Starbucks grant awarded to Dixon YMCA

DIXON – The Dixon Starbucks store has awarded a $1,000 grant to the Dixon Family YMCA child care center.

Dixon Starbucks store manager Ainsley Ports and Starbucks Sauk Valley assistant store manager Lisa Sandrock awarded the grant on Friday to Dixon YMCA CEO Andy McFarlane and Heather Grobe, youth and child development director at the YMCA.

The Dixon YMCA is building a 16,000-square-foot child care center in the Gateway Project footprint to help fill the critical need for care in the area. More than 3,000 youths are underserved in the region, and many care centers and home day cares haven’t recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic, McFarlane said when announcing the project this spring.

The Lovett Child Development Center will be an anchor building in the footprint of the Gateway Project, a 27-acre commercial development site along South Galena Avenue across from Walmart between Keul and Bloody Gulch roads. It’s being developed by Xsite Real Estate of Burr Ridge and Walsh Partners of Elmhurst.

The center will provide care for children ranging from newborns to 5-year-olds, and is expected to increase capacity from 76 children to more than 200.

The YMCA child care grant will be funded by the Starbucks Foundation Neighborhood Grant program, Ports said.

The Starbucks Foundation’s Neighborhood Grants program supports grassroots, community-led nonprofit organizations through catalytic investments in the form of small grants that range from $1,000 to $10,000. Through this program, the Starbucks Foundation invites Starbucks partners to nominate a local organization in their community.