FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 29, 2020
Naperville, IL – The Alive Center, Naperville and Aurora’s teen center, is excited to celebrate its fifth year of operation in May! Throughout the month of May, 2020, Alive is running a “Give $5 for Alive” fundraising campaign to help fund activities, tutoring, mentoring, STEM programs and more, which are FREE to local teens.
In 2015, Alive opened its doors to the Naperville community and its teens. Since then, Alive has provided over 10,000 teens the chance to discover their purpose by helping them explore their passions! “The Alive Center has made me feel capable of doing whatever I want and now I have found the motivation to perpetually reach for more. Sometimes I have failed, but the Alive Center teaches resiliency. Without Alive, I don’t think I would have the confidence and determination that I do today,“ said Brianna Bukowski, a student at Naperville North High School. While the three physical centers: Alive Naperville, Alive @ Fry located inside the Fry Family YMCA and Alive @ Eola located inside the Eola Library remain closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Alive has taken their programs online and adapted them to provide virtual opportunities for teens to connect and learn each weekday at 3pm.
The goal of the “Give 5 for Alive” is to celebrate Alive’s 5 years in Naperville and Aurora and raise $10,000 to help the Alive Center empower teens for another 5 years! Alive CEO Kandice Henning said, “In 5 years we have grown from 1 location to 3 locations, from 0 to 47 Teen-Led, Teen-Driven programs and from 500 to 10,800 teen visits a year!” More importantly Henning says, the Alive Center is impacting lives by growing leaders of the future, helping kids to reduce stress by giving them a place to belong, and so much more! From a Robotics STEM club, a Hip-Hop Empowerment Class, learning to prepare a healthy meal, creating a podcast or simply making a new friend, these donations support local teens in many different ways!
Beginning Friday, May 1, the campaign will launch on GiveGab, a nonprofit giving platform. There are three donation levels: $5, $55, or $555, a play on the 5 year celebration. Every $5 donation to Alive will sponsor one teen to participate in an Alive after school Drop-In program or club. Every $55 donation funds snacks and supplies for all three Alive locations for a single day. And, for $555, 25 teens can attend a Teen-Led camp or club in Art, STEM or Wellness! A custom dollar amount and recurring donations can be entered as well.
Donors can support the Alive Center throughout May by going to https://www.givegab.com/campaigns/give-5-for-alive
If you would like to learn more about Alive, please contact Kandice Henning at 630.802.2547 or Kandice@alivecenter.org.
Centrally located in north Naperville, the Alive Center provides teens with a unique place to connect, discover and come alive! Our mission is to be a Teen-Led, Teen-Driven© (TLTD) center focused on empowering the youth of today to become the impassioned, resilient leaders of tomorrow. As a nonprofit organization Alive offers free drop-in hours after school and over the summer as well as a myriad of programs, classes and events, designed to build confident and resilient teens.
On any given day at Alive one will find teen-led tutoring, mentoring and clubs as well as life skill classes such as unstructured art and dance, nutrition and healthy cooking, stress management, open music venues, creative writing and just plain fun! Alive is a place to belong and learn important life skills. Alive’s paid programming and facility rentals help fully utilize the space while allowing the community to support our local teens.