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MISSION | 
The mission of the Dunham Fund is to honor the legacy of
John C. Dunham.
In that spirit, the Fund supports organizations that work to make the world a more comfortable, safer place for mankind to live and prosper, giving special consideration to Aurora-area organizations engaged in providing education and to organizations engaged in assisting individuals to attain heights they may not have attained without the benefit of such assistance.
From the John C. Dunham
Declaration of Trust
1995
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Dunham Fund supports new home for
A $500,000 Dunham Fund grant will support the construction of a 47,000 square foot facility on the current Wayside Cross Ministries property on East New York Street in Aurora. Two of the current 100 year old WCM buildings will be demolished to accommodate the new four-story facility, which will include the second-floor Dunham Educational Center. The organization has raised $4.5 million to date of a $7.9 million Bridge to Life campaign goal from other funding sources and anticipates receiving an additional $1 million dollars in 2013. Building will commence in mid-summer 2013 as WCM reaches its $5.5 million threshold for construction.
From its timely beginnings in 1928 as a rescue mission for transient men, Wayside Cross has developed transitional ministries for men, women and their children, at-risk youth, the incarcerated, and ex-offenders. Current programs include Master's Touch men's residential life transformation program, Lifespring women's residential program, Hope Outreach, Elgin Wayside Center day facility and support program, the DuPage Initiative for the homeless in DuPage County, New Life Corrections for youth and adult offenders in Illinois prisons and Urban Youth Ministry for Aurora's youth in at-risk areas and circumstances.
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Aurora's RiverEdge Park and
John C. Dunham Pavilion Dedicated . . .
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Dunham Fund Board and staff join Aurora Mayor Thomas Weisner at the John C. Dunham Pavilion in dedicating RiverEdge Park. (Left to right): Michael Morcos, Randi Ochsenschlager, Vicki Morcos, Robert Vaughan, Christine Tunney, Stewart Beach, Mayor Thomas Weisner, Hilary Brennan, Wendy Hirsch, Janet Morcos, and Mark Truemper.
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On June 7, 2013, Aurora Mayor Thomas Weisner dedicated the City of Aurora's RiverEdge Park on the banks of the Fox River. A $2 million Dunham Fund grant named the John C. Dunham Pavilion, the entertainment venue that is an integral part of the Music Garden phase of the RiverEdge Park and Nature Conservancy project conceived by the City of Aurora to enhance the quality of downtown community and commercial life and to revitalize the environment along the banks of the Fox River.
Another $125,000 grant to the Paramount Theatre provided the Season Sponsorship by the Dunham Fund of all City of Aurora-sponsored performances for RiverEdge Park's inaugural season, from June through September 2013. An additional $105,000 grant was awarded to engage Idina Menzel, a Tony Award winning performer in "Wicked", who will appear with full orchestra in the Dunham Pavilion on July 19, 2013. This grant will provide limited free general admission to the performance and the Fund has been given exclusive rights to the Park's rooftop seating for this event.
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VNA Health Care breaks ground for new Aurora Health Care Center
On June 5th, VNA Health Care broke ground for a second Federally Qualified Health Care Center (FQHC) on Farnsworth Avenue on Aurora's east side. Phase I construction will be completed in late autumn 2013 and will house a minimum of twenty exam rooms in 11,000 square feet. In its first year of operations, this facility is conservatively estimated to provide 13,500 new health exams to low-income men, women and children facing barriers to affordable health care in Kane County.
The Dunham Fund will support this program expansion with a $250,000 challenge grant, matching $1 for every $2 of additional funding secured from other sources for the building project by June 30, 2014.
This challenge grant could provide up to one-third of the $750,000 of the VNA Growing to Serve capital campaign goal projected to build Phase I of the FQHC. As part of the grant, the Dunham Fund Partnership Officer, Vicki Morcos, will assist VNA with the fundraising for the challenge match.
Currently, VNA Health Care serves one in eleven residents of Kane County. 25,000 people are seen at VNA's FQHC on Highland Avenue on Aurora's west side. It is estimated that 32,000 additional individuals are not receiving care from VNA or any other FQHC in eastern Aurora. The new VNA Farnsworth center should help fill a substantial portion of this gap in services. VNA Health Care is accredited by The Joint Commission.
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VNA Groundbreaking (from left to right): Brian Kronewitter, Cordogan Clark; Amy Baudouin, VNA; Thomas Weisner, Mayor, City of Aurora; Linnea Windel, VNA President/CEO; Byron Saum, VNA Board Chairman; Rep. Stephanie Kifowit, 84th District; Sen. Linda Holmes, 42nd District; Sen. Jim Oberweis, 25th District; Dave Ott, Old Second Bank; Jerry Pocus, Production Manager, ATMI; Sheketa Hart-Burns, 7th Ward Alderman; Rep. Linda Chapa LaVia, 83rd District.
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2013 Dunham Scholarships announced
The Community Foundation of the Fox River Valley awarded six $30,000, four year Dunham Scholarships to begin in the 2013-2014 college academic years for the following outstanding, high school graduates:
- Morgan Chase, Rosary High School, attending Illinois State University to study Nutrition/Dietetics,
- Joseph Johnson, West Aurora High School, attending University of Illinois-Urbana to study Animal Sciences/Veterinary Medicine,
- Sean Kent, West Aurora High School, attending University of Notre Dame to study Mathematics/Economics,
- Anna Petersen, Metea Valley High School, attending Northwestern University to study Mechanical Engineering,
- Kathryn Reis, Geneva Community High School, attending Purdue University-Lafayette, Indiana to study Bio-Medical Engineering, and
- Andrew Thomas, Geneva Community High School, attending Indiana University-Bloomington to study Finance.
Click here to see the 2013 Dunham Scholars
and to learn about Dunham Scholarships within the Community Foundation of the Fox River Valley.
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 Vicki Morcos appointed Dunham Fund Partnership Officer
The Dunham Fund welcomes Vicki Morcos as its first Partnership Officer. Vicki will be collaborating with foundations that have similar missions in order to leverage the Dunham Fund's resources with the hope of securing additional funding for programs and projects in the Fund's service area. She will also assist area social service agencies with special projects, fund raising efforts, and building relationships with other foundations. She will particularly help those agencies that have been challenged by the Fund to develop innovative programming, to build or expand educational facilities, and to secure matching dollars for their own Dunham Fund grants.
With 20 years of experience as an entrepreneur and community volunteer, Vicki is very familiar with developing new relationships and nurturing longstanding ones in the Aurora area. She believes that her work at the Dunham Fund will further its mission and "will help me to carry on the legacy of John C. Dunham, a man I knew and respected".
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