Westmont Residents Support Boys & Girls Club at Recent Gala that Raised over $200,000

More than $200,000 was raised by the Union League Boys & Girls Clubs at its 35th Annual Gala in the Union League Club of Chicago on November 3, 2012. In attendance were Michael and Michele Sullivan, residents of Westmont. Michael Sullivan is president of the Union League Boys & Girls Clubs. 

“The Union League Boys & Girls Clubs provides positive alternatives to help thousands of Chicago’s young people become responsible citizens by opening doors to their future,” said Mary Ann Mahon Huels, Executive Director of the Union League Boys & Girls Clubs.

Proceeds from the Gala will help change lives and strengthen the core program areas of Academic Success, Good Character and Citizenship and Healthy Lifestyles offered at six Union League Boys & Girls Club locations in Pilsen, West Town and Humboldt Park communities in Chicago and the Camp in Salem, Wisconsin.

“Over the past 35 years, the Gala has raised more than $3 million dollars and benefited over 250,000 of Chicago’s youths,” said Michael L. Sullivan, president of the Union League Boys & Girls Clubs and a resident of Westmont, IL.

“Through the continued support of benefactors, we’re also able to provide annually more than 60,000 hot meals and nutritious snacks to our Club members, expand the Union League Boys & Girls Clubs partnership with the USO and update the Club’s technology centers.

“In addition, every year nearly 1,000 Club members have an opportunity to spend a week at the Union League Boys & Girls Club’s 250- acre summer camp in Salem, Wisconsin where they experience an environment free from drugs and the pressure of gangs and violence,” added Sullivan.

The 35th Annual Benefit & Gala, “Opening the Door” was chaired by Michael and Gail Kiss of Deerfield, IL who led a dedicated committee to organize both a silent and a live auction. Robin Baumgarten, of WGN-TV Morning News, emceed the event where over 250 guests enjoyed an elegant evening at the Union League Club of Chicago, dined on a gourmet seasonally inspired four-course meal and danced to the sounds of Al Sophia Orchestra.

“Annually over 11,000 kids in Chicago’s inner city enjoy academic, arts and athletic after school programs in our Clubs,” said Mary Ann Mahon-Huels, Executive Director. “The Union League Boys & Girls Clubs are credited by law enforcement, educators and community leaders with reducing crime rates, increasing reading scores and scholarship, and improving the quality of life for these young people.”

This past July, the Union League Boys & Girls Club One, located in the Pilsen community, celebrated the completion of phase one of a planned $4.2 million construction project that added 18,000 square feet to the original Clubhouse building, a former saloon built in the late 1880s, which has housed Club One since 1920.

For 93 years, the Union League Boys & Girls Clubs have served thousands of children in six well-equipped, professionally staffed inner city Chicago clubs in the Pilsen, West Town and Humboldt Park communities. The organization also staffs and manages its own 250-acre summer camp in southern Wisconsin where youths from Chicago’s inner city spend weeks in an environment free from drugs, gangs and violence.