A Story of Impact …
WiFi and COVID-19 Relief for B.A.C.E.

 B.A.C.E. is a before and after school program for Morton students whose parents start work before the school day starts and/or whose work schedule doesn't allow them to pick up their children when school is out.  Like so many of our local non-profit organizations, had a problem.  They didn't have a useable WiFi system, making it virtually impossible to help their kids with their homework, especially when so much of the homework is assigned online.  In addition, the mitigations for running their programs during this COVID-19 pandemic has put a major squeeze on their budget.

Because of generous donors to the Morton Community Foundation, B.A.C.E. was able to get some much needed relief by applying for grants from the MCF.  Read the following letter received by the MCF from the CEO and Founder of B.A.C.E., Gayle Westbrook...

To whom it may concern,

I wanted to start off by expressing our thankfulness for all that the Morton Community Foundation has done for our B.A.C.E program. We are extremely grateful for the Spring Competitive Grant of $2,800 to install Wi-Fi for our over 150 kids daily, and for the grant we received for COVID relief.  The Wi-Fi system was also installed at no charge through the generosity of Mike Kaluza of Synergetic Technologies as a part of his project for the Morton Chamber of Commerce’s Leadership Morton program.

The grant we received for Wi-Fi equipment to be installed for our B.A.C.E children has helped us tremendously this year. Without having Wi-Fi in previous years, the kids were unable to do their homework here at B.A.C.E during our designated homework time. Now, we are able to help children finish their homework here and not have to worry about doing it at home, requiring assistance from their parents. Our goal at B.A.C.E is to make sure the kids get all of their homework done at B.A.C.E so they don’t have to go home and add stress to an already stressful life. All of the children get a majority of their homework on their iPads this year. If we did not have the Wi-Fi this year, all of our children would not be able to complete any of their homework. We are extremely grateful for this simple, but valuable, contribution to our program to help our children and parents.

COVID-19 has hit the community, our program, and our B.A.C.E parents relentlessly. We were incredibly appreciative to have been chosen to receive a Morton Community Foundation  Disaster Relief COVID-19 grant. With this grant, we were able to purchase supplies to help with social distancing and keep everyone healthy. We were able to purchase new picnic tables to help the children socially distance during snack, devotions, and homework time. This virus also required us to be proactive in sanitizing everything more frequently, requiring more hand sanitizer and sanitation wipes. With the help of this $8,433 grant, we were also able to help our parents that receive scholarships by giving them gift cards to purchase necessities. The children are having to adjust to wearing masks at all times. This poses as an issue when families are not able to afford masks and/or the child breaks the mask. We have been able to purchase extra children masks just in case to continue keeping everyone safe and healthy.

Thanks to the Morton Community Foundation, we have been able to provide help with homework and adjustment due to the pandemic. Without the financial assistance from the MCF, we wouldn’t have been able to provide the assistance nor have the ability to assist and tutor children with their schoolwork. We appreciate the MCF and all they have done to help B.A.C.E and the community as a whole.

Blessings,
Gayle L. Westbrook
CEO/Founder
B.A.C.E