our goal of $2,000! Please ask friends, family, neighbors, classmates or work associates to support your Run/Walk efforts.
Ask them to:
- Register today and join as a participant in the Heritage Run/Walk for Beacon Place.
- Donate to Beacon Place and or to your personal fundraising page
- Post a link to our race page on Facebook: http://rotaryrace.org/charityHome/index.html?c=BEACON and ask your friends to share your post.
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We would like to thank all of our wonderful volunteers
who shared their time, energy and talents and made the Beacon Place summer programs such a success! More than 150 teens, 25 adults and 7 college interns showed up every Monday and Thursday, rain or shine, to volunteer their time, provide support, and serve as role models to the participants. We could not have fed and provided activities for 250+ kids every day without your invaluable help!! Our special thanks to Kammie French, Head of Campus Ministry at Carmel Catholic High School for selecting Beacon Place as their summer ministry program. Kammie coordinated a bus of wonderful teens from Carmel each Monday this summer!
In addition, special thanks this month to the Lake Forest High School JV Pom Pom Squad for getting everyone dancing, and to the
Julie Foudy Sports Leadership Academy
volunteers for their enthusiastic help on our last busy day of the summer!
 
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Check out the fresh face of Beacon Place on
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A Message from Barb,
Beacon Place Executive Director
Dear Friends,
WOW, what a summer it has been!!! Summer always seems to fly past while school waits patiently around the corner.
We have been very, very busy at Beacon Place with a variety of programs and opportunities for growth.
We delivered more than 12,360 meals through our backpack program. This program, in partnership with
Northern Illinois Food Bank
, has helped bridge the hunger gap for more than 475 different children who reside all over Lake County. We averaged more than 240 children per lunch session, so we served more than 3,600 lunches!
Congressman Bob Dold visited Beacon Place this summer, and we were able to discuss with him the need to consistently provide food for children in our community. Hunger in the summer is one of our most frustrating yet improvable problems that we have as a county. We, as a community, must not
allow any child in
Lake
County
to go hungry.
At Beacon Place, we support the Hunger Free Summer for Kids Act 2015 and ask others to reach out to their Congressmen and Senators to voice your support. Ensuring children have food to eat in the s
ummer must be a top priority and included in the Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act that is up for renewal in September.
Please cont
act your Senators Dick Durbin and Mark Kirk to support this bill and keep our children from being hungry.
The Honorable Dick Durbin
230 S. Dearborn St. #3892
Chicago, IL 60604
The Honorable Mark Kirk
230 S. Dearborn St. #3900
Chicago, IL 60604
My sincere thanks to all of you for your continued support.
Best,
Barb Karacic
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Beacon Place
603 S. McAlister
Waukegan, IL 60085
224-572-9330
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