Pictured above: Churchill classroom coordinator Stephanie Chavez is all smiles with her students!

With the generous support of the Glen Ellyn community, more than $88,000 was raised from individual donors this past fall through our Giving Tuesday and End-of-Year campaigns! These generous donations will help us support more than 300 students and 150 volunteer tutors this year! Thank you, GECRC community!

Looking ahead into 2025, GECRC is on track to serve more students in the after school programs than ever before. We are also planning to expand the GECRC Summer Program to welcome even more students! We couldn't do it without the care of our generous donors and tutors!

Winter Celebrations

Hadley Homework Club students painted ornaments and shared a little holiday cheer with some goodies to celebrate the winter season.

Churchill students celebrated the holidays with a hot cocoa party. There were plenty of smiles during that cozy and delicious celebration!

Glen Crest students had a fun and festive holiday celebration with a prize raffle and tasty treats. Big thank you to The Morton Arboretum for donating Illumination tickets, as well as everyone else who donated some fun prizes like art supplies, books and delicious treats!

Thank you so much to the Lincoln Elementary PTA for inviting our students to their Holiday Sharing event this year. The students were able to shop for holiday presents for family members with the help of their tutors. The students were beyond thrilled!

We are incredibly grateful to have a wonderful board of directors and amazing staff at GECRC! Many of us gathered at our office for an early holiday celebration!

More Fun at Program

Park View students worked on "parade float" crafts as an activity from the DuPage Children's Museum's Wonder Club. Students received a small cardboard box, wheels and a variety of art supplies to decorate it. Students worked in pairs or solo. There was so much creativity flowing at program that day!

We are so proud of our two young thespians at Lincoln who performed in the 5th grade drama club musical 'Matilda the Musical Jr.' last week! Lincoln program coordinator Cheryl Sammer and Lincoln program aide Patrick McDevitt enjoyed watching the students shine on the stage! Bravo to all students and parent volunteers who made such a delightful performance possible!

Love was in the air during Valentine's Day season! Churchill students had some creative fun with a Valentine's themed project. They wrote heart-shaped thank you notes to their volunteer tutors in appreciation for all of the time and love they bring to all of our students in the program!

Welcome, New Staff!

It is with deep sadness that we share the passing of GECRC board member Janis Pfister after a courageous battle with cancer. Janis’ legacy of kindness, generosity and unwavering optimism will continue to inspire all who knew her.

A passionate educator, Janis made a profound impact on the Glen Ellyn community, not only as a teacher, but also as a devoted GECRC board member and volunteer. She gracefully moved between individually tutoring students to bolstering our after school program tutoring methods with her years of experience. Her leadership extended to chairing our premier annual Literary Event fundraiser, where she demonstrated her dedication to GECRC's mission and the students we serve. Janis understood the importance of volunteering at all levels, and her contributions helped ensure that students received the care and support they truly deserve. Janis, you will be so missed, but your light and spirit will live on in the countless lives you touched.

Volunteer of the Month

We would like to introduce our February volunteer of the month, Abby Edwards! Abby is a senior at Glenbard South High School. When she is not volunteering at Park View Elementary, she has a part-time nannying job. She recently committed to Eastern Illinois University to study speech pathology and Spanish, and was also admitted to their graduate program, as well.

“I’ve been tutoring at GECRC for two years, and have mainly stayed with the same group of (now) second graders for the whole time,” Abby says. “The thing I love most about volunteering at GECRC is the relationships you form with the students. I love watching them succeed at things that they used to think were difficult.”

Abby adds, “Working with the kids has been a huge learning experience for me. I want to go into speech pathology and Spanish, and so I think it’s important that each student is completely unique in the way they learn, solve problems, and communicate. I’m incredibly lucky to have been given the opportunity to work with such kind, smart, and funny kids.”

We are so lucky to have such a kind, smart and dedicated volunteer like you, Abby! Congratulations, and thank you for being such a stellar volunteer!

Welcome to the Board of Directors

Please join GECRC in welcoming Jennifer Dietzler to its Board of Directors!

Jen is a bilingual English/Spanish speaker who majored in public policy and Spanish at Vanderbilt University before earning her Masters degree in social work from Loyola University Chicago. Between undergrad and graduate school, Jen taught for a year at a bilingual school in Honduras and then worked as a financial analyst in Latin American emerging markets at Fitch Ratings in Chicago. Jen moved to Glen Ellyn with her husband Chris who is originally from Glen Ellyn. They began raising their family here, which now includes four children who attend schools across D41 and D87.

Jen worked as bilingual school social worker at Wheaton Warrenville South High School before moving with her family to Fort Collins, Colorado in 2013 where they lived for nine years. While in Colorado, Jen worked for the nonprofit “Voices Carry” in their Safety Smarts sexual abuse prevention program, which focuses on educating elementary students on self advocacy. The Dietzler family moved back to Glen Ellyn three years ago.

Jen serves as co-chair of the D41 Outreach Committee, is a rep for the Holiday Sharing Program, and sits on the PTAC (parent teacher advisory committee) at Hadley. In her rare free time, she enjoys paddle tennis, running with the family’s chocolate Labrador retriever, golf, reading, and connecting with friends.

“I’m excited to join the GECRC board and help an organization that has such an amazing direct impact in our community: supporting kids' needs, building connections among community members, and promoting personal growth in young people… just all the things I believe in,” Jen says.

Welcome, Jen! GECRC is so thrilled to have you on our team!

We would like to thank Glenbard West Nation for their generous donation raised from their recent Dodgeball competition. We truly appreciate the tremendous community support!

A huge thank you to the Glenbard West freshman girls basketball team for the generous donation of art supplies, blankets and slippers, all fun items to keep our students warm and busy over winter break!

Rock the Block Winter Edition

Pictured Above: Musicians Courtnay Roberts and Chad Alcorn performing at Two Hound Red Brewing Co.

A tremendous thank you to Two Hound Red Brewing Co. for hosting another "bartending for tips" evening benefitting GECRC! We had such a fun evening pouring beers for tips and socializing with friends and supporters. And we can't thank all of the amazing musicians who donated their time and talent to making this a truly special evening enough! So much gratitude goes out to musicians Barry Dupuy, Chad Alcorn, Lance Billingsley, May Boury, Mike Burmeister, Matt Gasaway, and especially Courtnay Roberts, who organized all of the rehearsals and made this evening possible! Thank you so much, Courtnay! Everyone was absolutely blown away by the incredible performances. Thank you also to everyone who came out to support GECRC on such a cold night in the middle of the week...we are truly lucky to live in such a supportive community.

Buy Your Tickets: Literary Event 2025

Tickets are now on sale for our annual Literary Event on April 24 at Arrowhead Golf Club in Wheaton. We are delighted to welcome Catherine Newman, author of the New York Times' best selling novel 'Sandwich,' as our guest speaker!

Newman is also the author of 'We All Want Impossible Things'; the memoirs 'Waiting for Birdy' and 'Catastrophic Happiness'; the middle-grade novel 'One Mixed-Up Night'; and the bestselling kids’ life-skills books 'How to Be a Person' and 'What Can I Say?'

Tickets are $80 and can be purchased online now or in person at The Bookstore of Glen Ellyn at 475 N. Main St. 

The annual literary event is held in partnership with The Bookstore of Glen Ellyn with generous support from Glen Ellyn Bank & Trust. 

All proceeds will benefit GECRC. Don't delay - this popular event, held this year at Arrowhead Golf Club in Wheaton, is likely to sell out fast!

The Glenbard West Fashion Club is hosting their annual "Frosted in Fashion" fashion show at the Glen Ellyn Boathouse on Sunday, March 9. Tickets are on sale now, and a portion of the proceeds benefit GECRC! Please round up your friends and go; it's a fun-filled and fashionable morning!

We would like to invite all Book Clubs to put together a basket of goodies to be raffled off at GECRC’s Literary Event on Thursday, April 24 in a Battle of the Bookclubs! Sign up here.

WHAT DO YOU WIN:

You and your Book Club could win a private after hours party at The Bookstore Glen Ellyn. (Appetizers, drinks, and a 20% discount on purchases provided)

HOW TO WIN:

The most popular raffle basket will win as determined by the number

of raffle tickets submitted at the Literary Event.

Forms Due Friday, March 28, 2025

Delivery Deadlines: Friday, April 11, 2025

Have fun, be creative, and thank you for supporting GECRC!

Email communications@gecrc.com with any questions.

Thank you to the following organizations who recently donated to support our five after school programs, either financially through grants or donations, or through in-kind donations. We are very appreciative of your support of GECRC!

Grants:

The Evans Foundation

The DuPage Foundation

Faith Lutheran Church

First Congregational Church

Glen Ellyn Fashion Club

Two Hound Red Brewing Co.

In-Kind Donations:

Morton Arboretum

Kathleen Stodgell

Ellen Brannegan

Lynne Nakashima

Jessica Kugle

Anna Duffy

Tiffany Moscicki

Susie White

David Smud

Priya Dave

Theresa De Peralta

Lora Bak

Martha Foley

Laura Brillantes

Penny Linneweh

Amanda Vallejo

iValerie Walker

First Presbyterian Church (Kristen Symons)

Lissa Blake

Jennifer Dietzler

Erica Nelson

Jodi Herbold

Anonymous

Thank you so much to The Bookstore of Glen Ellyn for compiling a list of fiction books, non-fiction selections and graphic novels for all ages of students in honor of Black History Month. If you would like to purchase some of these wonderful titles for young students in your life, or to purchase them to donate to our GECRC program sites, please order from this curated list. If you would like to make a donation to GECRC, you can purchase books online or in the store and ask the store to set it aside for GECRC, and one of our program staff will pick them up. Thank you, and Happy Black History Month!

Short on time but looking for a way to give back at GECRC? We can always use fresh fruit and veggie donations for program snacks! If you would like to sign up to donate, please follow this link to create a username and password for our volunteer portal, and then pick a Monday to drop off at our office between 12:30pm and 2:30 pm. If that drop off time frame doesn't work for you, please e-mail us at volunteer@gecrc.com to arrange for a drop-off. Thank you!