Fall 2013 eNewsletter
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Dunham Fund Grant Application
Online!
Beginning with the first grant cycle in 2014, all Dunham Fund Grant Applications must be completed ONLINE.
All applicants will be able to access the online application on our website. Applicants will complete, edit, save and re-save an application until they are satisfied with their final entry.
and review the current print-version of our grant application. Most of the questions will be the same, but the initial Letter of Inquiry phase will be eliminated from the grant application process.
We hope that online entry will facilitate grant application and we are certain that it will simplify the Dunham Fund Board of Advisors review and selection of grant recipients.
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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
Learn about Mr. Dunham in
the video,
"John C. Dunham
Building a Legacy for His Community"
2013 Dunham Fund
Board of Advisors
Mark E. Truemper
Chair
Stewart A. Beach
Wendy Hirsch
Ryan J. Maley
Michael Morcos
Christine Tunney
Robert Vaughan
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Robert Vaughan, Executive Director
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Vicki Morcos, Partnership Officer
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Dunham Fund Welcomes
New Advisor
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"I am extremely honored to be a part of the Dunham Board and to carry out John
Dunham's mission to assist individuals to attain heights they may not have attained without the benefit of the fund. As a police officer in Aurora, I feel I have a finger on the pulse of the community and a real understanding of the needs of our citizens. The Dunham Board is an excellent way to be able to contribute in ways I never imagined."
Christine Tunney has been with the Aurora Police Department for 13 years and, while assigned to the patrol division, she developed a passion and talent for dealing with troubled youth. She honed that talent by becoming a school resource officer (SRO) for both School Districts 129 and 131. During those six years, the Aurora Police Department partnered with the Kane County Sheriff's Department and the Kane County State's Attorney's Office and Christine helped develop and coordinate an 8-week Youth Law Enforcement Academy that she ran over the summer months.
As a result of that experience, Christine decided to pursue a Master's Degree in Psychology with an emphasis on juvenile studies. She is currently a detective with the Kane County Child Advocacy Center (CAC) where she is responsible for investigating child sex abuse cases. "I am confident that my experience in law enforcement and the grass roots connections I have made in the community will prove to be an asset on the Dunham Fund Board and I look forward to
serving."
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Dunham Fund Supports
Pre-Engineering Curriculum for Kane County High Schools
 A $103,000 Dunham Fund grant to the Kaneland Foundation will provide the Fox Valley Career Center (FVCC) with the start-up funds to purchase equipment and curricular supplies, improve infrastructure, and train instructors for a Project Lead the Way (PLTW) pre-engineering program in Batavia, Burlington Central, Geneva, Kaneland, St. Charles East and West, and West Aurora high schools. Project Lead the Way is a national nonprofit organization and a leading provider of rigorous and innovative STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education curricular programs.
Fox Valley Career Center will work collaboratively with the administration and student services departments of these high schools on a three-year implementation plan to provide PTLW pre-engineering course offerings and scheduling opportunities for the greatest number of students in its six-member Kane County school districts. Other school districts that offer PTLW pre-engineering course work have statistically shown that PLTW students score higher on state standardized tests than non-PTLW students and are more likely to attend and graduate from college in the STEM fields of study.
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Dunham Scholarships ensure that developing new teachers for the Aurora area is a priority for North Central College's Teach First Program
Since 2011, the Dunham Fund has supported Teach First, a program developed by North Central College, to recruit and retain first-generation students who aspire to be teachers and to provide the mentorship and resources to launch these students into a successful teaching career. This multi-faceted mission is fulfilled through partnerships with high-need elementary and secondary schools in Aurora, where Teach First students engage in educational outreach projects, obtain field experience and complete teaching internships, and, in some cases, are hired as full-time teachers.
This program began as a partnership with East Aurora School District 131 to encourage East graduates to pursue the field of teaching with the hope they will return to their home school district as teachers. In 2012, North Central expanded the program to offer Teach First to first-generation students in 14 high schools and home schools. With the Dunham Fund 2013 grant of $200,000, Teach First will be able to include potential Dunham Scholars who are not first-generation, but reside in the Fund's service area, and will increase the pool of potential scholarship recipients to recruit from seven additional high schools.
The program will also offer travel and registration for a state or national education conference and will start to provide tiered scholarship awards, beginning at $7,500, as students advance through the education program. With the additional funding, Teach First will also pilot an outreach program to work with high school administrators and counselors at Aurora high schools to provide first year students with the Lumina Foundation's book "First in the Family: Advice About College from First-Generation Students, Your High School Years", with the goal of identifying and recruiting students who exemplify the characteristics of effective educators for a teaching career.
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Courtney Blake, 2012 Teach First Graduate
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Professor Caraballo, Director of the Teach First program, is also delighted to announce that one of the first Dunham Scholar graduates, Courtney Blake '12, recently accepted a full-time teaching position as a reading interventionist at Rollins Elementary School in Aurora.
2013-2014 Teach First Dunham Scholars
The 2013-2014 Teach First Dunham Scholars are: Kaytlyn Becker, Aurora Christian High School, transfer from Illinois State University; Katherine Drone, Waubonsie Valley High School; Ashley Golembeski, Oswego High School; William Hennessy, Oswego High School; Chelsea Lorenz, Aurora West High School, transfer from Waubonsee Community College; Ryan Penman, Batavia High School, transfer from Waubonsee Community College; and Lauren Stercay, Waubonsie Valley High School, transfer from College of DuPage.
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The Dunham Fund sends more Aurora Police Department Leaders to Harvard Executive Training
Since 2011, The Aurora Police Foundation and the Dunham Fund have worked together to annually award scholarship funding for police officers, with a rank of lieutenant or above, to attend the Harvard Professional Development School for Senior Executives in State and Local Governments. The three-week training program takes place in July each summer. Lieutenants Keefe Jackson and William Hull attended in 2013. Lt. Keefe Jackson is a retired Captain in the Illinois Army National Guard, Bronze Star recipient Iraq 2004, and an Area 2 Lieutenant who began his APD career in 1995. He has served on the Honor Guard, SWAT Team, Special Operations and Narcotics. He has a degree in Economics from Northern Illinois University and found the Harvard program to be "the most rewarding training experience I have had in my law enforcement career".
 Born and raised in Aurora and a graduate of East Aurora High School, Lt. William "Bill" Hull has been an APD police officer since 1987. After promotion to Sergeant in 2000 and with a strong background in Field Training, Bill worked his way up to Training Coordinator, overseeing department-wide training for all employees. At the rank of Lieutenant (2007), he was assigned to the position of Planning and Research and worked with Commander Joseph Groom on the construction of the new police department facility. He currently oversees the APD's investigative unit. "I can honestly say that I have been fortunate and attended many fine schools and training facilities as it relates to police work . . . None of them compare, however, to my experience at Harvard."
The Aurora Police Department leaders who attended the first training in 2011 were Police Chief Gregory S. Thomas and Commander Kristen Ziman. Commander Joseph Groom attended the Harvard program in 2012. Commander Groom oversaw the construction and move to the Aurora Police Department's new home at 1200 E. Indian Trail. As Chief Thomas indicated in his request to the Dunham Fund for further funding, "Continuing education is critical to the development of outstanding leaders in law enforcement. It strengthens the chain of command and prepares outstanding officers for greater, future leadership responsibilities."  | |
Chief Thomas
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Com. Ziman
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Com. Groom
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Vicki Morcos, Dunham Fund Partnership Officer, has been reaching out to private and corporate foundations inviting them to co-invest in VNA Health Care's new federally qualified health care facility on Farnsworth and Dearborn Avenues that will expand services to more than 32,000 people on the east side of Aurora. The Dunham Fund has supported VNA's "Growing to Serve" expansion campaign with a $250,000 challenge grant. For every two dollars raised, the Dunham Fund will match one dollar with the goal of raising the full $750,000 to build the first phase of the new center.
Ms. Morcos and Chrissie Howorth, VNA Health Care's Associate of Development, will also meet with area businesses to ask for their financial support in VNA's new Community Leadership Circle. This initiative will honor those special donors who give at significant levels in support of the expansion project.
 | VNA's Farnsworth Center under construction
Summer 2013 |
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Click on button above to learn about the VNA Partnership Challenge
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As the Dunham Fund's Partnership Officer, Vicki's energies will be primarily focused on leveraging dollars brought into the Fund's service area by building relationships and strategizing with area foundations and companies to co-sponsor programs, projects and innovative initiatives with the Dunham Fund. "We hope that these leveraged partnerships will create sources of additional funding for past and present Dunham Fund grant recipients, particularly those that have received challenge grants. My role is to work from both sides of the table to match donors' philanthropic goals to the resource needs of innovative and proven nonprofit organizations in the Fund's service area."
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We hope you've enjoyed the Fall 2013 edition of our eNewsletter . . .
Join us on the Dunham Fund website to learn more about the grants, scholarships and program related investments awarded by the Dunham Fund.
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Dunham Fund 8 East Galena Boulevard, Suite 202 Aurora, IL 60506 630.844.2774 |
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