A Look at 2022
from CEO Drew Glassford
While the pandemic’s direct impact on our communities lessened, many challenges remained for our staff, our kids, and their families. Inflation added significant financial stress, the isolation created significant behavior and socialization issues, anxiety became more widespread, academic loss increased, and the employment crisis created a greater workload for all of us.
I am so very proud of our team as we worked hard to improve our culture, support each other and our families, help provide our members with safe, meaningful and beneficial ways to heal, rebuild their self-confidence, re-establish friendships, and once again experience fun as a kid. We are so grateful for all you have done to make this possible, through your financial investment in our program, volunteering your time, or providing leadership for our organization. As 2022 draws to a close, we wanted to share a few highlights of what you made possible, and express our utmost gratitude for all you do for our kids and families who need us the most.
Annual Highlights
(stats based from April - November of the 2022 year)
Alumni Testimonial Series
In celebrating 25 years of impacting lives, we have some fantastic stories from previous Alumni to share. Learn about how Club helped these adults achieve a great future. We hope you enjoy their stories and how your investment in our youth does make a difference!
Check It Out Experience Series
Club members are provided many opportunities and experiences that enrich their future. BGCDT is about investing in our youth's lives so they may have a Bright Future ahead. This ongoing series dives into some of our programs or, as we call them, experiences.
As we look to return to a new normal, we understand that social and emotional learning is at the core of providing a high-quality youth development program, including key aspects of essential skills needed for success in school, career, and life. We are focusing on identifying and removing barriers to develop our member’s social and emotional skills to recover from the pandemic’s impact, and continue to prepare them to be positive and contributing members of our community.
Impact Center
Our High School Impact Center provides hands-on activities in STEM, culinary, creative arts, career pathways, summer jobs, and entrepreneurship. This year our members had a fantastic opportunity to develop their skills in customer service, communication, time management, and teamwork while working at the Brookfield Zoo.

Listen to what our members say about their experience at the Impact Center.
Summer Explorers
The Summer Explorers program offered members remedial academic programs combined with weekly themed adventures to help catch our kids up in math, reading, and most importantly - make learning fun! Members have a variety of opportunities to learn all about nature with hands-on activities through field trips.
New Club Sites - Expansion
(Jane Addams Club Site pictured)
(Algonquin Club Site pictured) (Winston Jr High Club Site pictured)
We are excited to celebrate our new Club site openings at four locations! This year we opened our Algonquin Site, which supports Algonquin Lakes and Eastview elementary, Algonquin Middle School, and two new sites in new territories. Both Winston Jr High and Jane Addams Elementary are located in Palatine. We are incredibly grateful and fortunate to have the opportunity to support and serve more youth in new communities. With your support, we are providing more opportunities to create amazing futures for our youth! We are so grateful for our donors and community partners for your support. None of this would be possible without you.
Warm regards,