Dupage Policy Journal

At its Dec. 5 meeting,  Batavia City Council heard from two charity drives in the city.

Brittany Bailey-Cole from the Batavia Toy Drive spoke to the board about its efforts this year. She told the board that the group had around 120 families that it was expecting to help out this year, if not more. The biggest category of need was teens, as it typically is every year. 

The Toy Drive supports kids up to age 17 so some things for older kids were still needed.

Bailey-Cole explained the kids that the group helps will get a small toy, a big toy, a hat and gloves, a book, puzzle and game. The group also distributes sporting goods supplies to families. The families will be able to pick up the preselected items for their family that volunteers have “shopped” for based on the wants/needs of the kids.

“You guys are kind of the backbone of this whole thing,” Mayor Jeffrey Schielke said. “I can't help but tell you. I sit here and watch you give this report and I think about what your Grandma Bailey and I would be saying and thinking she'd have the biggest smile on her face that you can ever imagine, because, as you know, she was the backbone of this thing back in the days when they really had to stretch an occasion to get enough toys and whatever. So she really put her heart and soul into it, and I guess she just handed it off to the family. And you guys have carried on a great tradition. So your parents and yourself and your husband and everybody that surrounds you. You all deserve a great degree of thanks because as I said in the opening, this is the 72nd year that the toy drive has been put on through different means. But we've provided toys to needy children in Batavia since 1950. And I don't know many other towns around here that can boast that, but I think it speaks to the spirit of Batavia and the giving and the support of each other and our appreciation for children that this town holds very near and dear to their heart. So thank you for all you are doing.”

Batavia also supports the United Way Adopt a Family program. Kathy Evangelista is the new executive director of the organization and she spoke to city council about the program, which is in collaboration with Batavia Public Schools. Evangelista explained the school district identifies families that could use some additional holiday support and facilitates sending a wish list to the United Way. The sponsors then receive the wish list and shop for the family that they have “adopted.” The drive is supported by a host of neighborhoods, churches, schools, and companies in the area.

In other action, council voted in favor of extending the city’s fire department’s firefighter eligibility list to Dec. 3, 2023.

Council member Sarah Vogelsinger was absent from the meeting.

The council will meet again for the last time in 2022 on Dec. 19 at 7:30 p.m. at 100 North Island Ave.